Parents are sending their children to rehab for Fortnite addiction
Fortnite is not available on all smartphones but its reputation is already huge thanks to its popularity on PC and consoles. The problem is that, as is often the case, good things can lead to abuse: young people have become so addicted that they have to go to rehab.
According to a study, 61% of American teenagers have already played Fortnite. This is a gigantic figure that clearly shows the incredible popularity of this game, but like everything else, we must look at the other side of the coin: some players have become so addicted that their parents, alarmed, decided to send them to a detoxification program.
Here is the anecdote relayed by the Bloomberg newspaper. Debbie's son, Carson, is 17 years old and spends 12 hours a day on this game. This obviously has consequences: his teachers complain about his drowsiness and the quality of his work. Debbie is not the only parent with problems, other parents - and other teachers - have reported similar cases.
The solution? Send the children to rehab. Gambling has become a drug, a comparison that a British specialist Lorrine Marer points out: "This game is like heroin", "when you're addicted, it's hard to quit". Addiction to video games is far from being a new phenomenon, as studies have been studying the subject for some time now and the issue of addiction usually comes down to 'if the use is controlled there will be no problems'. This of course raises the question "who will control those who control?", because the famous saying "do as I say, not as I do" is very popular today, and today's victims are tomorrow's parents.
This is a bit like a situation that some of you may have experienced: in the 2000s, the great era of networked playrooms, some high school students preferred to skip a whole day of class and sit in the network room. This probably also happened in arcade game rooms in the 1980s and 1990s. The difference is not only that today the subject is more sensitive and relayed, but also that addiction has become a socially adopted commercial strategy.
In any case, limiting the amount of time spent on games is essential. In theory, and except in very special cases, it is true, but in practice, it is more complicated: how do you really monitor what a 16 or 17-year-old does? Unless you're always behind them, it's quite difficult, especially since the smartest people will know how to tell parents what they want to hear. On the other hand, spending 12 hours a day on a game should have alerted parents a while ago.
What solutions do you see to the problem of video game addiction?
Source: Bloomberg
Why don't parents stop using TV as a babysitter?
My cousin did not get a summer job because he played fortnite all summer, mind you he is in college. I used to play video games but after three or four hours, it would become boring to me. The video game addiction is definitely a problem amongst teenagers and young adults.