The high cost of video games

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore described (subscription required) his teenage sons "classic withdrawal symptoms" when limited in their video game use. He rejected his 6-year-old son's pleas for a PlayStation.

That's learning.

No one was prepared when the video game surge took over childhood. If American children could no longer play in the woods or in the neighborhood, they could be found exercising their fingers at the video game. By high school weekends, it could go on all night. Worst of all for our family was the online game Everquest -- referred to by those in the know as Evercrack. Designed to be highly addictive - players "level up" -- it was the first irrefutable indicator that our older son was carrying some addictive genes. In the backyard bunkhouse, he and his friends could be found any hour of the night, computers plugged in, an empty box of Krispy Kremes beside them. More than once, we found him asleep at the computer. "What's the worst thing I ever did, Mom?" he once asked "Stay online all night?"