Addiction To Fortnite Cited In Over 200 Divorce Petitions (dailydot.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In just the last 35 weeks, one online divorce site received over 200 petitions citing addiction to Fortnite and other online games as one of the reasons someone wanted a divorce. "[T]he dawn of the digital revolution has introduced new addictions," said a spokesperson for the company, also citing online pornography and social media. "These numbers equate to roughly 5% of the 4,665 petitions we have handled since the beginning of the year and as one of the largest filers of divorce petitions in the UK, is a pretty good indicator."

On the other hand, the A.V. Club notes that the web site's creators "have a vested interest in making divorce seem sexy and cool in a way that only 'You walked in front of the screen and a 10-year-old in Wyoming shot me dead so now I'm taking the house' truly can."

Comments

No correlation.

[Rip!ey]

Unless there has been a comparable increase in the rate of change of the number of divorce applications, then this is a non-story.

People who want a divorce, that are required to give reason to get one, will find one. If it wasn't Fortnite, it would be something else. If it wasn't computer games, it would be something else.

The roof of these addictions

[lucasnate1]

Fortnite is not special, neither is alcohol nor weed nor pills nor social networks. The only thing that IS special, is that our reality is intolerable for more and more people, and they find forms of escape. Can you blame them? For many people, life is just going to work, not having anyone they are close to, and if they are a man, knowing that they are never allowed to cry or express frustration (I guess there is some parallel for women, but I'm not a woman so I do not feel like I should say how they feel). Frankly, I suspect that a lot of modern technology and economy are just dedicated to create ways for people to escape the empty lives that they have.