I have a friend with several adult children who have become addicted to video games, despite his and his wife's best efforts to prevent this as their parents.

Some of the things he has shared with me about the choices and lifestyles of these adult children were heartbreaking. All they do in life is oriented towards feeding their video game addiction. If they work, it's to earn money to buy video games or devices on which to play them. The fantasy worlds of video games are more real to them than real life – an escape. Real-life responsibilities and obligations don't matter all that much unless they have something to do with video games. Their desire to advance their character in a video game overrides their desire to advance or better themselves in the real world.

I believe I have a personality that is susceptible to addiction. I see in myself a strong potential to become addicted to video games – or anything else that can be addictive, really. So I have tried hard to keep such things at bay.

Because of my LDS upbringing and my personal decision to follow the Word of Wisdom, I have completely avoided even trying addictive substances, like alcohol, tobacco, recreational drugs, and coffee. But there are other things that can be addictive – like video games – and I have tried to recognize when they are starting to consume me and do whatever is necessary to stop. For many years, I have refused to have any games on my smartphone, for example, and that is a hard line I know I must not cross.

But there are some things that, while they have the potential to be come addictive in excess, can actually be good in moderation and when done intentionally. It's all about finding balance. What those things are, and where the line is that indicates where those things cross into excess and addiction can be different for each of us.

In some cases, completely refraining from something that is potentially too addictive is the only viable option for a person. I personally don't intend to try alcohol, tobacco, recreational drugs, or even coffee, for example. As I mentioned earlier, I believe I am prone to addiction as it is, and I feel like I'm struggling enough to find balance with the things I am already doing!

But when it comes to video games, I recognize that my fondest memories of them are in shared experiences with others. I find that I can no longer play video games on my own for very long before I begin to feel like my time is being wasted. But I feel differently if I am sharing the experience with people, making memories and having fun together.

The other night, my young adult son and I were reminiscing about Nintendo Wii games, particularly a game called “Skykanders: Spyro's Adventure.” When he was younger, he bought a copy of the game and several figurines with his own money and had fun playing the game with his friends.

We still have a Wii, and he still has his Skylanders collection. While reminiscing, we thought it might be fun to go to a local store that buys and resells video games (and all kinds of other physical media), buy a couple Skylanders figurines, and do a play-through of the game together.

Last night we brought home four Skylanders figurines, and we intended to start a new game together. But we discovered that one or both of our cats had completely chewed through the wire of the Wii motion sensor bar, so our adventure will be postponed until the two replacement motion sensor bars I ordered (better to have a backup, because cats) arrive.

I'm looking forward to sharing that experience with my son.

Going forward, I will try to keep the following guardrails in place when it comes to video games:

1. No games on my phone.
2. Prioritize playing with other people I know and focus on the social interaction.
3. When playing by myself, stream it on Twitch so that there is some component of social interaction outside the game, or play in a shared space in the house where others can see what I'm doing and interact with me.
4. Seek balance. Play as part of normal recreation time, do not play to excess or neglect more important activities.
5. Avoid games that elevate bad content such as vulgarity, sexuality, profanity, or graphic violence.

If I find that I cannot stay within those guardrails, then I need to be honest with myself about my video game addiction and completely abstain from them for my own good.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 171) #media #videoGames #addiction