"At one point or another, most of us have probably heard someone talk about how their kids are addicted to video games. The concern is understandable: a lot of parents don't have a background with video games, and seeing their kids so obsessed with something they're not familiar with can be worrying. In some cases, parents are worrying over nothing, but in other instances, their concerns are well-founded. Of course, the solution can be as simple as just taking away a kid's TV and games privileges, but what do you do..."

"Nearly one in 10 American children who play computer games are pathologically addicted, according to new research. Some young gamers show at least six symptoms of gambling addiction, such as lying to family and friends about how much they play games, using the games to escape their problems and becoming restless or irritable when they stop playing. They may also skip homework to play games or spend too much time playing and do poorly in school, the study shows. Douglas Gentile, director of the National Instit..."

"For the most part, what it comes down to is the inability to effectively balance your life. Recently, I had what could be described as a bit of a Mass Effect problem. After buying the game, I spent almost every free minute I had trying to get through it. I would sit down to play it the second I stepped through the door at night, generally eating with controller in hand, and played until I went to bed. The dishes sat in the sink, and the cat was ignored to a degree he found a little disturbing. And then, after a wee..."

"In 2005, Lee Seung Seop of South Korea died after playing StarCraft for 50 hours. In 2007, Xu Yan of northeastern China died after playing various online games for 7 days. Just six months later, an unidentified 30-year-old in Guangzhou province died after playing in an Internet café for three straight days. Addiction to videogames: It's happening to them, and it could be happening to you, too! Well, OK, not really. Game addiction is a term that's thrown around pretty liberally these days. Horror stories of peopl..."

"The huge consumption of drugs and alcohol in this country probably indicates that our modern life style robs us of our quota of euphoria. Our days at school or work are either of a continuing stressful nature or are hopelessly monotonous or both. We do not live in a manner that gives us healthy, mild swings in activity. Instead, we run like crazy in one direction, and then we drug ourselves in the other. Why drugs and other poisons? To find the answer we must gather together our little red, yellow, pink and ..."

"In June I decided to do a 30-day trial of no TV watching. DVDs were OK, but I wasn’t going to watch any regular programming or cable shows or tape anything with my DVR. At the end of the 30-day trial, I was pleased with the results, so I kept going. Now that it’s been over 60 days, I thought I’d share my observations on life without TV. 1. Becoming more aware of the TV’s presence The rest of my family didn’t join me in this experiment, so there was still some TV viewing in our home. When I stopped watchin..."

"While controversy continues to surround the way the content of screen media affects our thoughts and behaviour, I have just reviewed a growing body of empirical evidence for the academic journal Biologist indicating that watching television causes physiological changes, and not for the better. Most of these effects occur irrespective of the type of programme people watch - whether it's Reservoir Dogs or the Teletubbies. It is the medium, not the message. Reviewing 35 studies in well-respected scientific and med..."