Abstract:

Nowadays, the rapid rise in the digital game industry has led to a similar increase in children’s tendency to play digital games. The effect of digital games played by secondary school students through mobile technologies on the increase in addiction levels of these students is an important issue discussed in the literature. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the digital gaming habits of secondary school students in terms of game addiction levels and various variables. As a result of the literature review, the variables investigated were determined as gender, game playing time, information and communication technologies (ICT) tool used, game genres and game preferences. The study group consisted of 177 (52.8%) girls and 158 (47.2%) boys, 335 secondary school students in total. According to the findings obtained as a result of the "Digital Game Addiction" scale and personal information form used as a data collection tool, the level of digital game addiction according to the gender of secondary school students shows a significant difference in favor of male students. On the other hand, it was found that the highest average between students' daily ICT tool usage time and digital game addiction levels belonged to the group of students who played digital games for more than 5 hours. While the majority of the students stated that they use smartphones in digital game playing processes, it was also stated that students who play digital games prefer these games with the recommendation of game sites, social media, and friends. Considering the digital game genre preferences of the students, it was observed that they mostly preferred action games, followed by sports and educational, fighting, simulation, and strategy games. In addition, secondary school students with high digital game playing time have high digital game addiction levels, and students are in the risky group at the level of digital game addiction. In summary, within the framework of this study, it can be considered an important factor in the process of transforming digital game environments into educational environments by considering the necessity of further research on the variables examined regarding the game playing processes of secondary school students and game genres.

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