Is Fortnite bad for your mental health?

With the release of Fortnite Chapter 2: Season 1, the recurring question again appears.

Is Fortnite bad for your children’s mental health? Many opinions can be found surrounding this topic for and against this question. Dr Gadhia Smith frames video games as being addictive and was quoted on Psychcentral.com as saying “Every time someone gets a notification on their phone, or attends to their electronic game, there is another release of dopamine, thereby increasing very addictive behaviours and natural endo-chemicals produced by our own biochemistry.” She goes on to describe this as an “inner drugstore” and can be just as addictive as traditional drugs “It is similar to cocaine addiction, or a gambler’s addiction to a slot machine. The dopamine drip is a powerful force, and our brains are wired to seek this pleasure hormone.”

But does that necessarily mean it’s a bad thing? If one person describes it as being as addictive as actual narcotics does it make it true? Kurt Dean Squire, Professor of Informatics at the University of California, and Matthew Gaydos, a design researcher at the Teaching Systems Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology would seem to disagree. They have said in an article titled “No, Fortnite Isn't Rotting Kids' Brains. It May Even Be Good for Them” video games are “places where kids learn to negotiate conflict, become independent, and explore what kind of person they want to be. They are important experiences that we too often design out of our kids’ lives through structured activities and all of the shuffling back and forth we do in today’s busy world.”

So what does this mean for Fortnite?

What can we take away from all of this? Should you take away Fortnite from your children and never let them play a video game again? Or should you encourage them to play even more and hope they learn some social skills, develop the cognitive ability and problem-solving? MindYourCeann.ie thinks a middle ground can be found somewhere in between both of these schools of thought. Video games are part of the modern world and will never disappear. Allowing children to participate in a community of gaming can have many positive effects on them none of which can be experienced if they’re never allowed to play. That being said, monitoring your child’s playtime and behaviours surrounding gaming is very important. So we have a few tips to ensure it doesn’t go overboard.

- Don’t allow them to play excessively. A few hours is probably no more harmful than watching television.

- Make sure they maintain a good diet,

- Ensure they experience real-world activities and social interaction as well as keeping up to pace in education.

- Take care to see that they keep physically fit. The body is as important as the mind when it comes to mental health.

- Monitor their behaviour. If they become angry or aggressive because of a particular game then reassess their access to it.

Most of all, we would recommend taking some time to learn about it. After all, this is something your children are interested in, maybe you will be too?

If you can tick all of those boxes then why not allow them to play for an hour or two in the evening? Too much of anything is a bad thing, but social exclusion from not playing may make them feel isolated from their peers.

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Fortnite's professional players

In a related note, take a look at the first Fortnite World Cup Champion in their most recent video, 16-year-old Kyle “BUGHA” Giersdorf. The top 100 out of millions of players competed in online qualifiers in order to win the opportunity to compete live in the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City for a piece of a prize pool of $30 million. The competition took place live in front of thousands and streamed online to millions. After winning, Bugha saw himself catapulted into fame making appearances on huge talk shows such as Jimmy Fallon and many others. His own and his families lives forever changed and his bank balance increased by a cool $3 million. Being a professional competitive gamer is now as realistic an aspiration as it is for young people to wish to become a sports star or musician. Every day the routes and infrastructure surrounding it increasing.

So who’s to say your children can’t be the next Bugha? At the very least they’re participating in a safe activity and making friends. If it becomes a problem, take it away from them.

Watch the video below.

Tell us what you think below in the comments!