Current events are topics I typically avoid on this blog since my intent is to write about real-life people and their how-to tips with business, money, and real estate. But this news topic deserves my perspective.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070716/ap_on_re_us/neglect_internet_addiction
My viewpoint:
I can see how this would happen. It could happen in my family. My oldest son turns 22 this week. He came to us at age 4 after living in several group homes and foster homes.
He was extremely hyperactive. He's handsome, personable, but he's also developmentally delayed and highly impulsive. Medication has helped him - when he takes it!
He's been through a few jobs in the past several months - including pushing carts and stocking shelves at Smart and Final and Ralphs grocery stores in Southern California.
We helped him move in yesterday to a townhome in Corona, California, about 50 miles from our house. He doesn't drive, he's scared to drive. But we're glad he's out of the house. Oh, yeah, one of his housemates (they don't stay in the same room) is a young woman he met on the Internet. She works in a grocery store bakery and doesn't drive, either.
The dad in the Internet story was an unemployed cashier and spent his $50,000 inheritance on computer equipment.
Our son could go to work for 8 hours and then stay up all night on the Internet - chatting, playing games, downloading movies. It was almost impossible for us to get him to bed. He would become sleep deprived and be a mess to have around the house as well as leave a mess around the house.
So, if he and his girl friend have a child . . . I'm sick to think of what could happen.
The good news is - while he doesn't want us to tell him what to do, he is going to church, and says they're not sleeping together (yeah, right). But they do watch movies until 1am after she gets home from work.
The townhome they live in - a nicely made one by the way - is owned by a man in his 40s and he lives there, too. So they're both paying rent.
The redeeming factor in the story is both the husband and wife pleaded guilty. I hope they get help and as part of their probation they need to have someone not let them use the internet or games until they can develop other healthy patterns in their lives - which is really tough to do.
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