Professional sports teams are banning Fortnite in their locker rooms citing that it is distracting players. Apparently, players performance is being affected by video gaming. How do video games affect our kids? Obviously Fortnite is the biggest thing to happen in video games in a very long time. It’s such a big deal for our kids, teenagers, college students, and junior high and middle schoolers. They’re all playing Fortnite online and with each eachother forcing parents to scratch their heads to about what is so alluring about this game? Why does everyone love it so stinking much?
It’s not only kids who are getting hooked into this game. News recently came out that the Boston Red Sox are banning Fortnite in their locker room for the 2019 season. The Texas Rangers had to do it. So to the Toronto Blue Jays and even the National Hockey League’s Kanuks have said, “You know what? You guys can’t play Fortnite anymore.” They’ve been saying that it’s causing their players to be distracted and that it’s affecting their performance. One team even says that a player’s gaming has caused him to get carpal tunnel, which has made him sit out some games.
What Parents Should Know
Fortnite is the type of game that consumes time very quickly. It is the type of game that you want to talk about even when you’re not playing it. It is very appealing to young people and the ability to play with your friends has kids coming back to it again and again. Unfortunately, this is also something that can make it very addictive. As I’ve covered before, the World Health Organization has said that video game addiction is a diagnosable condition and there are treatment centers opening up all over the country that allow you to come and be treated for video game and screen addiction.
Video games are not the only issue. Obviously, many of us struggle to stop scrolling social media on our devices or to stop binging Netflix shows. Video games really take the spotlight because of their interactivity.
I’m covering this story for two reasons. First of all, I want parents to understand that it’s not just your kids that can get hooked into fortnight so easily. These athletes spend a lot of time in high pressure situations and it seems like they’re using these video games to release some of that tension. It also seems like that release of tension should be coming out on the field in order to help them perform better and it that is not what’s happening. Secondly, I wanted to cover this because I wanted you to understand the real true need for parents to be good examples on how much time you should spend on your screens. If our kids see us watching YouTube videos all day long or scrolling Instagram or Facebook non stop then they think that’s a healthy approach to tech use. They don’t see the difference between that and them playing video games? Time limits are critical. We must help our kids understand that gaming is a luxury and screen time is something that we can use to benefit us and help us have that release or escape when necessary, but it can’t become something that distracts us from what we do in normal everyday life.
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