Name: Umi Heni NPM: 180410090060 Class: B

Addiction to Cigarette and Online Game: When Other People Needs Does Not Matter I came to an internet caf on a very hot day. I chose the one that had less visitors and with an air conditioner in it. It also had a room for online game player which separated by an arch. I sat in one booth where I can see people walk through the arch, turned the monitor on, and started to enjoy the internet. Not long after, some high school students came in and made some noise when choosing the booth in the room for online game player. Teenagers, I thought. I sighed and shook my head. Then, I continued enjoying the internet. During playing online games, they started to annoy me by yelling to each other that seemed to be in one group in the game. They probably thought that the internet caf were theirs and they have rights to do whatever they want. Their selfishness was very annoying for people around them. Speaking about selfishness, I remembered when I was living with my father. He is a heavysmoker since he was in senior high school. Every time he smokes around me, I have to run to my room to avoid the smoke. It often happened when we were watching television at night. I used to tell him not to smoke near me or smoke in an open space, but he just kept smoking and ignoring me. Though I gave him a sign like coughing, waving my hand around my face to avoid the smoke, he just sat there and told me not to be there. My mother had often told him to reduce smoking or not to smoke around us. However, his addiction to cigarette made him a person who does not care about people around him. Both addictions do not derive from everyday behaviors. They usually trigger because of the environment. I had asked my father, the heavy-smoker, and my cousin, an online game freak, as example of how they started their addiction of cigarette and online game. They both said that it was for prestige. They thought that people would think they were cool because they did what other people do. I had just begun to realize that this might cause an addiction especially to cigarette and online game. On the contrary, it also becomes the effect of the addiction. I remembered when I was in one of the internet caf in my hometown, a week after my graduation from senior high school. It was around 9 AM on school days. I was waiting for my friend outside while sitting on a red plastic chair near the entrance. Suddenly, a middle-aged woman in veiled came in a rush, opened the door, and then asked the operator about her kid. Not long after, she came

out and scolded her son who was wearing blue and white school uniforms. His mother was very angry because her son was playing online game at school time. The boy looked pale and ashamed that his mother caught him skipping school. I was a bit shocked seeing a student sacrificed his school just to play online game. In addition, I once read news about a high school student who died in an internet caf from exhaustion after playing online game for days. It was horrible to see someone sacrificed his life for something unimportant. In another case, I remembered when my family and I were almost too late for the meal before fasting. While others were eating and drinking in a hurry, my father chose to smoke. He did not even drink anything when the predawn was coming. During fasting, he looked weak. He prefers to stay at home rather than being outside as usual. He was just lying down while watching the television. When breaking of fast, he immediately drank a big glass of water. I was just shaking my head a little. I have known if he also realizes that his addiction to smoke is very unhealthy. Yet, he was still doing it regardless of his condition. If he does not care about himself, how could he possibly care about other people? The authors in From Use to Abuse says, addiction starts with everyday seemingly benign behaviors that, through psychological, biophysical, and/or environmental triggers, can become harmful and morph into an addiction (From Use to Abuse: Journal for Consumers). I disagree with this idea because smoking and playing online game are not behaviors. They usually trigger because of the environment. People, especially students, thought that if you smoke or have a high level in online game is cool. Besides, people around them who have become addicted, try to convince them that if they are not smoking or playing online game they are not cool. This incorrect thinking made them want to try it only for prestige. Once they get the pleasure, they will do it repeatedly and that is how they get into an addictive cycle. Being addicted means you cannot live a day without doing it. Addiction to cigarette make the people with this condition cannot go nor do something without having a smoke for once in a day. I have never seen my father passed a day without smoking, except when he is fasting. I did not know how many cigarettes he smokes a day, but seeing how the ashtray that was always filled with ash and cigarette butts, I am sure he is very addicted to cigarette. While being addicted to online game means you need to save up your allowance to play in the internet caf everyday because you keep worrying about your character and your level in the game. You cannot concentrate on your study or your work because of the pleasure you get from playing in a virtual world. As the results from both cases, your

money is used up for no good reason, your study and career are ruined by it, your health is at risk, and your social life is messed up. When you are being addicted to something, any rules against your desire will make you think that the world is against you. You keep thinking that the world was made to make you comfortable and no one else deserve to be as comfortable as you are. If something makes you uncomfortable, you will let it and other things that make you uncomfortable to pile up, and in the end, you will whine how the world and the people in it are not fair because they let you be miserable. On the contrary, you keep thinking about how other people would think about you if you were not as cool as you were hoping. Nevertheless, the debate continues. The addiction to cigarette and online game is said to be a way to selfish attitude, but it is also said to be a way to get relax and help people forgetting their problem for a while. The believers would say that their habit help them dealing with society, while the non-believers think that the believers habits are bad and they will keep nagging them to quit it. What is accepted without question is that as long as the government does not take control of it, both cigarette and online game is still a legal product. We often hear about how people taking this problem to the street. The internet is flooded with the news about these problems. However, without the government interferes, these problems might still be there for another years. It is all depend on the people who are being addicted to choose whether they respect other people needs or keep thinking that the world revolves around them and no one should interfere. (1289)