13) First Signs of Obsession?

I woke up 3 days ago and had an urge to turn on Maple Story!

Starting with just the necessity to research the game that has kept hundreds of thousands of kids glued to their computers, I reached the stage where I was really keen to finish off a quest that kept me up to 2am the previous night. In 1 week, I had put in about 10 hours in Maple Story and went from level 21 to 28! Really near my second job advance at level 30!

This also coincided with a relatively-lull period in my life, major projects were taken care of and I had quite good extended itme with my family over CNY (made me less guilty about playing MS).

It didn't matter that my eyes were heavy, my stomach was empty (no breakfast yet) - I really wanted to switch on that computer.

Relax (I did not do it)

I've practiced impulse-control on many other things in may life before and I manged to do it to Maple Story. Frequent periods of self-imposed abstinence from coffee made this feel normal. I'm not an animal without control over my senses and the fleshly desires.

But what about the kids? Would they have practiced self-control when they are left unsupervised and unrestrained on their terminals?

What would happen to them if they do not learn these skills early in life?

Food for thought.