On average, there are about 300,000 items inside an American household. These items range from small essentials like kitchen cutlery to large furniture pieces and everything in between. Not too many of these things are all that expensive, but for households with children, especially children between the ages of five and 30 years old (adult children count), video gaming systems are often one of the most expensive items around.
Approximately 155 million Americans play video games on a regular basis and they aren’t just playing old-fashioned Nintendo 64s anymore, either. They are playing the most advanced, newest, and innovative consoles like the PS4 and the Xbox One — and those consoles aren’t cheap.
Unfortunately, even these current gaming devices are going to be antiquated in the near future, and children will certainly beg their parents to shell out hundreds of dollars to get the updated versions.
According to Valuewalk, both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Two are on the way.
The Xbox One completely revolutionized the gaming industry, and the Xbox Two is projected to be between six and eight times more powerful than the Xbox One. It looks like both the PS5 and the Xbox Two are set to be released in 2020, so that gives parents plenty of time to save up all that money.
Parents aren’t just going to have to spend all that cash on these surely expensive items, either. Avid gamers don’t just need the best consoles, they need the best games, the coolest controllers, the loudest headsets, and all the other necessary gadgets that make an already expensive purchase even more costly.
Sadly, all this video gaming isn’t just affecting the parents’ pocketbooks; it’s actually leading to some serious health concerns for the nations’ youth.
Because these updated gaming systems are more technologically advanced than ever before, they are specifically being designed to consume a young person’s life, which isn’t the best news for parents of gamers.
According to WQAD, more teens are being treated for what researchers are calling “Internet Gaming Disorder.”
“They wake up in the middle of the night to game or they don’t go to sleep because they are gaming,” said Dr. Christian Thurstone, Director of Addiction Services at Denver Health. “They are on the Internet and cellphone, they’re ditching school and they’re not doing their homework. It leads to lots of conflict at home and arguing.”
Dr. Thurstone added that teenagers between the ages of 16 and 17 are the most at risk for developing a severe gaming addiction, as studies have shown 5.5% teens have problems with overusing the Internet. Additionally, males are five times more likely to develop this type of addiction than females.
The only treatment for this type of gaming addiction is 90 days away from the video game consoles or technology altogether. Telling a teenaged video game fan they can’t play for an hour, let alone 90 days, can be a problem, so this is something parents need to handle with care and consult medical professionals if there are actually health concerns.
