<p>My S is a Junior at a major university in Florida. He is only 19 YO and is a Junior due to completing 33 Credits of Dual Enrollment. He loves to play video games and is studying Computer Science to learn programming. He does not play the violent games but he really spends a lot of time on games like Minecraft and WOW. He also enjoys watching YouTube videos and sessions where others are streaming while they play video games.</p>
<p>His grades were great during his fall semester at the University with A’s and B’s. Then he got A’s, B’s and a C during the spring semester, then he got a C and D during summer semester. Now the second fall semester is over and his grades are even worse.</p>
<p>I know that he is spending too much time with video games and not enough time studying for his classes. We talk a lot and I have made many suggestions to him about his study habits but it does not seem to be making an impact.</p>
<p>Does anyone have a college student that they have helped with an addiction to video games?</p>
<p>I don’t know, but have a good friend’s son who was a National Merit Scholar, full ride to TAMU and flunked out his freshman year because he would hole up in his dorm room for DAYS playing X-box. It’s definitely an addiction and I’m not sure how you can control/manage it from a distance. I’m VERY thankful that my 18 year old DS has never been interested in gaming beyond playing an occasional game on his iphone. Good luck!</p>
<p>During your conversations with him how does he respond when you discuss the low grades? Does he say what ‘he’ thinks the issues are? Does he think he’s spending too much time playing the games, that the major is too difficult, that he finds the major uninteresting, something else?</p>
<p>It’s important that ‘he’ analyzes his situation and determines what’s wrong and then corrects it. You might be able to tell him until you’re blue in the face but unless he faces up to the issue it won’t get corrected.</p>
<p>Computer Science is a difficult major and at many/most colleges requires a lot of time in order to do the work. It’s not a major compatible with other activities that require a huge amount of time - like the way some people play video games. </p>
<p>It’s decision time for him - he needs to decide if he’d rather live in the virtual world of video games with no college degree, no major, no reasonable career, and work at a low end job at best with no decent prospects, or if he’d rather set the video games aside (preferably not have a gaming console at college at all) and use this time of his life to focus on an education to set the foundation for the rest of his life. this foundation might even end up to be working in the gaming industry if he wants although even then he’ll have to do real work - not just sit around playing games.</p>
<p>He really should send the gaming console home or sell it. It’s too much of a distraction - like TV or Facebook, or the internet can be for some people.</p>
<p>I think the video games are a real scourge of many young males nowadays. Of course, parents play into it by buying the kids the games along with TVs in their bedrooms and allowing them to play endless hours of video games before they ever head off to college - often to the exclusion of real friends or other activities (I’m not saying that’s what you did).</p>
<p>He needs to own the grades issue and if he decides it’s the video gaming causing the problem then he needs to decide what he wants to do about it. It also could be that the CS courses are too difficult for him or that he’s not really interested in them since CS is not the same thing as playing a game.</p>
<p>If you’re paying for his college and he’s not putting it to good use and you feel strongly it’s due to the video games then you could always put a condition on the money which includes no gaming at school with him handing you or otherwise getting rid of the gaming console/TV, etc. It’s best if it doesn’t come to this but you shouldn’t be wasting your money either.</p>
<p>If he’s playing WoW and Minecraft then he’s not using a console, he’s doing it on his computer. So all the people suggesting to send the Nintendo home should probably know that won’t work well.</p>
<p>I think you need to find out what it is that’s really making him play the games that often. I would consider myself a gamer, but I know the only time I really start to have issues is when I’m feeling really depressed and have a hard time just getting myself to leave the apartment. It seems a similar feeling to the family I’ve seen with depression who don’t want to even climb out of bed for the whole day because they’re feeling so miserable.</p>