Sitting quietly in the suburbs is a retired 60 something woman who calls herself a gamer. Perhaps a little unusual to see a woman of that age with such a high degree of familiarity with technology and the net, and she is retired, so is it an addiction and does it matter?

For her (and I suppose it could equally be a guy, I don’t know) technology entertainment came along last century in 1970s when those big boxes that looked like pokey machines, turned up in pubs. Twenty cents bought you a chance to beat the highest score and she followed the trends and developments all of her adult life.

I didn’t think too hard about this until recently when I was sitting in a café eating my big breakfast and next to me is a baby in push chair whose head is going left and right, and left and right. More important, was what this baby was looking at. Presumably Mum and Dad sitting across the table from each other both quietly gaming on their cell phones. And they never spoke a word to each other the whole time I was there.

So, now you wonder what that little fellow is going to be doing in the near future and you wonder what people aren’t talking about right now.

Of course they’re probably not going to turn up on a public forum like this and admit

– that their little darling got hold of a credit card and blew $4,000.00 before they found out, but he did.

– or another little darling who had $1,000.00 in his bank account and blew that in a week, but he did.

– or another little darling who was so hooked, the addiction took priority over his cellphone which was terminated, and he didn’t get the messages from WINZ, and had his benefit cut, and needed someone to help him sort it out.

I know the job market may not be providing great opportunities for young boys at the moment but when I look at 10-12 year olds who can’t be communicated with because they’re glued to their tablet, I’m wondering what it is going to be like in a couple of years from now.

Has there been

A compression in the time frame of the addiction?
A change in the behaviours of the addicted person?
Is this more relevant to boys?

What are you seeing when you’re looking around you?

Anyone got any little confessions they want to add, now you know you’re not the only one?