Should I worry about my son’s gaming obsession?

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Not long ago I was trying to pry some news out of my reticent senior-in-college son without much success when I changed the subject to computer gaming. He's been punching the keyboard ever since I got my first Apple II when he was 5, when electronic games were beyond Pong but not yet past Pac-Man, and I know it's not something he's outgrown. Still, he's usually circumspect about his gaming life, knowing his mother and father consider it something between an addiction and a vice.

"You know that new game that I'm playing?"

I said yes, even though my knowledge of the gaming world is vague and inexact, picked up from occasional glimpses over shoulders and back-seat conversations between my two sons.

"Well, I'm currently ranked No. 1."

"No 1? In your league or whatever?"

"Not exactly."

"In the country?"

"No," he said, pausing for effect. "In the world."

I didn't know whether to be proud or appalled. I could only imagine how many hours a week he must be committing to this game, and even though his grades were fine -- even better than fine -- isn't college a time to grow intellectually and socially, rather than to be squirreled away monastically, staring obsessively into a glowing screen?

Salon.com > Lawrence Tabak

Should I worry about my son’s gaming obsession?