Virtual Reality Reality

I find it odd that in this day and age we spend more time out of reality than in it. When was the last time you considered the lilies of the field? Honestly now think about it.

As a member of the USAF I have a couple hundred co-workers. They are constantly hanging out in my office and shooting the bull. A majority of the time they talk about computer games mainly World of Warcraft. Now I use to be one of those guys that spent every waking moment playing games. I was a avid Everquest and Ultima Online player for several years. I loved playing the Quake and Unreal series games. But as I look back I can see for several years I was also neglecting my wife and son.

The thing is these games are taking a large toll on our lives. Just look at the recent news related to game deaths. Yes people die playing these games.

Here 2 kids in this article have died for over exertion. Here a Korean couple's 4 month old daughter dies while they game away. These deaths are always popping up in the news.

How big is this gaming addiction problem? World of Warcraft claims to have 11.5 million subscribers as of December 2008. So if you took the total number of people in both New York City and Los Angeles combined you'd have that many people currently playing World of Warcraft.

That's JUST World of Warcraft. There are at least a dozen other Massive Mutliplayer Online Role playing games out there. Then if you toss in all the other games that aren't MMORPG you have a staggering number of wasted hours. As a matter of fact the other day in Church we was talking about how busy we've gotten over the decades. How when our parents were young we had more family time. More sit down and relax time. More time for Church and Friends.

Today we bombard our very existence with pointless waste of time. We sit in front of the computer surfing till our wrist hurt. We sit in front of the TV till we need glasses to see. My son in fact gets rather upset when he don't have the computer or XBOX to play on. All he keeps saying is "I'm Bored" and I have to get authoritative with him and force him to go outside or read a book or play his trombone. When I was his age you couldn't keep me inside I loved going out in the wood riding my bike or taking my BB gun outside. I've got to make a change in my kids lives because this is already getting out of control.

I know this isn't something my kids are going to enjoy but what choice do I have. This time they spend burning brain cells instead of studying God's Word or learning something that is useful isn't showing me being a good parent. I know God don't approve of this way of life. It's times like these I can really admire the Amish.