The Video Games Addiction

For anyone raising kids today, the video games addiction is a constant battle worthy of an intervention not unlike what alcoholics and drug addicts need.

I was the Director of my church's Sunday School for five years. On one occasion, I ordered a poster that showed the type of pictures kids would understand that tied in with the Ten Commandments. I was amused to see the illustration of video games being used to show the breaking of the First Commandment "Thou Shalt Have No Other God before Me".

After this past week with my kids off from school, I am no longer amused. For anyone who cannot understand the comparison, it is this: Addictions take us away from God, more time and energy is spent with that addiction than with God. Simply put, an addiction isolates, removing the addict from God, family, as well as living a healthier life. Video games contribute just as much to childhood obesity as fast food restaurants do!

I played my first video games back in the late 70's/early 80's. Back then, there was a beginning to the game and an end. It was maybe a half-hour experience than on to other things! Today, these games literally have no end, one achieves moving up a level or staying at the same level until mastering it to move ahead.

I did not realize the addictive affect of video games until after we bought our playstation. At first, I was pleased that my son learned about football from Madden 2000, how the game is played, its rules, the names of the players, etc., after which the same went with other sports. But then began the battle of "Time's up!" with the blast back of "I've only got two minutes to go!" and twenty minutes later "I told you twenty minutes ago to get off!" with the return shot of "There's just 30 seconds left on the clock, I want to just finish!" (This is why I never liked football, a game with more time-outs than time-ins, turning twenty minutes into two hours).

Today, my son told me how much he wants an X-Box, and here's the usual plea we have all grown accustomed to.."My friends have one!" There used to be a saying that my mother would use "Keeping up with the Jones'." I do not care about the "Jones", I am a content non-conformist who has never been swayed by what everyone else is doing. Nor am I one to habitually go down the path of least resistance which seems to be the most popular way to parent based on what I've observed. So I bluntly told my son that I was no longer impressed with his friends. I asked him why it is that they keep investing and upgrading in electronic toys but at the very least do not equal this out with investing and upgrading in the types of things that would encourage more outdoor play. For once, my son did not argue (12-year-olds are notorious for needing to get in the last word). He thought for a moment about what I had said, then remarked, "Well, I have one friend that will maybe just play for a half-an-hour then want to do something else". One friend...out of about twenty.

Don't expect your friends' parents to wake up and realize they've created addicts of their own children. Video games get most of today's parents' approval because these never-ending games keep the kids "babysat" and out of the parents' hair. Less overseeing so parents can "get more done" or enjoy adult socializing. Yes, we all need a break from our kids from time to time. But I vote to send them outside, lock the doors if necessary, and force them to mentally reach back in their electronics-cluttered minds to rediscover something they lost at toddlerhood...imagination at work in an outdoor environment!