Does Her Son Play Too Many Video Games?

Peter and Molly,
I have a teenage son who loves playing video games. He gets average grades, and is generally a responsive and good son, but I want him to pursue other more interesting interests. I wish he would read, or get into sports, or theater, or anything. It just seems like video games are such a waste of time. The trouble is that when I try and bring up the subject he gets defensive, and asks what the difference is between his hobby and others that I suggest. He usually plays with friends, and there are potential careers in video games. Something just doesn't feel right, but I'm not sure what to tell him. Am I overreacting, or is there a reason I'm missing?
Thanks,
Virtually Jinxed

Molly: Virtually, there are lots of reasons to avoid video games. It is clear that there is a danger in the depth of their artificial worlds, and pulling people out of real life. They are inactive, and the career opportunities are limited. The limited personal interactions that do occur, do not help build social skills. In addition the skills that are built, moving fingers quickly, understanding complex mythologies, etc. don't translate well to real life.

Peter: Jinxed, you never mentioned how much time that your son spends on video games, because video games are primarily relaxation. Unlike TV or movies however, video games are not completely sedentary relaxation. In fact unlike TV, playing more video games shows no correlation with increased chance for obesity. While chances are that your son won't get a job in video games, chances are if he joins drama, he's not going to become an actor, and joining the football team does not mean he's going to make it in the NFL, but those activities do build useful life skills, but so do video games: skills like like quick reaction times, or problem solving. Even the military is using video games for training. I can't tell if you're overreacting, but the argument you may be missing is that there are very few hobbies that should take up all of your free time, and if that's what happening with your son, maybe he just needs to diversify.


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