The biggest shadow cast on the good name of computer games is the problem of child and adolescent gaming addiction.
Many parents in our country face this problem: if there’s a computer in the house, the child sits in front of it practically all the time. If there isn’t, the child either constantly visits friends who own this infernal invention of mankind, or, ultimately, begs their parents to buy them this toy under any convenient pretext (needing it for school, for a future profession, for creative work).
A child who pends their days staring at a computer screen will eventually lose interest in the rest of the world, turn pale, lose their appetite and sleep, abandon their studies, and stop thinking about their future. What was once a living being gradually begins to transform into a sedentary vegetable. This is gaming addiction in all its glory!
So what can you do about this? Usually, such children don’t understand the good news. Imposing restrictions and limitations on computer time will only encourage your child to deceive you. You know how clever children are. An already sweet fruit, made forbidden, will only tempt the child more. The only options are to either accept the situation, hoping that it will all pass sooner or later, or force them to engage in other activities, at least occasionally.
Yes, the outlook is bleak. It’s a virtually insurmountable problem for ordinary parents lacking teaching talent and effective psychological techniques.
But things aren’t as bad as they seem at first glance. The problem is insoluble only because it’s not a problem at all… but a consequence of it.
Games are essential
The problem with childhood and adolescent gaming addiction isn’t that computer games are evil. Quite the opposite: computer games are very beneficial and engaging in their own right, and even more so in the eyes of children.
Play, in any form, is a way to acquire and reinforce new knowledge, skills, and abilities. Just think of how a mother cat plays with her kittens: they run, jump, bite, scratch, and hunt toy mice. All of this happens in a playful manner, without any real danger to the kittens. Play is as important to children as air! Through it, they learn about the world, learn to communicate, live in society, and develop certain behavior patterns. All children’s games in the yard are based on these principles, and computer games, by their very nature, are not far removed from this.
Computer games contain violence and provoke cruelty in children, you say? In fact, there are many different game genres, and they encompass absolutely every type of action performed in real life (you can see this for yourself in the article
” Computer Game Genres “). Just like in cinema, games contain primitive action films, fairy tales, moralizing stories, and serious philosophical reflections. You might think that evil game developers are cramming children with the same old stuff, but in reality, they themselves become fixated on one thing.
The only drawback of computer games in the educational process is that they only provide new information; they cannot impart any practical skills. Imagine what kind of person would grow up to be if they spent their entire childhood and adolescence sitting in front of a computer? They would be very knowledgeable, with countless facts from a wide variety of areas of life, but their only practical skills would be… moving a mouse across a table and pressing keys. Do you think this is enough for a normal functioning in society? For a child’s full development, games should be varied, not just computer-based. (Although, recently video game consoles have appeared that allow you to play using body movements, such as the Nintendo Wii, Kinect controller, and PlayStation Move, even these cannot completely replace children’s active games.)
The harm of excess
A child is sitting at the computer. What’s wrong with this? As we’ve discovered, nothing; to some extent, it’s even beneficial. But if a child is solely absorbed in computer games, preoccupied with them, to the detriment of all other activities, then this is a very serious problem. The addiction becomes EXCESSIVE.
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Excess is destructive in any endeavor, even the most beneficial. Half of the deadly sins are based on excess: gluttony (excessive food consumption), greed (excessive possessiveness), lust (excessive desire). Excessive exercise will no longer be part of a healthy lifestyle, but will instead be the cause of many chronic diseases. Being too demanding of oneself can lead to the development of all sorts of nervous disorders. I could cite a couple hundred more similar examples, but I think you already know how dangerous excess is.
Excess can be countered by an inner sense of proportion. It’s perfectly natural that young children and adolescents lack this important quality. Parents should take care of this; they should instill in them such simple, yet vital, concepts. At school, and throughout the world, children are bombarded with an endless stream of new information. But this is only knowledge. How exactly this knowledge is absorbed and perceived depends on a person’s character, their upbringing, and their inner core. All of this is shaped in a child by their parents.
The above describes the simplest and most easily resolved version of the problem: in this case, you just need to teach your child when to stop (not stop them personally, but teach them to do it independently). But often, the problem of computer addiction lies much deeper.
Causes of addiction
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Imagine the environment in which today’s children are growing up: parents are constantly busy, earning money, solving their own problems, and are completely unwilling to change their lifestyle for the sake of having children. Negligent parents, shifting the responsibility for their child’s upbringing to teachers, peers, or even television, will eventually face the fact that their beloved child will fall prey to some kind of addiction. This could be alcoholism, drug addiction, all sorts of youth gangs, or sects. You’ll agree that, against the backdrop of all of the above, gambling addiction seems like the most harmless form of addiction.
It’s easy to blame computer games for poor academic performance and social awkwardness in teenagers, but are they really to blame? The normal functions of computer games are simply to entertain, tell compelling stories, evoke feelings and emotions, demonstrate life’s possibilities, and inspire. But for a child addicted to computers, games are simply a wall used to isolate them from the real world.
Now do you understand the problem? The teenager has hidden behind a wall, taken refuge in a virtual world, and he’s comfortable there. You try to pull him out from behind the wall and back into harsh reality, and it’s perfectly natural that he resists with all his might and, at the first opportunity, returns. The problem isn’t that he’s being pulled there against his will, but that he’s trying to hide there from something unpleasant.
Games are a painkiller, not a problem
Of course, we can continue to blame computer games for providing a convenient way to isolate ourselves from the real world, but that won’t help matters. The problem lies elsewhere: in strained family relationships, depression at school, unfulfilled desires and feelings, and other difficult psychological situations.
A child may feel unwanted, unloved, or simply see no meaning in life—these are the main reasons for the emergence of a wide variety of addictions. No matter how materially secure your child may be, at the same time, psychologically, they may be living in a living hell.
You’re trying to solve the problem by taking away the patient’s painkiller. How much good will that do? Wouldn’t it be better to find the cause of the pain itself and try to eliminate it?
If you’re facing this problem, don’t try to shift responsibility for your children onto someone else. Take a look around, finally see the real cause of the problem, and admit your guilt. Give your children what they need: love them, help them with advice in difficult life situations, and devote more of your attention to them—only this will help protect or cure both children and adolescents from any kind of addiction.
