My 14yr old son has now been playing Minecraft for quite some time but i didn't worry to much about the time he was spending playing it as I thought like all games he'd get bored of it. THIS GAME IS RUINING MY BOY'S HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All he wants to do all day everyday is play this bloody game. He doesn't leave his room for anything but a shower and a quick snack to stop his stomach from eating itself. He has minimal chores but treats me like the devil when I have to ask EVERYDAY for him to do the things a 2yr could develop a routine for. His friends no longer come over or vise versa anymore cause quote "We play Minecraft on the net". Riding his bike or Penny board are unheard of now, going out to movies or anything really doesn't happen, he ignores his pets, has become a slob, jams towels under his door at night so we can't see any light under the door, sits up till dawn and then tries to sleep all day or if he has school goes in looking like a Zombie and I get phone calls from teachers asking me why he does no homework or pays no attention. He now lies to us and goes behind our backs to play and is basically not the active, happy, honest kid I bought up. I know all teenagers go through stages but this is not a stage it is a game taking over my childs head. Other parents are worried about their kids too and the Nt News felt it nessasary to do a write up in our paper warning parents of the growing amount of parents literally losing their children to the Xbox. I have taken drastic action and band all Xbox, Play Station & PC games from the house indefinantly unless he wants to play the Wii as at least he is being active while doing this or it is something we can do together. To top it off I hear they get free time in one of their classes at school to play games??????????????????????? Even if these kids were at school 20hrs a day they are learning nothing compared to us and when I was 14 it was only 1990. How can these modern day teachers who teach these kids nothing then allow them free time ontop of the nothing they have learnt all day to play games but have the nerve to say we the parents should be doing more from home......I'm a good easy going mum who lives by the old school morals, manners etc....I am in shock that this is happening in my home and so many others and would like to see children reading and writing (so you can read it), playing sport, hanging outside doing all the things that our imaginations gave us when we were young. Kids these days have something to do everything for them or make it easier. Computers are teaching them nothing but laziness. Since when did our A4 writing books do spell checks for us? Children living on FB telling the world every little piece of their lives or someone elses. Lying about anything to get reactions, looking on porn sites at things that we as adults shouldn't even see.......I am a strong woman and I have been through a lot in my life and for the first time ever I am really concerned about what sort of future the younger generation have got. I'd sooner see them live the worst times we've had than watch the generations fall like dominos because technology made them brain dead and unused muscles made them limp. COMPUTERS YOU ARE DOING NOTHING FOR US. Back in the old days writing with pen and paper gave us handwriting we could read. Parents go ask your 10yr old to write you a short story of 100 words on a topic of their choice.......See if anything from the spelling to the handwriting to the topic to the punctuations etc... even slightly compares to what we would have done at the same age. I have been hiring staff for the last 15yrs and I tell you now barely one child in 15yrs has given me an application or a Resume without an error, mispelling or just down right rotton looking handwritng. These are children in years 9-12. In my eyes they shouldn't even be shuffling fries or pushing trolleys until they know how to calculate in their head what they are even getting paid????? Sad that adults who did learn at school rip the kiddies off and slave em......Maybe if your kids are lazy and your not worried bad luck for being a stupid F#*K. Wake up world cause mark my words history repeats and all the skills we got back in the day will get us through the tough times ahead but can your children function with no Google.............Don't know????? Why dont you google it.
Wow, lots of emotions here. For starters, what you are describing in your son is less about minecraft and more about being a teenager. It's really not uncommon for 14-year-olds to disappear into their rooms, pull away from family (and even friends) and slack on chores. Teenagers have been irritating their parents ever since we stopped marrying them off at 14.... they don't need a computer to be rebellious, angry, dishonest and lazy... most teenagers are some to all of those things at some point in their teen years just out of basic nature and biology.
I don't agree that kids are learning nothing. Every single generation likes to use the "when I was a kid" line of attack but it's rarely fair. Kids are learning tons and often at earlier ages. My kids started algebra at age 11 while I was 14 (and it was the norm for 9th graders to be taking algebra.) My youngest is on his 3rd language and in a pre-engineering program. My eldest is taking college courses that I didn't take until I was 3 to 4 years older than her. It's true, the younger generation relies less on memorization of facts and more on the ability to find and validate facts. It's NOT easy to weed through the internet for the truth but my kids are pretty darn savvy at it. More so than the adults I know... more so than my parents generation for sure. Teachers aren't soley to blame. How much time have you spent in a classroom lately? I don't know how any teacher manages with the quantity and severity of behavioral issues that come it (and that's about home... not school for the most part.) I have complaints about how children are raised in our culture at this moment but it's US who are to blame. Parents could put limits and don't. They could buy less and don't. They could model continued reading and learning and don't. The quality of care is going down not because parents don't want to be there for their kids but because they need duel incomes and have a budget on what care they can afford.... not everyone is getting the best.
Media only has as much control as you give it. For us, we limited TV and computers heavily in the elementary years. The kids averaged maybe 2 hours of combined screen time a week through 6th grade and because they were busy with theatre, sports and other activities, they never even asked for it. We didn't bring a game system outside the computer until my youngest was 10 (a Wii) and we have strict rules on what sorts of games can be in the house. If they cross lines with technology, then we take it away until they can handle it better. At 15 and 12, the kids do average more screen time than they used to but the Wii goes months between uses. DS 12 does all his math online so that he can progress at his own rate (supervised by a teacher at school.) Both kids type all their papers, do their research and do many of their presentations with the use of the computer. DS 12 loves minecraft and I'd say he plays a good 5 hours a week now... mostly on weekends but it doesn't bother me. He's creating and thinking. He's interacting with friends. When it gets too much, me or one of the other moms grabs up their group and takes them to the beach or something active. They still manage to have lots of fun outside the computer too. My kids are well educated, mannered and competent.... and still drive me crazy at times.
I applaud you for re-evaluating your situation with your son. I hope it has the effect you desire. Personally though, I know a ton of wonderful kids who are growing into wonderful adults I'm happy to had the world to. Its not technology that is wrecking kids... it's the absence of us and their filling the absence with computers that's the issue.
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