Parental Advice Columnist Compares Games to Meth

Video games are good for you, or at least that’s what the current consensus is. Not like a juicy orange or a jog through the park, but they can definitely be used to help deal with depression in teenagers, jog the old mind or increase reaction times. Still, there are plenty of people of a certain self-perceived social standing who feel none of this can possibly be true, because they don’t believe it. They believe that gaming creates a violent, anti-social community like the one their generation created by coining stranger danger and suing anybody and everything that got between their child and exactly what they want.

Obviously, the truth is exactly what they want it to be, regardless of reality. 

The latest of these physics-busting demi-gods is John Rosemond, a parental guide writer and columnist for The Courant. He was asked by a concerned parent whether or not their child might be depressed, and she just happened to mention in passing that the kid enjoyed video games. It took one paragraph for Rosemond to answer the complicated issue of teenage depression, but several rather longer paragraphs to deal with the dangerous gateway drug that is Flappy Bird, Tetris and Chessmaster 3000.

…if my experience is worth something, I can tell you with a good amount of confidence that the syndrome you’re describing — obsession with video games, withdrawal from the real world, lack of motivation —- is becoming increasingly familiar to me, and more often than not if the teen is a male, video games are part of the picture. Video games are proving to be very problematic for teen boys. More and more researchers are coming to the conclusion that they are addictive — not figuratively, mind you, but literally. They are, after all, a form of gambling. The fact that they don’t involve money is beside the point.

Before any evaluation of your son can yield a reliable picture of his mental health, the video games have to go. To accomplish that, you have to recognize that you are part of the problem. You’ve become enablers. First, you cannot “suggest” to a methamphetamine addict that he shouldn’t use so much meth, that he needs to get more exercise. If the addict won’t give up the drug, then people who have influence and authority in his life need to take it away and make sure he can’t get his hands on it again. ever. Second, there’s no such thing as an addict being able to strike a “balance” in his life between the addiction and healthy activities. As seems to have happened with your son, an addiction takes the place of healthy activity. As any former addict will attest to, you’re either addicted or you’re healthy — you can’t be both.

I don’t know whether your son would benefit from a psychotropic medication, but I can say with reasonable certainty that medication or not, he needs to be released from his slavery to video games. He is not going to voluntarily give them up, so you’re going to have to step up to the plate and take them away.

For your son and thousands of video-addicted teen boys, I’m hereby proclaiming May 1, Take Their Video Games Away for Good Day. In my fantasy, millions of boys come home from school that day and find their video game consoles are gone.forever! To paraphrase Louis Armstrong, “What a wonderful world that would be.”

Countering each badly made, poorly supported point individually would take more time and webspace than we here at GamesReviews are willing to give, but we will say this: it is never a good idea to offer your opinions on something as fact, especially when you’re trying to do nothing but cause fear. If you have to ignore science to improve your world view, you have to question whether that world view is worth supporting. 

Thankfully this isn’t an isolated thought, and Rich Taylor, senior vice president of the ESA wrote into The Courant’s letters section with his own thoughts.

Columnist John Rosemond’s recent article “Helping Teen Boys With Video-Game Addictions” [April 9, Living”] included unfounded assertions about video games and inaccurately portrayed the research surrounding game play.

First and foremost, comparing video games to methamphetamine and slavery is both scientifically irresponsible and offensive. Furthermore, Mr. Rosemond’s claim that more researchers are concluding that video games are addictive conflicts with findings from leading scientific and academic authorities. Both the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association have declined to classify “video game addiction” as a mental disorder, concluding that there is insufficient evidence to make such a determination.

Mr. Rosemond also ignored the growing body of independent research that shows that video games play a positive role in physical and mental wellness, as well as education and childhood development. In fact, a paper published in American Psychologist in November found that doctors are using video games to improve patients’ physical health and recommended that psychologists and clinicians integrate game play into mental health therapies to achieve similar outcomes.