From The Ypulse WTF Files
Posted by meredith on 12-03-2008Yesterday I was browsing my RSS feeds when this unsettling and somewhat unbelievable story caught my eye (Thanks Derek!):
The Local, an English language news site based in Sweden, reports that a 15-year old boy collapsed after playing World of Warcraft for nearly 20-hours. The boy's father, after seeing his son collapse and suffer a seizure, called and ambulance and the boy was rushed to the hospital.
Yikes. While the above incident was obviously an extreme case, it may hit closer to home than you think. Recent studies done by the National Institute of Health and Yale University show that too much media intake does lead to negative effects on kids and teens' health, linking overexposure with issues of childhood obesity, tobacco use and early sexual behavior (another hot topic of late.) So, what's to be done post-wake up call?
When we discussed the issue Anastasia expressed concerns with placing arbitrary limits on media use, calling the act of setting limits more of an art than a science. I agree. In the same way that some kids can be trusted with the whole bag of candy on Halloween and others have to select ten pieces and have the rest taken away (obviously the category this poor Swedish teen fits into,) rules should be tailored to the kid in question. Thoughts?
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
This is hilarious… I was just reading some extreme case testimonies… no word on how true or exaggerated this really is. But funny….. http://www.harrymaugans.com/2007/09/03/world-of-warcraft-obsession/