Re: Death by xbox-risk of hyperfocusing

[Tiddler]

When Civilisation 2 came out, I sat for 48 hours straight playing it, getting up to go wee and phoning in sick. Several of my friends did the same thing. One of them was a lawyer.

Fortunately, we all saw sense and limited our gaming time to sensible levels that didn’t interfere with stuff we actually needed to do.

My kids are allowed 30 minutes a night and the have to work for it. They get an hour and a half at weekends.

They are bouncy, full on kids but in front of a computer screen they are zombies and, yes, they could easily spend 12 hours a day on the damn thing if I let them, I’m sure of it. They both get enraged if they spend too long on it and I make them switch it off – tears, yelling, ‘but just one more turn/I just need to get this bit done and then I’ll stop…’ etc etc.

Just horrible how mesmerizing it is and how it affects them. We went out yesterday and came back in time for supper and bed and they both started crying when they realised they’d missed their computer time. They were then given a choice – whinge about it and get no computer for a week or go to bed without complaint. They’ll get their 30 minutes tonight, but sheesh! What a performance!

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