A tiny screen lights up as soon as the power button is pressed. Then, the typing begins. Technology has become the thing of the century and it’s consuming everything around us such as family time and social life. Some people like having conversations in person while others prefer texting. The attraction to technology and gaming has sparked a club that caters to board games, video games, and technology at Lake Ridge.

For some students, gaming is all they do, whether it be playing a couple hours a day after school to completely playing it throughout the entire day. Matthew Gartman, Gaming club sponsor, believes that the technology addiction is prevalent but yet helps relieve stress. Technology as a whole has evolved throughout the years but it seems it’s the only way some people can enjoy themselves.

“People used to play outside, one because they got kicked outside the house and two because they found fun doing it. Now, people have found that video games are more entertaining to them and most people are going to do what they find more entertaining unless they feel they need to do something else,” said Gartmen.

Due to this habit, many technology based clubs have been established at Lake Ridge such as League of Legends Club and Gaming Club. Not only does it add onto the addiction, but some students such as Zachry Richards, senior, believes it can’t be helped. Some students believe that technology is a way to escape the world around them, yet is not an addiction.

“If we couldn’t escape, we would be stressed in so many ways and we wouldn’t know what to do. When it comes to the video game addiction, we just play it just because it’s fun. It’s not because we have to play it,” said the Gaming club Vice President.

Gaming is a thing that most people do to entertain themselves and is very well known to everybody. For some students, gaming is all that they’ve known and they base their social lives around it. According to Carlos Cataño, senior, the gaming addiction can be decreased with the help of others through teamwork and collaboration.

“In some ways, instead of making people think that gaming is just solely based around their lives. [They should] elaborate into people, working with them in order to actually show a sense of teamwork instead of just playing a game by itself. It’s thinking of other things and making it where it’s not only just about the game itself,” Cataño said.

Although gaming club is based around technology, it is not all that they do. The club also involves board and card games but video games are the main preference according to Gartman. The club may seem all gaming based, but it also has an underlying deeper meaning to it.

“The intention behind the club is basically to bring students together in a social environment where a lot of people, today, aren’t as social as they used to be through gaming. It fosters friendship. I know last year, a few of the members met people who they didn’t know before when many of them just intended to come in either individually to just play a couple of games or with a couple of friends. They ended up making a few more and we’re seeing that again this year,” Gartman stated.

Although gaming is an addiction to some students, there is a deeper meaning to it all. Gaming can help foster friendship and help bring some students together. In the future, new forms of communication may only form through technology, not based on its addiction, but simply because it is entertaining and fosters new friendships that will come along the way.