Some addictive thoughts

Well, it's definitely been a while since I've actually written a blog, and seeing as I'm sitting at work right now with not much to do, I thought I'd give it a go.

As a random update, I've started a new job as of last Tuesday. My job for the day care agency finished as of a week and a half ago, and I was fortunate enough to have a job interview the next day. I am now the Reception/Admin Assistant for Melbourne Central DHQ. It's full time hours (830-430, Monday-Friday), so that will definitely keep me busy, as well as provide me with some funds, which is always a good thing. It's been a bit of a challenge so far, as DHQ has just recently moved locations and everything is still being sorted out after the move, as well as the fact that I'm just not an office person...but God is good and giving me the wisdom and strength to get through. (Having Matt on call to answer any techy or random office questions has helped a lot too lol)

I thought I might write a post based off of the widely talked about "World of Warcraft." For anyone who hasn't heard about this game, feel free to check out the link to the website. It's pretty much a Role Playing game that is online, so you play and interact with people all over the world. You play in a fictional world, where you are a character that can be an elf, a dwarf, and many other races you'll find in a fantasy world. I'm not very good at describing this game, but perhaps someone else who is good with words with leave a comment and put in a better description *cough* Matt *cough*.

I have become quite familiar with this game as I've been playing it occasionally since January, as well as the controversy that surrounds it. For anyone who hasn't heard the arguments against World of Warcraft, it's that it's addictive and people have changed their whole lives around in order to have time to play this computer game. (I've heard things like that people have lost their jobs or stopped going to school in order to play World of Warcraft.) I'm definitely not going to write anything against this argument, as I do agree it's addictive and people spend way too much time playing it, but going to go for a different spin.

Recently, there was some news coverage over a boy named Cameron, and his addiction to WOW (click here to watch it). It was a bit of a joke to all of us who play, and the game was spammed with people trying to search for "Cameron" in the World of Warcraft online community. But, what I actually was more frustrated with after watching this news story, was from a youth worker perspective.

If you watch the documentary, you'll see several shots of the mother breaking down and crying and saying she's tired of it, she doesn't know what to do, and she describes how her son's addiction started off as casually playing, all the way to not going to school so that he can play for 16 hours at a time. Again, I'm not going to argue against the ability for WOW to be addictive, because just like video games, television, and many other forms of entertainment via technology, it certainly has it's addictive tendencies. But what I am going to say is, how can a parent blame the game for taking over their child's life, when they've just stood by and watched it happen?

In the news clip, they go through a great deal of effort to play on emotion and get the point across that both the mother and son are helpless victims to the game, and they're at a loss as to what can be done. Surely the mother could start by cutting off the internet connection? Or removing the computer from his room? I know that there are situations where parents have difficulties remaining the "parent" with a teenager and often lose the power struggles to their child...but then instead of blaming a computer game for taking over their child's life, should they not look at possible underlying issues like why did he get so addicted to something in the first place? Or why is the parent afraid to just get rid of his internet connection and/or his computer?

I think that I'm just tired of society and media being so quick to put the blame on things. Things like, it's not the parents fault the child is addicted to something, it's whoever produced the addictive product. How about that maybe in today's world there are too many parents who are too busy to take an interest in their child's life to know what's really going on? Or that parents aren't willing to make that really hard effort to communicate to their child that they "don't understand."

Two weeks ago I spent a horrid 4 days at a day care centre in Brunswick. What made it so bad was that there were 3 and 4 year olds who already had their parents wrapped around their fingers. These children were just learning how to talk, and they already knew how to manipulate and get everything that they wanted, and what to do if someone dared say the word 'no' to them. And a lot of that behaviour was due to parents who poured everything into work, and had nothing left to give their children.

Our society is continuing to put less and less importance on family, and spending the time and effort that it takes to have communication and build relationships among family members. I know that we will continue to see families with single parents, and families where both the parents need to work full time in order to cover their finances. But, in no way shape or form does that mean that there isn't time for family...for parents to pour into their children, to know their children, and to be the positive role model and mentor that every child needs to look up to. I know plenty of families with parents who both have to work, or there is only one parent present, and they have more then enough time and love to cover their children with.

I think I've gone on more then a bit of a tangent and ramble with this post, so I better conclude it and leave it there.

Blessings!