Investigating
Topic of Interest
The topic of interest chosen for this project is creating a blog to help people with gaming addiction. I am personally interested in this topic because I am a victim of this problem and I know the challenges that addicts go through. Additionally, I have several friends who are addicted to gaming. Fortunately, I was saved by the timely intervention of my parents who offered guidance on how to overcome my addiction. From this project, I want to gain insights into the scope of the problem at the national level. I also want to help addicted people to recover and lead normal and productive lives. I want to learn about what research says concerning this issue. In addition, I will learn about myself coupled with whether I can accomplish projects within the set time.
Global Context
I have chosen identities and relationships global context. Under this context, I will explore how individuals addicted to gaming can be helped through forming meaningful relationships and understanding their identities. The limitation of this global context is that gaming addiction involves other issues apart from identities and relationships.
Goal
The goal that I have chosen for this project is to create a blog to help people addicted to gaming overcome their addiction. The blog will highlight proven coping strategies like abstinence programs. This project is going to be highly challenging for me because I have never done such a thing in the past. In addition, it will require me to recall my journey to recovery, which is not easy as some phases of my life were painful and I would not want to remember them.
Prior Learning and Subject-Specific Knowledge
As a recovered gaming addict, I have a wealth of knowledge concerning this subject. I read extensively on the topic as a coping strategy with the help of my parents as I underwent to process of overcoming my habits. On subject-specific knowledge, I have firsthand experience concerning this issue. So far, I have helped a friend to overcome gaming addiction using the strategies that I applied during my days as a victim.
Research
I will use different resources to help me create the blog and gather sufficient information to write relevant content. I will provide a reference list of the sources that I will use for my research. In-text referencing will be given in MLA referencing style. The following criteria will be used to evaluate the sources used in this project.
Planning
Product criteria
After accomplishing the investigating section, I developed rigorous product criteria with the following specifications
Planning and Recording the Process
I planned how to execute my project from the beginning. I created a simple timetable, which would be followed to achieve my goal. The project was supposed to take 1 week to complete.
On recording the process, I kept a journal of what happened every day.
Self-Management Skills
Before this project, I was an amateur in self-management skills. However, creating this blog allowed me to develop my self-management skills. After I came up with my plan on how to execute different tasks related to my project, I realized it was easy to follow through provided I was committed. After breaking the project timeline in seven days, what appeared as an insurmountable task became executable and I could not believe how easily I managed my time. One important lesson I learned here is that with proper planning and a clear execution strategy, goals can be achieved.
Taking Action
My Product
I published my blog on the 7th day after I started my project according to my timetable. I was amazed at how I managed to create an interactive product within seven days. The color themes were appealing to the eyes and I was generally satisfied with the work that I had done. One of the most interesting aspects of the blog was the simple design that I used. I followed suggestions on how to create an interactive blog from Mening and Newcomer and it was helpful. If I were to redo the project, would include external links to other resources on overcoming gaming addiction to give readers an option to learn from different experts in the field.
Thinking Skills
I applied what I learned from my research throughout the project. My research involved two different aspects. First, I researched how to write an interactive blog. Mening and Newcomer’s articles were helpful at this stage. Second, I researched how to overcome gaming addiction. I used four scholarly sources to gather different ideas on how to address the topic of gaming addiction. Zastrow explored the addictive nature of video gaming (4268-4272). Griffith revisited the issue of gaming addiction amongst adolescents (125-130). Kuss gave the current perspectives on Internet gaming addiction (125-137), while Wittek et al. highlighted the prevalence and predictors of the same problem (672-686). I applied all the information gathered from these sources in creating different coping strategies in my blog. For instance, I used the prevalence rates given by Wittek et al. in my video to emphasize how gaming addiction is endemic in the country. One of the problems I encountered is the length and depth of the resources that I used, but I overcame them by dedicating more time to reading.
Communication and Social Skills
I contacted a psychologist to shed light on the different techniques used to overcome gaming addiction. He was helpful as he gave professional insights into my project. The psychologist was able to help me because I communicated effectively on what I wanted. I was clear with my goals, which made it easy for him to answer my questions effectively. Before publishing my blog, I emailed my supervisor to look at it and give feedback, and I clarified that I needed point-by-point feedback on what can be improved. Finally, I emailed my friends to look at my product. Similarly, in my communication, I noted that I needed clear feedback for the improvement of the blog.
Reflecting
Product Evaluation
According to my criteria, I met my goal as shown in the following table.
Creating links to other external resources on managing gaming addiction could be included in the blog to make it better. Adding external links would give people an option of learning more about the issue and make informed decisions. The impact of such a move would be having well-informed gamers who can make decisions based on evidence from different studies on the subject. The quality of my product was impacted by my experience as a recovered gaming addict and my capacity to integrate information from other sources. This aspect ensured that I was not biased in my suggestions on how to overcome the problem.
Reflection: Topic and Global Context
My knowledge and understanding of the topic of gaming addiction have changed tremendously. Initially, I did not know how the problem is widespread. However, from the information that I gathered from outside sources that I used for research, I now understand that gaming addiction is an epidemic, and if not addressed, it may ruin the lives of millions of young people. My view concerning this problem has changed. I thought that individuals had access to the same support that I had when I was recovering. However, I learned that most addicts do not have proper support systems, and thus they relapse and some give up their fight to recover. Under the global context that I chose, I realized that having meaningful relationships plays a central role in the recovery process of a gaming addict. My healthy relationship with my parents played an important role in my recovery process. However, from the research that I conducted, I realized that most addicts do not have functional relationships with friends or family members.
Reflection: An IB Learner
My learning journey throughout the personal project has been insightful and informative. When I started, I did not know that I could complete the project within the set time. Additionally, I now understand the problem of gaming addiction from a different perspective, and together with my experience, I am now more knowledgeable than when I started. I have demonstrated several IB learner profile traits. For instance, I have demonstrated being knowledgeable by researching my topic using different resources. Similarly, I am a thinker and a good communicator as explained earlier in this paper. I have demonstrated the trait of caring because I decided to work on this topic for I was concerned that gaming addicts may not have an interactive platform where they can learn how to overcome their problems and share experiences. Additionally, I have shown the trait of being reflective by using my ideas and experiences to create a program that can help others.
Works Cited
Griffith, Mark. “Gaming Addiction in Adolescence Revisited.” Education and Health, vol. 32, no. 4, 2014, pp. 125-130.
Kuss, Daria. “Internet Gaming Addiction: Current Perspectives.” Psychology Research and Behavior Management, vol. 6, no. 1, 2013, pp. 125–137.
Mening, Robert. “How to Create a Blog.” Website Setup. 2017. Web.
Newcomer, Colin. “How to Create and Start a WordPress Blog in 15 Minutes or Less (Step by Step).” Themeisle. 2018. Web.
Wittek, Charlotte, et al. “Prevalence and Predictors of Video Game Addiction: A Study Based on a National Representative Sample of Gamers.” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, vol. 14, no. 5, 2016, pp. 672-686.
Zastrow, Mark. “News Feature: Is video Game Addiction Really an Addiction?” PNSAS, vol. 114, no. 17, 2017, pp. 4268-4272.