3 Things I Bet You Didn’t Know about Kids and Gaming
Today we push pause on cell phones, our normal fare, to spend a few minutes on video games.
We all know them. The great dopamine-release-epi-center for, largely, the boys and young men in our time. The thing that connects the generation - both through cultural prevalence and through game-player technologies.
And, (because they’re just so fun and satisfying to play, and everything else pales in comparison)…. the thing that leaves carnage in its wake for too many.
Today I want to introduce us to three worthwhile things to consider about in the video game world.
1. “Virtual autism” is now a thing. And it’s gaining in prevalence.
When kids, especially young ones, spend too much time around screens - especially interactive, game-like ones, they can develop behaviors that mimic autism. About this, one doctor said, “sensory-motor and socio-affective deprivation caused by the consumption of more than 4 hours/day of virtual environment can activate behaviours similar to those found in children diagnosed with autism.”
When children who have virtual autism have all games and screens removed, their autistic-like symptoms disappear.
Wow.
2. China is mandating a three-hour limit per week on video-gaming for all children. The country represents one of the largest gaming economies in the world, and the emotional and mental health toll it’s taking on children has long been a concern of leaders. "Teenagers are the future of our motherland," Xinhua quoted an unnamed NPPA spokesperson as saying. "Protecting the physical and mental health of minors is related to the people's vital interests, and relates to the cultivation of the younger generation in the era of national rejuvenation."
They can now play only from 8 - 9 PM on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
This is sobering.
3. One of the leading causes of college dropouts for boy is excessive gaming. In a college of 20,000 students, 1000 students is at risk of dropping out because of out-of-control gaming. “As I glanced across the packed auditorium at all those (first-time) parents,” wrote one parent of a formerly game-addicted son, “I wondered which ones would be picking up their gaming son prematurely this year to move him back home.”
This is sad, troubling stuff.
And it begs the question: what are we doing?
Melanie Hempe founded Screen Strong after her oldest son dropped out of college as a result of a gaming addiction. She’s now a leading voice on delaying screen use among families and employing careful use of modern technologies. The story of her son, Adam Hempe, is worth reading in its entirety (and it’s worth checking out her resources and her helpful private Facebook group for resources, too).
No kid with a gaming addiction, or significant overuse, is going to emerge from his childhood with a healthy soul. He just won’t.
We’re after human flourishing, for ourselves and our families.
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We’re on our phones… but the kids are NOT ok.