From Korea, via the Telegraph, comes this horrible story of gaming gone wrong: a couple so addicted to their on-line life that they neglected their infant. The truth is that when I worked as an attorney in Family Court I regularly ran into parents who had "ignored" their responsibilities as parents, often to the point of injury or death. Usually it was crack, sometimes a new lover. In every tragic case there was a "reason"; though I suspect the "reason" was only the catalyst. The seeds of abuse and neglect are deeper than the particular vehicle the addict uses to plunge off the cliff.
All of us need to evaluate the amount of time we (ourselves and our kids) spend "playing" to the exclusion of the rest of the things that make up a life. Thankfully, most of us will never encounter the radical dysfunction of the type in the article, just as most of us can tell the difference between a video game (or movie) and reality.
Nevertheless, video games do tend to act as time and attention sinks. By their nature they encourage compulsive replay as a means to mastery. Without falling to the abhorrent level referred to in this article we, too, can fall into the hypnotic glare of the screen. So take a deep breath, a moment, to think if you've turned around from your video console to talk to a real person, in the flesh, to have read a book, or go out for a walk.
Video games are wonderful supplements to a life, not a replacement for one.
