The Hidden Dangers of Computer and Video Gaming
Originally Published in the THSC Review
by Thomas Umstattd, Jr.
“Come on, Mom. … Just a few more minutes; I’m almost done with this level.” Parents have all heard it: a child’s pleading to get just a little more time to play. I know. I was that child.
When I lived in a college dorm, my room was across the hall from a gamer, whom I will call “Dominique.”He played the computer game World of Warcraft for sixteen hours or more each day. He stopped going to class and eating at the cafeteria, and he withdrew from anyone outside of the game. He took only brief breaks to pick up fast food to eat while playing. The artificial greatness of gaining Level 70 replaced the adventure of following Christ in his life. How could someone become so consumed by a mere game?
The Problem
Unfortunately, Dominique’s story is not an isolated occurrence. Nearly 2.8 million gamers play for thirty hours a week or more. Some of those gamers play for as many as sixty, or even eighty, hours a week. Oh, and gaming is not just for kids anymore. According to the Entertainment Software Association, gamers are thirty-three-years-old, on average, and sixty-nine percent of American heads of households play digital games.
It gets worse. Imagine those hard-core gamers as parents and spouses.
Read the rest of this entry »
Drop the GameBoy and Grab a Hammer
One of our blog readers sent in an interesting alternative to gaming: carpentry.
Franklin Springs a family media company has put together a DVD on how to create an amazing tree house. In the sneak-peak they mention how the last several generations of men have missed out on the joy of holding a hammer and making something with their own hands. They even mention video gaming as one of the causes.
Many young men turn to gaming because they don’t have a father active in their lives. If you are a dad and want to help your son with his gaming addiction, buy him a power saw and a hammer and teach him how to use it. If you don’t know how, the Measure Twice Cut Once DVD may be just what you need.
For more information you can visit FranklinSprings.com or watch the DVD trailer.
“Pearls” of Wisdom on Gaming
Micheal Pearl, a renowned Christian author who has written extensively on parenting, has a monthly publication entitled No Greater Joy Magazine. In the latest edition, he contains what I consider to be some very insightful thoughts on the whole gaming issue.
This particular article was in response to a letter he received. The letter writer had already been convinced that his sons had created an idol of Playstations. This father’s question was about how to win his sons over to living a life apart from the Playstation nation.
.You may have heard Thomas say: “Its easier to get the game out of your home than it is to get it out of your gamer’s heart.” Mr. Pearl has some advise on how to accomplish both: “‘Never take something away without replacing it with something more interesting and better.’”
“Rather than doing a police raid and confiscating the wicked thing, provide them with a more interesting alternative that will cause them to choose to walk away from the altar of digital deity.”
Some creative examples are listed:
“It may be that they do not find anything as fun as punching buttons and looking at a flashing screen. But I know some things that will get their attention—a day shooting guns, camping, fishing, hunting, fixing up an old pickup truck for them to drive when they get old enough—taking it out to the country on a Saturday and letting them drive just a little on the back roads. A normal ten-year-old will drop a Playstation to sit behind a real wheel and feel the power of the gas pedal. Skateboarding, paintball battles, rappelling down cliffs, making bows and arrows, and throwing knives and tomahawks are just a few of the radical things that will get a kid’s attention. You just need to think outside of your own box.”
As someone who was a ten-year-old at one point, he’s right. For me, it was speech and debate that really got my attention, I found that once you get the hang of it, research and public speaking can create a rush comparable to the one gamers experience. I’m serious. It’s addictive and productive.
Being a former gamer myself, I consider this to be true “Pearls” of wisdom. But don’t just take my word for it, read it for yourself.
Catholic Priest Decries the Evils of Video Games
Here are some interesting thoughts from Father Raymond J. de Souza
“Don’t play video games. Don’t own them. And for the sake of all that is good and holy, don’t buy them for your children.
“Video games are like a black hole into which time disappears. Students today often confess to wasting a couple of hours a day on them. Corporate Canada likely loses whole weeks of productive work to those who are playing games at work. Video games have some kind of addictive allure that means any number of hours is not enough. It is always possible to play again — to rise to that “next level” which somehow acquires near-mystical importance. They are the crack cocaine of the electronic world.”
He also says
“My mother, whose principal goal in bringing up her children was not to affirm our self-esteem, was fond of telling us that only unintelligent children got bored. Our house had books and toys and siblings, and we had our imaginations — my mother thought that more than sufficient for any child to amuse himself. Television, let alone video games, wasn’t necessary.”
Read the full article The crack cocaine of the electronic world.
Thanks to Brenda for the link.
cgames 04 - Wallbuilders Live Radio Interview
Summary
This is an interview between Rick Green with Wall Builders Live and Thomas Umstattd Jr. about the dangers of digital gaming. Wall Builders is an organization that educates Christians about their godly heritage and how to be active in culture.
Links
Transcript
Rick Green: Welcome to the interception of Faith and Politics Walbuilders Live with David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more at our website: wallbuilderslive.com, where you can get all the archives of our previous programs, catch interviews with Congressmen, Senators, activists, attorneys, all types of folks out there on the front lines of the cultural wars.Our goal here is to help equip you and inspire you, get you involved in whats going on in our nation. Being salt and light in every area of our nation. It might be the arts, it might be entertainment, it might be politics, it might be business, it might be the pulpit.
Where ever it is we can each have an impact on what’s happening in this cultural. We have a duty and a responsibility to do that. So hopefully you’ll tune into the program and also look at our articles and previous programs and go to our website and get the videos and DVDs and audios and everything where David has done phenomenal research on the founding fathers and their takes on the issues. We really try to take two approaches to every issue….both a Biblical and a historical approach.
What did the founding fathers say about this? What did God say about this in His Word? And what are the lessons we can glean from there?
Today topic, at first may seem a little bit different from what we typically talk about but it certainly ties into preparing and thinking about the next generation and preparing for the next generation of leadership and raising of young people and understanding the times and knowing what to do.
So we have asked our good friend and Patriot Academy graduate and also former speaker of the House for Patriot Academy, Thomas Umstattd, to come on and talk to us about his lecture that he does and also his efforts to warn folks about the dangers of digital gaming.
Thomas, welcome to the program.
Read the rest of this entry »
cgames 03 - Halo 3 at Church? Violent video games coming to a youthgroup near you.
cgames 03 - Halo 3 at Church? Violent video games coming to a youthgroup near you. [10:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadSummary
According to the New York Times , Churches all over the country are using video games such as Halo 3 to attract young people. Is this a good idea? What about young people struggling with video game addiction? How should churches reach video gamers? In this episode we talk to former youth leader Ray Wilson about these questions and more.
Links
cgames 02 - What is gaming addiction? Interview with Dr. Kimberly Young
cgames 02 - What is gaming addiction? Interview with Dr. Kimberly Young [12:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadSummary
In this episode we talk with Kimberly S. Young the director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery about the nature of online addiction.
Here are some of questions we discuss:
- What are the symptoms of gaming addiction?
- How do you know if you are addicted?
- How do you help a loved one who is addicted.
Links
- Center for Internet Addiction Recovery
- Breaking the Denial: Confronting a Loved One Addicted to the Internet
Transcript
Welcome to cgames.com podcast. My name is Thomas Umstattd Jr. We’re on the line with Dr. Kimberly Young an internationally known expert on internet addiction and on-line behavior. She is currently the director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery. She is also the author of Breaking Free of the Web, Catholics, and Internet Addictions.
Thomas Umstattd: Dr. Young as a physiologist what is gaming addiction?
Dr. Kimberly Young: Well, one of the things that we’ve been seeing here in the last few years is the growth of gaming addiction which really seems to be people who are staying on line longer than intended, they are people that are very pre occupied with gaming, they are people who will jeopardize relationships, careers, or even sleep to stay on line.
One of the strange things that we’ve seen is that it’s not just young people but also a lot of older adults as well. It seems that the warning signs need to be looked at both for the kids that are doing this and the adults.
Thomas Umstattd: What are some of those effects on those older gamers; like their families and such?
cgames 01 - The Dangers of Digital Gaming
This is a talk that Thomas Umstattd Jr. gave at the West Austin Rotary Club on the dangers of digital gaming. We talk about the chemical triggers of gaming addiction such as dopamine and adrenaline as well as the emotional addictive triggers such as the longing for significance. We also discuss gamer widows.
Links
Transcript
Welcome, in this episode we are going to be listening to a talk that I gave at the West Austin Rotary Club on September 5th, 2007. This will provide a good overview of many of the dangers of digital gaming. Unfortunately I didn’t start my recorder right at the beginning of the talk so we have to catch it part way though. Alright, let’s get started!
He had been playing games all day. Basically he would wake up and he would play in the morning and the afternoon. He started playing this game called War to World Craft and he stopped going to class. He stopped going to work. He stopped going to the cafeteria. In fact, he stopped doing anything but playing the game.
After a while he just disappeared from school because he knew that he was failing all of his classes. Unfortunately, Danial, is not at all an isolated instance. There are organizations on line called “World to War Craft Widows.” When I saw these organizations I didn’t take them seriously. I was like, “what on earth?”
But together they have over 10,000 members. These are who feel like they have lost their husbands because their husbands are horribly addicted to video gaming or computer gaming. The stories that they share break my heart. They get married. They’re happily married and then say, their husbands go off to war and he starts playing. He comes back a different person. He’s playing the game 80 hours a week. He doesn’t want to talk with her. He doesn’t want to have any sort of conversations. These marriages are crumbling and these women are getting divorced. It’s a tragic story.
We’re like; “Where are these people? Why haven’t I seen them?” The thing is is when someone is playing for 80 hours a week they are invisible to society. They might work or they may not but we don’t see them. It’s not like gambling where there’s a foreclosure sign in the front yard and we can detect it economically. Still it’s destroying families in a very similar way that gambling is. Many parents and grandparents don’t feel equipped to help their children though this issue.
cgames 00 - Introduction
This is our very first episode. Let me know what you think!
Transcript
Welcome to the very first episode of the cgames.com Podcast. This episode will serve as an overview and introduction to what we will be talking about in this Podcast. We are going to explore the dangers of computer and video gaming. And you are probably thinking video games? Video games, they aren’t dangerous. And for the most part we don’t see games as dangerous as a society.
But digital games can be dangerous and that I exactly what we are going to be exploring throughout this Podcast. We are going to talk with current and former gamers as well as various experts and authors in the field. We are also going to talk with gamer widows and discuss the effect of gaming on families and society in general. This includes a lot more to do than just violence, sex, or other content issues like that. We are going to look at the whole effect of gaming.
My name is Thomas Umstattd Jr. and I am a former gamer and the director of cgames.com. If you have any questions you can contact me on this blog or at my email.
