3 - Invisible Chains
from Part I - The Price of the Illusion of Control
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 April 2023
Summary
Melissa came to speak to me after a lecture I gave to parents at her son’s school. Her son Neil was a fifth grader. She told me that Neil was a good student and had friends in school, but he plays Fortnite for many hours a day. At first, Melissa told him to stop playing, but he kept begging for more time. When she insisted, he yelled and got extremely upset. Melissa then installed an app to limit Neil’s computer time. After a while Melissa noticed that he was playing Fortnite well into the evening. It turned out that Neil had discovered the password and changed the settings. This happened multiple times. Sometimes Neil asked for extra computer time for homework, but Melissa found him playing Fortnite instead. Melissa told me she thought she was not so good with technology, and that she should have found a better app. She felt that maybe she could have prevented what happened next.
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- Information
- UnwiredGaining Control over Addictive Technologies, pp. 33 - 44Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023