Is fortnite ruining his life?

My little cousin (10 years old) is obsessed with fortnite. And I mean OBSESSED. We decided to cut down how much he plays the playstation but when he's not on the game, its still all he talks about. He said that if he cant play fortnite anymore, he will run away. I doubt he would actually do it, but its still worrying to hear him say that. The first thing he does when he gets home from school is get on the playstation, refusing to eat or drink anything while he plays it (and then later complaining that hes hungry even though we asked him 100 times to get off the game and come and eat). He just sits there for hours on end staring at the screen as if its some sort of drug. I'm surprised his eyes haven't gone square from looking at the screen so much. He's usually such a good kid, but when he plays it its like he turns into a different person (moody, bratty, nasty). When he finally gets off the game, after ten or so minutes of not playing it he slowly becomes his old self again. Is this normal?

Voting Results
13% Normal
Based on 16 votes (2 yes)
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Comments ( 14 )
  • Boojum

    What a lot of people fail to understand is that games like Fortnite are deliberately designed to be addictive. They're carefully tuned to give players regular little doses of happy-hormones so they keep coming back for more. Some people are more susceptible to this than others.

    Given what you say about your cousin's family situation, I wouldn't be surprised if part of what's going on is that when he's in the world of Fortnite, he has escaped the turmoil in his family and the fact that he's not living in a place he can really consider his home.

    If you want to know more about the psychology of video game obsession/addiction, you could start here:

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/media-spotlight/201308/are-video-games-addictive

    What he's doing is "normal" in the sense that it's pretty common, but that doesn't mean it's positive. It's normal for people to walk around staring at their phones all the time, completely detached from the world and the people around them, but that's unhealthy in many ways.

    I think the bottom line is that he's not your kid, and he's not your responsibility. If his mum is concerned about his behaviour - and as a parent, I would be - then it's her responsibility to try to figure out how to deal with the issue.

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  • curious-bunny

    Haha so dumb just take the power cord simple and easy fix

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    • SwickDinging

      Ikr, what happened to parenting.

      "My ten year old won't get off the PlayStation which I bought for him and runs off the electricity which I provide in the house that I pay for and there is literally nothing I can do about it".

      Lol

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    • We have tried, but the whole time he isnt playing it he's just grumpy and even worse. It's hard because he's not actually my kid, hes my cousin (living with my family temporarily). I just want to know if this is normal!??

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      • CuriousFruit

        When the kid gets all grumpy, let him. For as long as it will take. Just always have something else for him to do.

        I’d suggest slowly cutting down screen time to 2-3 hours by increments of 15 mins every few days.

        Like any addiction, there will be withdrawal symtoms and he will say alot of dumb stuff. He will try to rial you up, leave or even hurt himself.

        Just stay rational, calm and persist.

        There’s a time and place for everything. Even he wants a career playing that game, he needs to have balance in his life.

        Though note his whole family needs to be in on this.

        But for now. Since your just his cousin try to get him to do other stuff. Play basketball, learn parkour, baking, exploding vegetables, making memes, trolling the peeps in the neighborhood and etc.

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      • curious-bunny

        If I did that growing up I would have gotten a belt across my bare ass and a school text book pushed under my nose so quick. Eother the book or I would be sent outside to do some work.

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  • BlindSpot

    I watched a documentary where scientists attempted to study the effects of violent video games on children. I can't remember the exact details of the study, perhaps you can look it up, but they found that a significant portion of the children became desensitized to violence and graphic imagery after playing those games. I'm not sure how long those effects lasted.

    That said, we all have our own ways to escape our reality, for which we are addicted. Gosh I can't even count the number of things I was addicted to or still am, from listening to music non stop for hours, to reading three fiction novels a day to surfing the internet for hours... Each to his own I guess. He's a child however, and boundaries must be drawn. He should have certain times to play (usually after he completes some kind of chore or homework).

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  • he's always talking about how he wants to be a youtuber when he grows up

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    • SwickDinging

      Tell him that won't be a thing anymore by the time he grows up.

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  • nikkiclaire

    So many fortnite posts lately 😩

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    • LornaMae

      Probably Joshzilla, the 11 year-old wandering about IIN.

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  • RoseIsabella

    Mommy, and Daddy need to ground that kid from the game.

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    • mummy and daddy are going through a messy divorce. I cant ground him from it because hes my cousin, not my kid, and thats something his mum decides. Is it normal how he acts though??

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      • RoseIsabella

        I dunno, maybe he's doing it to escape the reality of his parents getting divorced which would be somewhat normal. I'm not a fan of video games so I think anytime is the right time to take a break from playing video games.

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