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Fortnite addiction and parenting in the age of screens
- precurse 8y agoReally.. They had to make the entire article a hyperlink to the tweet?
- gowld 8y agoThreader is an app that converts a long series of tweets into one page. It's a vast improvement over reading on Twitter. The link is a credit to the source.
- lacion 8y agothis looks like a paid article from some involved party, saying calling it addiction is too much as there is no data backing it up triggers a lot of alarms to me as Gaming addiction is now officially recognized as mental health disorder by the World Health Organization.
- gowld 8y agoThe article is threading a needle, saying that games aren't bad, but parents who let kids play games too much are bad. As someone who knows some Fortnite-playing kids, I'll say that even if it isn't creating murderers, it is teaching obnoxious behaviors like those taunt-dances and (offline) playing pretend-war in the faces of people who aren't interested. An avid Fortine-playing 9 yr-old tends to be more annoying in person than a 2-D sidescroller player or even a Minecraft player.
- ss2003 8y agoMaybe the annoying kids just like Fortnite more and the less annoying kids are prone to Minecraft?
- sandworm101 8y agoOr the pace amd style of the game encourages annoying traits, or at least makes them seem more normal.
- lacion 8y agothat's normal for almost any kid and not specific to gaming at all, they do with everything they see, mimicking is a form of learning. I don't agree though with the part that the game is not bad.. fornite was no accident at all anyone who thinks that may not understand the cost of developing a products like that. they are deliveridly targeting people that easyly get addicted. this is the same argument made with lootboxes. note saying the game is not to be blame, is not an excuse to bad parenting, is just that the makers also have a bit of responsibility when they exploiting a known social behavior for cash.
- watwut 8y ago> that's normal for almost any kid and not specific to gaming at all, they do with everything they see, mimicking is a form of learning. What is specific to gaming is social approval by culture. When you go to most sport club or hobby club, eventually adults stop that crap or voice disapproval. Not in every club and adults do swear etc. But, in the straight assholery tend to eventually be criticized and talked about. Gaming culture does not really do that.
- jimbokun 8y agoLike this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84EjlkrtnQ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84EjlkrtnQ4
- duck 8y agoYou do know it is just a series of tweets, right? https://twitter.com/PlayNiceInst/status/1070750717671919616 https://twitter.com/PlayNiceInst/status/1070750717671919616
- microcolonel 8y agoI must say: I don't think I could, without shame, say that it's somebody else's fault when a piece of software on a computer I gave my own child consumes their attention. If your kids spend too much time playing Fortnite, stop them from playing it so much.
- epx 8y agoWould like to have written this game. My kid is completely 'in' Fortnite. Going to full-day (bilingual) school next year just to make sure he has something better to do every afternoon than playing.
- aviv 8y agoI'm not trying to be a troll, but really - how are you ok with this as a parent? Why are you allowing this?
- gowld 8y ago"just to make sure ..." seems extreme, compared to deleting the game or signing up for any interesting activity.
- epx 8y agoIt was a small factor actually, but it was a factor. 2% of the decision weighing, perhaps.
- chrisseaton 8y agoDoes full-day mean until 5pm? Is it sports in that time or are they really in classes that late?
- aviv 8y agoMy 10yo and 6yo rarely get screen time and when they do it's for something productive and not mind numbing like gaming or Youtube. Every day that goes by with them being relatively screen-free is a win in my book. They get to be kids - lots of activity outside the house and lots of creativity inside, music, acting, painting. It's hard though as most of their classmates are screen zombies. I just don't understand how most parents don't see this so clearly.
- j45 8y agoI remember my time as a kid - it was spent creating on a computer, because it was the only thing you could do. There was nothing to consume. Today's primary use of devices by children is consuming (Games, videos, etc) and not creating. I think we have to get back to creating.
- wvenable 8y agoHow old are you? By the time I was in my teens, there was always more games, BBSes, etc. Perhaps the fact that all those things were harder to come by was an advantage but I certainly did spent my whole day on the computer creating.
- j45 8y agoHaha, I think we're close in age, my teens had BBSes and IRC too. Wasted a lot of time in a good way. The connectedness during the early "broad" internet generations in the mid to late 90's was really special. I'm probably not alone in still having some of those friendships to this day. I spent part of my teens on apple, atari st's and then PCs. Creating with multiple platforms is something I'm very thankful for. Games were evolving but had limited power, the imagination was still better graphics. The recent story about the Sierra source code was cool. Online gaming wasn't fast enough, and so other forms of interaction took the day. There's lots of tools today to build games, it doesn't seem a rite of passage anymore to try and write a game or animate something.. Instead it's writing a todo app today.
- Klathmon 8y ago
- vinceguidry 8y agoBlaming social ills on poor parenting does absolutely nothing to help matters and is thinly-veiled classism. Only well-off people can afford to raise their kids as well as is expected of them.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mattcwilson 8y agoThe article recommends using a timer to limit Fortnite. Assuming the family in question can afford a computer and internet connection, a timer hardly seems a reach, cost wise. Can you connect that to your points affordability, expectations, or classism for me?
- 0th_Place 8y agoThere isn't just the cost of a timer, there's also the time and effort that needs to be spent policing your child's screen time. Many families don't have a parent around the house a lot of the time.
- mattcwilson 8y agoIt seems like we're all agreed that unmonitored, free-for-all access for kids onto computers or phones is risky and potentially unhealthy. Where I am confused is - what might make that hard to govern? I fully appreciate that the tools 20-30 years ago were not where they are today. But now?
- fjsolwmv 8y agoIt is free and easy to simply not buy your kid a screen, or take away the one you gave them. The main "benefit" to parents of screens is that it's a cheap bad babysitter that shuts kids up.
- vinceguidry 8y agoWhen I was a kid, I would sneak out of my room at 3 in the morning to play Diablo. There's not a whole lot parents can do to police kids' online activities who have a burning need to do what they want to do despite parental involvement. At some point you're fighting a war using the most precious resources you have against an adversary that has an endless supply of them.
- theseanstewart 8y ago> For parents sick of hearing “Almost done. One last game”: What’s worked for us: (1) Don’t freak, they’re not addicted (the pathologizing of gaming may do more harm than the games themselves) (2) set a timer & provide consistent consequences (without anger) when they go over..13/N On a semi-related note. When I was a kid my parents used to make us quit our gaming session with little to no warning. This wasn't a big issue with single player games because they can be saved/paused, but that's obviously not possible with online multiplayer games. Unfortunately, that didn't matter to them, and it resulted in many interrupted gaming sessions and unnecessary consequences and behavioral issues from me and my siblings. Now that I'm a parent, I've made a promise to my kids that I will always let them finish their current game before kicking them off. If they start a new game after they've been given the last game warning, then there's consequences. They know this, and we rarely have any issues related to behavior and gaming.
- r00fus 8y agoTimers are key. I have a special needs kid, and timers are doubly needed. For now I just say "20m" set the kitchen timer and when it rings, all the kids have to e.g. come to dinner. I wish there were some good method for kids to "earn" screen time (ie, parent could add/approve) that would be automatically deducted on usage of the device(s) (with blackout times where usage isn't possible).
- rootusrootus 8y agoFor iOS devices, Screen Time does that. My kids have iPads and I set certain hours they are allowed to be used at all, time limits per day, and if they run out of time they can ask for more and I can approve via my watch/phone. I set the daily time limit pretty low and then give them opportunities to earn a bit more, which I dynamically add to their total.
- wlesieutre 8y ago>This wasn't a big issue with single player games because they can be saved/paused "I need to get to a save room!" "You can pause it." 5 minutes later "I unplugged the gamecube because you weren't playing anymore." ...
- wyldfire 8y agoIt's not terribly clear to what the person is responding. What set this off? > (2) set a timer & provide consistent consequences (without anger) when they go over..13/N I think this has been effective, w/my kids at least.
- lacion 8y agoits very effective an it teach a bit of responsability, my kids are still very young and only have access to a switch and each have a 30 min timer (can be set on the switch parental control app) that just rings to let them know, but as they have to share and want to play uninterrupted they plan their day for that meaning when they grab the switch now days they make sure im not going to ask for anything becouse all thir daily routines are done.
- joeax 8y agoI have 4 kids and they're all video game nerds. As the paternal geek myself I stood out in the rain last night so they can buy Smash Bros. Ultimate. That being said, I have a simple approach that seems to work. They need to do something productive to earn playing time. That can be chores, homework, reading a book, a personal project, whatever. I also do a device-free day (usually Monday). The end result is they all get good grades and the encouragement to pursue other hobbies that enable their creative side.
- golemiprague 8y agoWhy would you stand in the rain? can't they wait a week or two? What is it with stupid people who must buy everything on the spot?
- dgzl 8y agoIMO, framing video games as a treat that has to be earned is likely the best parenting option surrounding video games.
- hnuser1234 8y agoWould you say the same for regular physical playtime? Or would you let your kids go outside and play/socialize anytime, as long as they had nothing else of more immediate importance? Why would video games be different?
- emerongi 8y agoKids come up with their own outside activities. Computer games are often built to appeal and take advantage of our brain circuits (sometimes purposefully, other times accidentally), to which kids are especially suspectible. Not that outside activities can't be harmful. Not sure how I managed to not get seriously hurt as a kid, considering some of my accidents and my stupidity in general.
- fjsolwmv 8y agoThose are activities are much healthier uses of time. Video games suck up a lot of time with zero or negative physical benefits and low mental benefits.
- ryanlol 8y agoAm I the only one who thinks that threader usually makes these harder to read? It's really obvious that this text wasn't intended to be consumed in this format.
- dang 8y agoWe changed to the Twitter URL from https://threader.app/thread/1070750717671919616 https://threader.app/thread/1070750717671919616.
- personjerry 8y agoI want to conduct scientific studies on the quality of parenting and the likeliness of said parent to complain about [violence in video games, ant-vaccinations, etc.]. If it finds correlation, then this study motivates people to not complain about these repeatedly disproven parenting pitfalls, because complaining would make you "more likely" to be a bad parent.
- prepend 8y agoPlease do that study. Although you could show a negative or positive correlation. Maybe your study shows that the best parents complain about video games. Maybe it shows nothing. We won’t know until you share the outcome. I think it will be cool to know.
- floathub 8y agoStep 1: Setup a pihole (https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/) Step 2: Configure home router to send _all_ port 53 (DNS traffic) to the pihole Step 3: Run cronjob on the pihole to disable fortnite completely at whatever times you want, e.g., turn off access every week night at 7:30pm, then back on overnight: 30 19 * * 0-4 /home/pi/pihole_timed_lists/turn_blacklist_on >> /home/pi/pihole_timed_lists/log/turn_blocklist_on.log 2>&1 0 1 * * 1-5 /home/pi/pihole_timed_lists/turn_blacklist_off >> /home/pi/pihole_timed_lists/log/turn_blocklist_off.log 2>&1 The turn_blacklist_on script can be as simple as: /usr/local/bin/pihole --wild epicgames.com easy.ac easyanticheat.net xboxlive.com microsoft.com And then the turn blacklist off can be: /usr/local/bin/pihole --wild -d epicgames.com easy.ac easyanticheat.net xboxlive.com microsoft.com Works like a charm, and handles PC + XBox access. Kids know it stops dead at 7:30, so no arguments. [edited for spelling]
- joezydeco 8y agoThere are commercial solutions as well, if you want a turnkey and/or multiuser solution.
- PyroLagus 8y agoUntil they get a winning game ruined by a sudden net cutoff. Although that's probably not a big issue with Fortnite since expected game lengths should be fairly predictable (average seems to be 20-25 mins from what I've found) due to the encroaching wall thing. Would be cool though if it could recognize an ongoing game and cut off the connection only after the game is finished.
- ryanlol 8y agoThis should not cut off ongoing games, except maybe if the anticheat was implemented by morons. I’m not sure it it’d even very reliably stop you from starting a new game, but I guess it probably works well enough.
- Lkjhmnbv 8y agoIn the good old days we'd just use ips to connect to irc, and then ask for server ips. Loved dns blocking because I still could do whatever I wanted.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- setr 8y agoI never liked the description of gaming as addictive, especially multiplayer games — I think its more of a special case of socialization with certain properties that naturally lend to poor outcomes Its really not that difficult to spend 8 hours talking to a group of friends, especially when an activity is involved (book clubs, board game nights, hanging out, etc). There are two major limitations: external responsibilities break up the group, and eventually you get bored of the people/activity. An extra one that appears in things like sports is that you eventually get tired. If you didn’t, you could probably find groups playing soccer for a week straight and still enjoying it... External responsibilities don’t really exist in any major form for kids. Getting bored of a group of people in multiplayer games is trivially fixed: there’s almost no cost to finding another group, or having multiple simultaneously. Getting physically tired doesn’t occur quickly with games: after about 5-8 hours my eyes/head start to hurt, but I’m a-ok after a night’s rest. Any weak member of your group is trivially replaced by point #2. So the fatal flaw is the activity... and ofc thats where games have always optimized for — remaining engaging over long durations. But all hobbies naturally optimize for this (else they wouldn’t really be hobbies!) Which all leads to it being really easy to stay on a game all day long, without being “addicted” to it. At least, that was my experience. Put some 1k hrs into league of legends per year when I was younger... but the day I dropped it, I dropped it without a second’s hesitation. No withdrawal or anything, I was simply finished with it (half the reason I played it so much is that I had few RL friends, so activity-wise I didn’t have anything better to do, and socialization-wise, that was where all my friends were). I think the common case is very similar to friends made over sports, but video games have properties that lend themselves to addiction-like behavior without actually creating an actual dependency.
- triviatise 8y agoMy kids get to use the internet from 6am to 7:30. Google wifi automatically turns it on and off. They need to be completely ready for school before they can play otherwise they dont get to play the next day. This has resulted in 1) I never have to wake them up or tell them to get ready 2) they go to bed early at night on their own so they can get up early to play. They are 11 and 6.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 8y agoLol! That's amazing, good job!