Can playing video games make you sick? Apparently, they can if you play for hours on end ignoring all other needs for sustaining life. A teenager was recently hospitalized after playing video games for 4 straight days (here is a link to the article)! I know this is an anomaly and not happening everyday but it has certainly been in the news of late that people are playing video games for hours on end. In a few of these reported cases, people who have had these marathon sessions have literally died from exhaustion and dehydration.
What strikes me about this particular event involving a 15 year old boy who was hospitalized for dehydration was that he had locked himself in his room for 4 straight days. While he came out occasionally to eat and go to the bathroom, his family let him go isolate himself to his room. After the crisis, his parents said he won’t be playing video games anytime soon as they took the X-Box away.
Crisis is often the only thing that will force us to change, but sometimes that crisis comes and it is too late to really do anything. As a parent, here are some thoughts:
- Don’t let crisis be your catalyst for change.
- Be a proactive, diligent observer of your child and their habits.
- Don’t let your child isolate themselves from you.
- Who is having the greater influence on your child? Media devices or you? Parental stewardship takes commitment and an investment of your time.
- Video games and technology are not the problem but they are not a relationship substitute for you!
- Youth today want the same things we did when we were children: genuine authentic relationships
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