Internet Games

Re “Hooked on Games Online,” May 12: Among the 215,000 “EverQuest” subscribers, the average time spent playing an interactive video game is 19.9 hours per week. This merits an alarmist front-page story, complete with an unscientific Internet addiction test.

Yet the article casually notes that among the 270 million people in the U.S., the average time spent passively sitting in front of a television screen is 33.6 hours a week. It seems that in entertainment, as with other narcotics, some addictions are more socially acceptable than others.

MICHAEL ROONEY

Pasadena

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If only you had written this article a year ago, my marriage might still be intact. I am newly divorced mother of two, and “EverQuest” played a major role in helping destroy my marriage, enabling my ex-husband to retreat from living altogether. If I could have shown this article to him, maybe then he would have listened to me.

KATHERINE HOOD

Torrance