[Publib] RE: Runescape & heroin

[Rebecca Bronson]

This is an interesting discussion. We certanly have our share of patrons who
throw tantrums if the internet is down. I had never considered that behavior
in this context before.

Rebecca Bronson
Reference Librarian
Handley Regional Library
P.O. Box 1300
Stephens City, VA  22655

540-869-9000 (voice)
540-869-9001 (fax)

www.hrl.lib.state.va.us


-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Theyer, Hillary
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 6:19 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] RE: Runescape & heroin



Long before Runescape ...  I think there is something truly addictive about
an endlessly changing world of entertainment that doesn't require you to
move or break you from the world in any way.  Kind of like a Vegas casino.

I had a friend in college who had to send his Nintendo home because he
realized if he didn't he was going to flunk out due to not studying, or
going to class, or eating, or doing anything else.  Kudos that he did it on
his own, I had another who flunked a class and her parents came and took
hers away.  She cried and threw things.

When I was in grad school, I started playing Sim City.  Then the Sims.  I
had to physically kill off all my characters and burn down my Sim house,
then uninstall it from my PC so I would stop playing it.  (you burn down a
Sim house by sending one of your Sims with low cooking skills into the
kitchen to cook something, by the way).  When that world was available to
me, it was just so much more tempting than homework.  I would start playing
after dinner at 7:30 "for a few minutes," then come back to reality as Jay
Leno is ending, and I haven't done any homework.  My brother in law termed
it "digital crack" and said he had to do the same so he would pass college
too.

Additions come in all forms.  There is a clinical definition of a disabling
addiction, and I think all these met it. As I recall, one criteria is a
disabling of vital life functions.  There are people of all ages (kids,
teens, adults) whose computer time in the library is the end all and be all
of their existence, and who fly into screaming rages if it is interrupted.
I have actually wondered if the library has any liability for enabling an
addition, like a bar is not supposed to serve you more drinks if you are
already drunk.  Has anyone sued yet?

Hillary Theyer


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Message: 15
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:38:57 -0400
From: "Amanda Henning" <ahenning at marysvillelib.org>
Subject: RE: [Publib] Runescape & heroin
To: "'John'" <jrichmond at alphapark.org>, <publib at webjunction.org>
Message-ID: <009e01c7ade1$b829c320$7611a8c0 at MPLYSV23H01>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

If you really enjoyed a particular activity and someone was significantly
restricting your access to that activity, wouldn't you be irritated and try
to find your way around?

I think it's unfair to both gamers and people who are dealing with addition
to compare a leisure activity to an elicit drug.






Amanda Henning
Youth Services Assistant
The Marysville Public Library
231 S. Plum St.
Marysville, Oh  43040
(937) 642-1876 ex. 25
ahenning at marysvillelib.org

	"In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which
was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble;
they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid
volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret's nose. Give
her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle."

                                           - Catherine Drinker Bowen
-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of John
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 12:37 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Runescape & heroin

A personal concern about such things as Runescape, even as some folks in
the profession seem to think that gaming at the library is even *better*
than sliced bread.  Unless I'm not understanding what different games
are being referenced (I am computer game illiterate, and glad to be so).

A friend introduced our ten-year-old son to Runescape, and shortly
thereafter we needed a 12-step program.  The child--it was weird--began
to get up at 6 o'clock every morning, as if he had programmed his body
and mind to change his usual sleeping habits, and sneak into the
office/den to play Runescape.  His level of irritability, surliness, and
rudeness escalated, almost overnight.  (Not unlike when a classmate
introduced him to the Cartoon Network, which we don't get in our Cable
package, but which can be found by entering the channel numbers directly
into the TV remote control--just can't get it while surfing, and it's
grainy, as it is.) Even when we set a time limit on computer use, he
would sneak into the office to play Runescape.  And the rudeness and
disrespectfulness of a hitherto pleasant child was worse than it was
with the Cartoon Network.

Interestingly enough, our home PC is having problems, and we await the
arrival of help tomorrow afternoon, in the form of a friendly computer
doctor.  Since telling Eric that the computer was/is ill, he has slept
in until a more customary time--8 or 8:30, now that school is
out--thereby reinforcing my observation re: getting up at 6, as if
unconsciously programmed.  His mood also has been markedly better.
*Markedly*.  Ditto when we went on vacation and he didn't use a computer
for ten days.

A sister-in-law recommended a different computer game, name now
forgotten, which teaches ancient and medieval history, among other
things, in the playing.  I went to the website; I should have kept a
tally of how many times the word "addictive" was used, as an expression
of pride on the creator's/manufacturer's part, to describe the product.

Anyway, I was interested to see Runescape and heroin paired, even if it
may have been only facetiously.  And if children wish to play
games--which they do at Alpha Park, FAR more than they do all the
serious research that we supposedly entice them with, with our
databases, librarians' superior ability to teach people how to use the
Internet, et al.--at the library, fine.  But I think perhaps we should
start offering complimentary doses of, say, Antabuse or the newest
anti-heroin drugs being produced and tried in the great American
marketplace.

My social commentary, which I guess I've been wanting to offer to
somebody, for the day.  *I* feel better.

John D. Richmond, Director
Alpha Park Public Library District
3527 So. Airport Road
Bartonville, IL 61607-1799
Ph: (309) 697-3822, x. 12
Fax: 697-9681
E-mail: jrichmond at alphapark.org
________________________________________________
I especially enjoy trying out baby changing shelves, although our
grandchildren don't seem any different no matter how many times I put
them on one. -- Bernie Siegel

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