Internet Addiction and Young Men

Well, at least South Korea is trying to find a way to deal with online addiction--something you can be sure won't happen here in the US.

It seems like an awful lot of young men these days are becoming addicted to online role-playing games--to the point that they will throw away their real world responsibilities in order to sit around and play games.

On a personal note, my ex-husband's online gaming addiction was one of the major things that led to our divorce. He used to sit on the internet for as long as 18 hours a day playing City of Heroes. It got so bad that he could no longer keep a job, would not help care for our kids while I worked to support us, and basically didn't care about anything except playing that damned game. Even now, he is still addictively playing online games--it has been seven months since he has even called the kids, and as far as I know, he still doesn't have a job. He lives with whatever friend will put him up and allow him to use their internet connection. When they get tired of seeing him sit around on his ass, they throw him out and he moves on.

I have yet to understand it. I know that he is not the only man whose addiction has led to a divorce--but how could anyone just throw their kids away for a stupid computer game?