“How could this happen?” worried Jared’s mother. She finally
realized that her son had become addicted to Internet computer
games. Before today, she had been ambivalent about the amount of
time he spent in his room playing the games and was able to
convince herself that it was not all that bad. After all, when he is off
in his room, they aren’t arguing about things and he’s not underfoot.
Denial has great power over humans. In this case, it helped
Mom avoid seeing the real problem. She even had days when
she was able to think, Other kids are out smoking dope. Other
kids are out getting into trouble. How can his interest in the
games be so bad? He’s safe in his room; I know where he is and
what he’s doing. Of course, this kind of thinking makes about
as much sense as, Other kids rape and murder. My kid’s not
that bad. He only sells drugs.
Recently, she’d seen a television news show that touted the
millions of dollars a local school paid to provide academic
instruction through computer games. The news reporter said the
kids loved the games and were actually scoring better on their
school tests. This information helped her feel better about
Jared’s compulsive use of the computer games at home.
Jared’s mom actually convinced herself that all the time he
spent on the computer games was good for his self-concept. She
told her friend Bridget, “You know, Jared isn’t good at a lot of
things other boys are good at. Now he’s found something that
he’s good at. I just know that his self-concept will grow with
his success at the games.”
But alas, Mom’s thinking got a jolt. She attended a seminar
on addictions. The expert talked about common addictions,
such as alcohol, drugs, and gambling. It was a shock when the
therapist talked about the devastating effects of computer
addiction. She learned about the breakdown of family
relationships when children or adults become consumed with
their computers and lose interest in each other. Depression
lu
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