A Religious Sister who studied media and teaches in a seminary starts her article in this month's Catholic Kyunghyang Magazine with a story that is hard to believe. The parents of a three month old baby girl were so taken up with raising a virtual girl on an internet game site that they neglected their own child, who died of malnutrition. This is only one of the very sad and shocking stories that result from some form of game addiction.
Do we know what is going on in this world of cyberspace? Some, like the parents of the baby who died, find it difficult to separate the real from the virtual; others find the virtual more real than the real world. The parents of the baby who died met on the internet, married, and were so taken up with raising the virtual girl in the world of cyberspace (MMORPG:Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that they left their real girl in the house unattended. The parents, spending the whole day in an internet cafe to play, were later arrested by the Korean Police for neglect.
Those who develop these games maintain that the players can construct their own world and stress the positive elements of the games: gaining confidence, enhancing motivation for study, developing a better self image, fostering creativity and the powers of imagination. In other words, a game that helps us grow into more accomplished human beings.
Sister, however, tells us that online gaming has also its dark side. It also changes the world we are in. It gives us a taste for fueling our competitive and gambling instincts. Its only strategy is to win. There is no place for sacrifice for the other, no place for growth through experiencing pain and disappointment or for any hope beyond the hope of winning at playing a game. The only goals are the power and pleasure of victory.
Studies have shown that those who are from the lower middle class are the most easily addicted to the games. Possibly, because of difficulties at home, lack of discipline and self respect, they try to forget it all in the virtual world of gaming.
The games are programmed in such a way that the more time you spend at gaming the more involved you become. To combat this tendency, the Sister has given 5 suggestions for parents to help keep their children from becoming addicted to gaming:
1) Parents should know something about how the internet functions.
2) Prepare a time-plan, deciding with their children how much time to spend playing the games.
3) Learn how to use online gaming in a proper way. Find out the story line and talk about it with the children.
4) Accompany the use of the internet with proper growth in emotion and mental health.
5) Use some of the parents' leisure time to be with their children, enjoying the outdoors and cultural aspects of the country.
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