If you were a teenage boy, what would you do if your mother cancelled your World of Warcraft account? Would you take off all your clothes, roll around on your bed and scream like a pig, go into a closet only to come out hitting yourself on the head with a shoe? If you have ever seriously played a computer game you know there is a chance you would. With material found on online social platforms such as YouTube, My Generation by Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG demonstrates that computer games are far from mere recreational entertainment. Computer games are extremely addictive and the games industry is fully aware of this. Gamers get hooked on the “high” of the experience. But like any drug-infused high it is also destined to take control and produce effects, such as frustration and rage. That is the ambivalent reality of ecstasy and bad trips facing the young generation of gamers today, just like it did for the young adventurous generation of the 1960s.

(Image: Courtesy the artists, photo by Franco Mattes)