How bad is the epidemic in your region?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
My son is playing DI ball. Granted it's finials week and he had nothing going on the next day but... I woke up to a charge on my card for Fortnite bonus points at like 1:59 am.
The coach has mentioned the kids love of Fortnite in preseason interviews.
We limit our son to 40 minutes of total access to his phone per day. The epidemic is too much screen time for kids, in general.
One night we had about 30 kids in our house with TV’s and PS4’s in three rooms with the kids all playing or watching. There were about 8-10 girls that were playing too.
Almost ever Red Sox player is playing. The celebrations they gesture on base after a hit are from the game.
3and2Fastball posted:We limit our son to 40 minutes of total access to his phone per day. The epidemic is too much screen time for kids, in general.
I agree! Though this type of limited screen time parenting is rare around here (affluent suburb and rural exurb type area combined). Of course, these are the same parents who are themselves addicted to their devices. These parents spend more time on their own devices than time parenting their children.
Fortnite is all the rage here for sure. 2021 doesn't even like video games, but even he has been sucked in. My brother in law just discovered that his 10 year old had charged $800 over the past 3 months buying stuff in Fortnite! They refunded all but $200.
The entire Clemson baseball team plays it.
Just in March alone, Fortnite earned its maker over $300 million. My son LOVES the game. It is a first person shooter game but it isn't violent or shows blood like GTA or Black Ops. It actually requires super fast reflexes and quick thinking in order to be good at it.
I have seen the on base celebrations that mimic game celebrations. I also had to quiet down one of the dances that the "dancer" puts the L for loser on his forehead and bounces back and forth. Compare that to the Varsity team that imitates doing a beer bong, Ill take Fortnite any day.
As long as he puts in his school time and baseball time first, I don't care how he spends HIS time.
RJM posted:Almost ever Red Sox player is playing. The celebrations they gesture on base after a hit are from the game.
The Purdue players do this too. I didn't know what they were doing after a double, so I asked son, and he said it was from the game. The players play it all the time.
Once the baseball season started my son got off of Fortnite and is now watching MLB highlights...a shocking and welcome development.
K9 posted:Once the baseball season started my son got off of Fortnite and is now watching MLB highlights...a shocking and welcome development.
Count your blessings! It is all the rage in our neck of the woods. I have kids falling asleep in class because they are up until all night playing. I had to talk with my son. He still plays but gets to bed at a decent time, continues to get good grades, and continues to work on baseball away from the field.
K9 posted:Once the baseball season started my son got off of Fortnite and is now watching MLB highlights...a shocking and welcome development.
Have you taken him to see a doc? Something doesn't sound right
I finished 2nd in a solo last night, FWIW.
I set guidelines for my boys as to how much they can play and when...after all homework/chores are done etc. Then I play when they go to bed. I'm terrible, but man is it a fun game.
So far I have been able to contain addiction...but my elder son's 32" 271 ash bat is the extremely jealous type and I can see the ill will to the xbox especially after a bad hitting session. I truly fear what would happen if the Xbox is left alone with the bat
Our son likes Fortnite and plays some, but thankfully still spends more time hitting and watching MLB TV. However, some of his teammates (both school and travel) are addicted. To encourage less video gaming and more baseball/school related activities, his travel coaches told the team that anyone playing Fortnite or PS4 on a day when they are seeing the coaches (practice or games) would be suspended for two weeks. I don't know how they will enforce this since I don't know how they can tell if someone was playing or not, but I appreciate the effort by the coaches. Interestingly, his travel coaches are both relatively young (both in their late 20's) so it isn't just old guys like me that are frustrated with amount of time some kids are spending on video games.
Most of the players at TT play it too.... 
They don’t play that much during the week, but on weekends they take their boxes to a house and all play. I think half of our team plays fortnite and the other half goes out and parties. I’ll take fortnite.
Since you mentioned drinking....
GOTTA watch out for that vaping crap. The kids just don't associate it with smoking. They have no idea if the stuff that smells good has nicotine in it or not (They do.) I caught my kid with a JUUL and I ran amoke on his snap chat. Now pictures disappear parents...but conversations do not.
And a BUNCH of the kids are vaping. one of his JV teammates was caught in class with one. I figured I would have to deal with dipping eventually....But drinking and vaping have already reared their ugly heads in 10th grade.
Parents.... Cannot stress enough.... Don't fall into the "not my kid" thinking. I am around my kid 95% of his free time and he still had me fooled. Access your kids phone...Read their texts...Know the apps they hide stuff with....
Kevin A posted:Since you mentioned drinking....
GOTTA watch out for that vaping crap. The kids just don't associate it with smoking. They have no idea if the stuff that smells good has nicotine in it or not (They do.) I caught my kid with a JUUL and I ran amoke on his snap chat. Now pictures disappear parents...but conversations do not.
And a BUNCH of the kids are vaping. one of his JV teammates was caught in class with one. I figured I would have to deal with dipping eventually....But drinking and vaping have already reared their ugly heads in 10th grade.
Parents.... Cannot stress enough.... Don't fall into the "not my kid" thinking. I am around my kid 95% of his free time and he still had me fooled. Access your kids phone...Read their texts...Know the apps they hide stuff with....
Amen, amen, amen. The vape/juul thing is an epidemic, and you're absolutely correct that kids don't regard it as 'smoking.'
It is an epidemic, no question. Our HS has been battling it for years.
Not sure about reading my kids texts though. If they don't know you're doing it, that's a major breach of trust and could bite you in the butt if they find out. If they do know they'll just find other avenues of communication. I've wanted my kids to be safe and healthy, but they are kids, and they are doing to experiment at some point. But... it's tricky stuff. No easy answers, and no answers that fit all families and situations.
So, obviously, since I started the thread, this one has my attention. And, yes, I'm kinda taking the "old guy" perspective with it. I'm torn. Of course I've been around the video game issue with teams of recent years but nothing has come close to this Fortnite version in consuming so much time and energy with so many. I preach balance, have fun, enjoy your HS years, etc., along with proper time and attention toward the dedication it takes to accomplish the individual and team goals for the baseball players. At one point early in the season, I was picking up on conversations that several guys were staying up WAY late into the early morning hours playing. That was when it was time to address it for us. They still play a ton and talk about it a ton. But they at least seem to have found some balance with efforts toward baseball... getting their rest, playing really well as we head down the final stretch.
I am being sent clips from other coaches (including other sports) who are attributing this as the reason they are suddenly, this year, not getting the requests for extra work after practices and not getting the collective buy-in that they are accustomed to from their teams as they chase wins and championships.
Still, a few things are really confounding to me...
Otherwise very attentive parents with tight guidelines seem to be allowing excess with this.
My thoughts and actions were focused on a few things entirely different when I was in HS 
.
Was just talking about this game with a trainer here in Phoenix - he's seeing Fortnite take over kids' time and now requires a rep for every minute played. This is truly a phenomenon.
Guess we dodged that bullet, never heard of it. Then again we just replaced our x-box that was from 2008 and we don't have it attached to the internet. My kids aren't into video games.
My son had no plans on Sat night and had a busy few days with a Friday night game and SAT Saturday morning. When he came home from SAT he said "all I'm doing is playing Fortnite the rest of the day."
I haven't played it. Have watched videos but don't see what's so appealing about it. My players haven't talked about it that much compared to other teams we face who do FN dances in the dugout pre-game. I let them have a "dance off" against one team and we ended up winning the game too. But as far as I could tell they have other more important things going on in life besides that game.
I was talking to my wife (Jr. High Principal) and kids about fortnite last week. That discussion and a quick google search have me convinced that your fighting a loosing battle if you try to stop the kids from playing fortnite. Especially after seeing these...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyhpKI1v6cs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2V_58xws9g
It is affecting Lacrosse as well:
Every team we’ve played this year has referenced Fortnite in a celebration at least 1 time a game.
Some of those are funny. Yes it is an epidemic. I wish I would have come up with that game though, I'd be sitting pretty right now!!
Its college players too. Apparently ASU's locker room has two big screens going full time with just FN games. Right up to the imposed 20-minute pre-practice cutoff.
Now this:
www.weei.com/blogs/ryan-hannab...ted-playing-fortnite
Boston writers are wondering if David Price's Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was brought on by his affinity for playing Fortnite. Apparently he travels with an Xbox.
Funny you say that - my son goes to school with Aaron Boone's son who says Judge and all the Yankees guys travel with their XBox to play FN in their hotel rooms.
Oldest son had Tommy John about a week ago. He has been playing Fortnite with his buddies for the past 6 days since surgery. There is a whole lot of GOOD in the fact that he is able to do that, but it also shows how much of an epidemic it is that even arm surgery won't keep kids away from Fortnite.
my son is a soon to be sophomore and just moved into his apartment for next year. he and his 4 roommates have 6 TV's in the living room. One each for the each roommate for fortnight and 1 dedicated to sports. It is ridiculous...they love it. They can also watch different channels on the TV's so NFL Sunday will be "epic" between the redzone, regular broadcast and said video games.
A couple weeks ago there were 3 boys at the Texas AM game behind home plate doing a fortnight dance while the visiting pitcher was on the mound. The announcers were talking about them during the game for an entire AB. it was outstanding, I am sure there is a youtube link to it somewhere.
K9 posted:Now this:
www.weei.com/blogs/ryan-hannab...ted-playing-fortnite
Boston writers are wondering if David Price's Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was brought on by his affinity for playing Fortnite. Apparently he travels with an Xbox.
Correction: David Overpriced
I don't like to rip on players. I respect what it takes to be a MLBer. But this guy is a first class jerk. Who physically attacks a 63yo Hall of Fame player/current announcer (Eckersley) for saying “yuck” during a game about a rehabbing player’s game stat line? Then he refuses to apologize.
Boston fans are praying Overpriced opts out after this season. He won’t unless he hates Boston as much as Boston hates him. He won’t get anything close to 30M per for four years anywhere else. Overpriced, don't let the door hit you in the arse.