Saturday, July 23, 2011

Addictions

The other day, I was talking with a girlfriend who has been recently separated. Well, her hubbie lost his job shortly after they got married (he is a hunky construction worker, 'nuf said), and he just did not really look that hard for a job. She has a good job, and so he stayed home to play WoW.

I could never get into Wow. Well, I have never played, but I have a feeling there is a learning curve, and I don't do well without instant gratification. I mean, I am sweet and all, but I don't think I could invest a bunch of time so that I would do whatever it is you do in WoW. I am assuming it has something to do with killing dwarfs or zombies or whatever.

And it is not like I am strong and don't have an addictive personality. I have never tried drugs, partly because if I ever did, I would be turning tricks for dime bags. I don't know what that means exactly, but I have heard it somewhere. Yeah, I get around.

Our society likes addictions – we say that we are addicted to chocolate, cell phones, whatever. I sort of see it, but it is hard to wrap my brain around having someone playing WoW being in the same category of someone who loses their child because they spend all of their time and money on cocaine. It just seems different, you know?

I have been incredibly busy right now - so I have not written. Sorry; please forgive me. I will try to do better next week. Am I addicted to blogging? I don't think so.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What bothers me is how, as a society, we turn a vice into a virtue. "I'm addicted to ..." is chic. Addiction is not good.

It also means we've lost command of our language. People aren't addicted. They are probably more "affectionate toward" or "intensely interested in" rather than addicted. No one turns tricks for Snickers bar.

I've heard WoW is very compelling, but I don't do video games that don't have Galaga or Tetris in the name. So I wouldn't know.

More losing panty stories.

Leesa said...

knot: I have a poem for Monday - not very good, but you may like it.

Xmichra said...

I have lost two very good friends because of their addiction to WoW. It is worse than cocaine, because at least that is not socially acceptable, and isn't brushed off as a light habbit.

I don't like real time games (where the world happens regardless of your playing, or there is no pause button) simply because I look at a computer game as leisure and control over my own time. Those games (Wow, asherons call, elf quest, etc) they all demand too much of my time, and my time is valuable to me.

I have had a very hard time accepting that I can't do anything for the 2 friends... they are co-dependant on eachother and both have depression issues with the need to "escape" or dissassociate with the real world. They both know it as well, but care little to correct it. Another third friend, I haven't even spoken to in over 5 years because he is so involved with that f*ing game, that he couldn't funcion at a dinner with other friends without somehow talking about WoW or refrencing it, whatever to make the real life emmulate the pixels. It was sick.

And that is where I see the definate definition of addiction.. that sickness of not being present. It is real, horrifying, and tragic.

Leesa said...

xmichra: thanks for your words. I don't know about WoW, and based on your experiences, it seems very addictive.