Game Online on Adolescent’s Social Behavior

Diana Dwiputri Prayogi, Nasrawati Nasrawati, Wewen Darmawan, Karim Suryadi, Ade Gafar

Abdullah, and Ari Arifin Danuwijaya

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia

dwiputriprayogi12@upi.edu

Keywords: Addiction, Social Behavior, Peers.

Abstract: This study aims to find out the influence of online game on adolescent’s social behavior. The general problem

in this study is to investigate the level of addiction to online game among students, the influence of online

game on social behavior of students who use Game Online, and the influence of peers on level of addiction

to online game. The study used a quantitative method, using questionnaire to collect the data. The results of

study show that game online strongly influences adolescent’s social behavior, and most of the respondents

spend most of their time only to play game online and peers who always give influence directly and indirectly,

which finally leads to addiction that influence them to show attitude and behavior which are not appropriate

in society.

1 INTRODUCTION

Game online is integrated well and adolescents use

this game to spend their time with their friends and

gradually they recruit the new friends. Our results

show that the relation to game is probably very useful,

particularly the change in modality between two

fields can result in strong bonding and in accord with

addition social bonding modal (Domahidi, Festl, and

Quandt, 2014).

Some studies have highlighted various potential

factors which influence the relationship between

online gamers and children behavior such as gender,

age, education status, and individual factor such as

personality. For example, the level of statistical

percentage of gamers in Finland had showed that in

2015, more than half of individuals (52%) in a group

of age under 20 years old had reported that they play

digital game every day and most of those people

(88%) had played the game actively by using cellular

phone or telephone (Männikkö, et al. 2017). Also

there are daily family practice related to game online

played by children with the age of seven until eleven

years old in US (Willet, 2017). The game is analyzed

because their effects on family practice in daily life

and formed by history, value, and relation in

household. That article contribute to understanding

about game online and highlight the strength in using

domestic theory to investigate media practice by

children (Willet, 2017).

1.1 What is game online?

Game online is a popular communication media, but

the relationship between online gamers and game

effect on the loyalty of games still need to be

explored. Social modal theory and self-perception

theory is used to explain the mechanism which base

the consequence of gamers. The characteristics are

positively related to relational cost and the habit of

playing game which is subsequently related to loyalty

of online gamers (Teng, 2018). Game online also is

a game which had created significant opportunity for

electronic trade managers (Teng, 2017).

Game online is not much different from video

games which become one of leisure activities which

is most preferred, particularly among adolescents.

This activity can spend most time probably will

compete traditional leisure activity such as sport.

Academic significance on positive and negative

effect of game had been increased substantially for

two last decades (Griffith and Pontes, 2015).

1.2 The Social Behavior of Gamer Online

The relationship between social support and

involvement and experience in game online has been

investigated. The social behavior related to social

bonding which support their play tend to report

enjoyment of their game online. The intensive or

“hardcore” games force gamers to behave and judge

Prayogi, D., Nasrawati, N., Darmawan, W., Suryadi, K., Abdullah, A. and Danuwijaya, A.

Game Online on Adolescent’s Social Behavior.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 549-552

ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2

549

their behavior with certain positive and negative way,

so it becomes the cause which underlie the

relationship between social support and involvement

and experience in game online (Dengah, Snodgrass,

Else, and Polzer, 2018).

There are some negative effects of playing this

video game. Firstly, it increases aggressive behavior

as the consequence of playing violent game

(Anderson and Bushman, 2001). Secondly, it is the

excessive game which cause functional and

psychological damages which direct to few cases in

problematic game and game addiction (for example,

Király, Nagygyörgy, Griffiths, and Demetrovics,

2014). Thirdly, the involvement in game online and

psychosocial result causes inconsistent relation to

involvement in game online and psychosocial result

namely self-esteem, loneliness, and social

competence (Kaye, Kowert, and Quinn, 2017).

Online gamers relate to openness which is

interdependent in personality which is the fuel for

gamer online (Huang, Cheng, Huang, and Teng,

2018).

On the other hand, there are also positive effects

of playing game online. Playing game online supports

welfare by contributing to involvement suitable with

the game. In addition, the social interaction in video

games, particularly multiplayer online games, is

effective to build social modal, and play the game that

is suitable with the aim and value (Perry, et al. 2018).

Online games also relate to social online play which

is an important component in social online site today.

Social network site environment had provided game

online platform to be developed in virtual medium.

The users now can play game online, compare score,

and challenge each other (Aburahmah, AlRawi, Izz,

and Syed, 2016). Besides, there is a positive

relationship between the involvement of gamer

identity and modal social online. The identity has a

positive relationship to self-esteem and social

competence, and negative relation to loneliness. It

also relates to social value to identify and connect

with other people in complexity around the concept

and measurement of game involvement (Kaye, et al.

2017). Lastly, online gamers tend to create

relationship with the others who have similarities

with them. There is also a social influence among

online casual gamers which can be seen from strong

social action operated among gamers (Lee, 2015).

This study was conducted to investigate the

influence of online games from the aspect of game

online addiction, consumptive behavior, peers

influence and parents’ care in constructing their

children in time effectiveness (time to study and time

to play game at home).

2 METHODS

The method used in this study was a quantitative

descriptive which describes or explains a problem in

which its result can be generalized. The respondents

in this study were students of class X in one of private

Senior High Schools in Bandung whose hobby are

playing online games. The author use purposive

sampling as sampling technique.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Results

The results show that some respondents have

different frequencies of social behaviour in using

online games. Table 1 shows that 26 students (14%)

had high level of game online, 136 students (73%)

have medium level of game online, and 25 students

(25%) have low level of game online.

Table 1: Frequency of Social Behavior Categorization.

Category

Frequency

Percentage

Low

4,3%

Medium

151

80,7%

High

15%

Total

187

100%

From Table 3, it can be seen that correlation

between social behaviors with intensity of game

online use has a correlation coefficient value of -

0.217 which is a weak correlation category. The

value of correlation coefficient of -0.217 show that

there is negative relationship between social behavior

and intensity of game online use among students. It

means that the higher of social behavior showed by

ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education

550

the subject, the lower of her/his intensity in using

game online.

Table 3: Correlation of Game Online Use toward Social

Behavior

Social

Behavior

Game Online

Spearman’s rho

Social Behavior

Correlation

Coefficient

Sig. (2-tailed)

1.000

-,217**

,003

187

Intensity of

Coefficient

Correlation

Using Sig. (2-

tailed)

Game Online

-,217**

,003

187

1.000

187

There is a social behavior related to social

bonding that supports game. They tend to report

enjoyment of their online game. The intensive games

force gamers to behave and judge their behavior with

certain positive and negative way. So, this is based on

the relationship between social support and

involvement as well as experience in game online

(Dengah, et al. 2018).

To find out contribution of social behavior toward

the intensity of game online usage, the value of

determination coefficient can be calculated using the

following formula:

The determination coefficient shows the value of

4.5%. This shows that variable change in the intensity

of game online use is 95.3% indicating that it is

influenced by another thing which is not investigated

by this study.

The low social behavior is not the only contributor

to the high intensity of game online use. This is

because there are many other factors and motives

which force someone to use media intensively.

3.2 Discussion

The level of online game addiction among

adolescents is strongly related to their attitude and

time they spend to play the game. It is confirmed by

the facts that personality characters, such as

aggression and narcissistic, are positively correlated

with online game addiction (Kim, Namkoong, Ku,

and Kim, 2008). Therefore, adolescent people are not

aware that game online brings a negative effect,

namely game addiction.

The influence of online games on adolescents’

social behavior is strongly related to role and norm

which become general standard for social behavior

(Ellis and Fisher, 1994). Many empirical studies had

found that social behavior influence individual

behavior (Teo and Pok, 2003). Apparently

adolescents today are more difficult to mingle in

social reality and prefer to play in online games.

Peers have a big influence to adolescents in

playing game online. They usually behave as

expected by other members. They clarify themselves

to become social category in their group (Tajfel and

Turner, 1985). It can happen because peers influence

others to play online games. In general, this influence

has created a game online community or group.

4 CONCLUSION

The results of this study show the influence of online

games on adolescents’ social behavior is categorized

high. It is seen from negative relation between social

behavior and intensity of game online use among

adolescents in one of private senior high school in

Bandung. Most of them spend most of their time only

to play game online and to mingle with peers who

always influence them. Finally, they begin to become

addicted to game online and there is a change in

attitude and behavior which are not appropriate with

norm in society.

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KD = r

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