You know what yanks my Cord…

…People who are addicted to video games. Let me pose you a situation. You haven’t seen your friends in a while; they’ve invited you over for a house party. You dress up a little, grab a case of beer or a couple of bags of chips and head over. You ring the doorbell and it takes ten minutes for someone to answer the door. In their hand, they have a controller and a contraption around their head and they’re shouting, “Get in, get in, you’re getting me killed!”

Of course, there is no serious situation in which the house is being bombed by a random terrorist attack. Instead, they’re playing Call of Duty: Black Ops and you’ve just done a heinous crime by interrupting their mission.

You walk in, sit on a stool nearby and drink that lonely bottle of beer you’ve brought, wondering what other normal people do on a Friday night. But this is what happens when your friends are all video game addicts.

It’s fine when you’re playing a video game that’s fun and interactive, like Guitar Hero or Kinect, prompting you to move around and involve other individuals. Even sports video games or fighting games where you play it for about 30 minutes before you move on with your day. But when you’re playing these games for hours on end, seven days a week and when your conversation is based upon different types of tips and tricks to get to the “next level” with your social network dwindling until it’s only you and your TV screen, you have to know something is wrong.

My little nephews and nieces no longer come over to play hide-and-go-seek or start up a rambunctious game of tag. Instead, they are instantly at my TV, starting up the PS3 and shouting at me for not having the latest edition of Halo.

It’s a new world; a world that is virtual and imaginary.

It makes me a little sad to say that in order for me to stay relevant in this day and age, I have to be able to press the x button and move the joystick at the same time. Which, believe me, is no easy feat.

—Shagun Randhawa