Speech: Loss of Identity

The addiction to video games is a growing problem in our society. Children will not only spend the whole day in front of a shinning screen, but they will also isolate themselves from society. In an online gaming world, you will be no more than a nickname. Therefore, game addiction can cause a loss of identity. In this sense, when you are  gaming, you will only be worth for your skills or levels, and not for the person you are. Also, after some time gaming you will meet new people and make new friends, with whom you'll spend most of your online life. However, this friendship will be also based in a game, so once you quit playing you'll lose the relation with these people. I think this mostly happens because sometimes games bore you, but as you are addicted you want to get to a higher level or get to the top of the high scores ranking, so you keep on training. In this situation, you will be more likely to talk to new people to make your training funnier, but that realtionship will only last for some weeks. In the other hand, as you get addicted, you will stop doing activities that you used to do in real life to spend more time online. Long story short, games will become the centre of your life. 

At this point, we must make a difference between addictive gaming and once-a-week gaming. Some people play games once a week with real life friends to have some fun and laugh, and this is not much of a problem. The real conflict comes when games become the most important thing in your life, because with some games you can not decide to play 1 hour a week: It's just the game or your life. You lose control. You lose your identity.

But, what's someone's identity? Well, this is something very difficult to explain. I think identity is built up as you live, as simple as that. The things you like to do, the way you think, the religion you follow, the friends you have, and even the country you were born in, they are all combined together to create your identity.

The moment your gaming skills become more important than your hobbies, your family, or even your religion, then you are in problems. In that precise moment, when your nickname becomes more important than your real life name, then you've lost your identity. And now I want to ask you, what will you do once you quit gaming? Is there something worthy in your life, other than games? Do you have real life friends? You don't know who you are, because you've lost all the components that make a life worth living, such as sports or hobbies.

I think games are important in a teenager's life. But we should only leave games as a friday night pastime, and never as the center of our lives. We matter for what we feel and think in the real world, not for a bunch of levels. Never let a game control your lives, my friends.