Gaming Addiction

How Gaming Addiction is becoming a MAJOR part of the America becoming FAT

The school bell sounded and it was the beginning of summer vacation for all of the children. Most ran home and couldn’t wait to play outside and hang out with friends. Except one kid, a boy, who lived down the street. He went into his house and before we seemed to see him again it was September. We were not even sure that it was him and he looked pale and had packed on a lot of weight. All this stemmed from the fact that he had laid in front of the TV playing video game after video game for the entire summer. This story is all too common these days and the number of overweight and obese children and teens is growing at astronomical proportions. Kids are not out playing like they used to. Years ago, and not too many years ago at that, we couldn’t keep our kids in the house for anything. Grounding them caused them great damage but with advanced technology, more and more kids are becoming completely satisfied to sit on the Internet or play video games for literally hours and hours on end, each and every day. So while these kids and teens are sitting on their rumps they are grabbing cans of pop, pizza rolls, bags of chips, or anything quick that they can stuff in their mouths. Parents who have been at work all day and are completely oblivious to that fact that video gaming can become addictive, they might even look at it as a way of knowing that their child is safer than running the streets. Video gamers will not normally come to the table for a healthy dinner as that would require a possible lost adventure. As a result many video game addicts are becoming increasingly overweight from a lack of exercise and poor eating habits. Too much video playing is why we have more overweight teens and children than we have ever had before. These kids have no intentions of going out and being active as long as they still have electricity to play the game. Physical activity and inactivity are very important factors. The plain facts are that kids who sit in front of the TV, computer, and play video games are among the most obese children in the country. They are not getting the vigorous physical activity that they need to stay healthy. Plus if you factor in a combination of this along with genetics, these kids are in real danger. Parents need to regulate how much time these kids are in front of any screen playing games, as well as monitor what their kids have access to eating. Literally, teens and children that are addicted to video gaming are not only growing in size but they are lacking in sleep because they sneak and play in the night and they are also taking every opportunity to miss school too. Video gaming addiction is extremely serious and needs to be addressed as such, especially because of the target group that this new social epidemic is striking, children, teens and young adults.