It’s another gorgeous 80 degree Saturday in Denver, but the neighborhood streets and parks are, once again, eerily quiet. Why aren’t there hordes of kids out playing baseball, tossing the frisbee, and riding bikes? Where are all the sun-soaked sprinkler-runners, trampoline jumpers, fort builders, and lemonade stand entrepreneurs?
Unfortunately, according to a recent poll by Harris Interactive, an alarming number of them are sitting in front of a flat screen risking carpal tunnel from excessive thumb usage. It’s no secret that video games are numbing the minds and sucking the life out of our nation’s youth, but what is surprising is how many game players consider themselves and their friends “addicted.†Even more shocking are the other national studies reporting that the average age of avid gamers has risen from 18 to 29.
Growing up, my parents enforced a strict rule for my sisters and I: “Absolutely no television when the sun is shining.†After reading this eye-opening article, you might see the logic in their reasoning, and wish today’s parents followed suit.
2 Responses
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Tom Gray Says:
Eric,
This month’s PC Magazine (June 5, 2007) ran a letter to the Editor asking their help for a man’s World of Warcraft (WoW) addicted son. This formerly high achieving young man (community volunteer, published 2 books before he was out of High School) is now spending 60 hours a week playing WoW online. He’s lost his girlfriend, his roommate has moved out, he’s constantly sick and he’s very likely to flunk out of college.
Having a son who previously flirted with a Counterstrike (another first person shooter online game) addiction, I can attest to the hold that these virtual environments can have on our youth (and a significant percentage of adults). They’re doing studies now that are demonstrating the physiological reaction of a gamer’s brain can exhibit the same activity levels and patterns as a heroin addict or alcoholic. With the rise of seemingly more benign online environments like SecondLife, we’re going to see more, not fewer addiction and behavioral problems arise.
For all of the marvels that technology had provided, there has been a corresponding increase in the problems that it engenders from enabling our industries to ship an increasing number of high skilled positions overseas to creating a new class of addicts seeking a cyber-high. Dan Costas of PC Magazine listed a couple of resources to battle this latter trend — http://www.dailystrength.org and http://www.olganonboard.org.
The author of the letter was actually responding to Dan’s editorial in the April 24 issue of the magazine titled, “Turn it Off Kids” (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2109568,00.asp). In it he states the need for strict parental limits on video games, and tv watching – essential if we’re going to help our children, and ourselves, replace the virtual with real life.
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Living Rich » Unplugging Says:
[...] With the incidents in Moscow, Idaho last weekend and the Virgina Tech shootings last month, I have myself asked lots of why questions lately. Is it that we are seeing too much of it on TV? According to a Harris poll, we are definitely spending too much time playing online games. My professional speaker buddy Eric Chester who speaks to corporations on employing Generation Y, wrote about kids missing in action on a beautiful day – a day he thought they should have been outside. A man named Tom Gray responded on this blog in which he gives details of a letter to the editor in the June 5th issue of PC Magazine. It appears a man wrote asking for help for his son who was addicted to Warcraft (WoW). His son, formerly a community volunteer and a twice published author (before graduating from High School), now spends 60 hours a week playing WoW online. In the process, he’s lost a girlfriend and a roommate. He’s constantly sick and about to flunk out of college. [...]