on some of them.

Went skiing with some high school buddies this weekend. We grew up skiing, wakeboarding, skating, all of that stuff when we were younger. Very active kids. One of my friends is a bit older and never married, two are divorced, and one is happily married with 4 kids. I'm also married with three kids. While I've stayed in contact with all of these friends, this was the first time I had spent a good amount of time around each other. What struck me as odd was how they still were so into computer/video games.

In HS we all gamed quite a bit. I was never into it as much as my other friends but still played quite a bit. Once I started college I hardly played and then after my mission I almost completely gave it up. Didn't have the time or desire. Three of my friends still game a lot. They just happen to be the three single ones. The two that got divorced had some pretty crummy circumstances that led to it that weren't necessarily their fault. I do know for a fact that them playing games was a cause of contention in their marriages though.

One of my friends didn't even buy a ticket for the first day we were there because he said he had to study for school. So he stayed in the cabin all day. From what I can tell, he may have studied for an hour when we went out in the morning. The rest of the day, literally from 9-2 AM he was sitting at his laptop playing computer games. Barely took breaks to eat. I could not believe it. Here we are on a beautiful mountain to go skiing and all he wanted to do was sit and play some dumb game.

My other friend went out and skied with us. He was the best out of all of us in HS but he is now about 40-50 pounds heavier than he used to be. He could keep up but was a few seconds behind me and my other friend. He also had to take a day off on the three day trip because he was too tired. It was telling watching me and the one other non gamer friend of mine zipping around skiing really hard while everyone else lagged behind.

My other friend is hard to explain. He is older and has never married and doesn't show much desire to get hitched. While he is one of my closest friends, he is an odd guy and it would take the perfect woman to make it work with him. He is kinda in a constant state of adolescence. Not sure he will ever be mature enough for a real relationship. He isn't out of control with his gaming, but it has always been a big part of his life.

I just found it interesting that in my group of friends, the two that kinda gave up video games once we hit adulthood have good jobs, happy marriages, and happy lives. The other three (and I have others that I could also throw in this category, these are just the ones that I spent time with recently) are pursuing good careers but are behind where they should be. None of them have any prospects to get married and don't show much desire to do so even though they are good guys that I believe would make good husbands and fathers if they grew up a bit.

They have all expressed some frustrations with their current life situations at one point or another and it's crazy to me that they can't see how their gaming effects their lives. It takes a good amount of their free time away from meeting people, dating, church activities, or any other activity that would be enriching.

Why this mostly concerns me is my little brother plays a lot of these same games with them. He is a student at BYU and while he is not nearly as addicted as they seem to be, it still takes up a lot of his free time. I'm always warning him that he needs to cut back or cut them out completely but he doesn't want to. So far he seems to be doing a decent job of keeping everything in check (he dates, does well in school) but I can't help but worry that it will hinder his personal growth like it has to so many of my friends.

I believe video games are important for young boys. The kids I know that grew up playing no video games are socially worse off than those that played a lot. I can't explain it but that has been my experience. I would never tell someone to not let their kids play video games but I would say to be very careful in how they balance them with their other activities. If games ever take over as their main/favorite hobby then I think a change needs to be made. Especially into adulthood, if video games are your main thing then I can't imagine you are nearly as productive as an adult as you could be. Just my opinion.