Four months ago incredible joy was brought to me by Taco Bells’ insanely delicious spicy beef quesaritos and a freshly served Baja Blasts. I was obsessed. Taco Bell had brought heaven to earth and I was a saint. Similar to my obsession with Taco Bell I can’t help but notice the ever-growing obsession with video games.

This post was inspired by people I meet daily, who love video games.

The video game industry is a billion dollar market. People are obsessed with this virtual experience. For example, within the first month of Call of Duty Black Ops, there were 600 million hours spent playing the game worldwide. That equates to 68 thousand years. Has the video game craze gone too far?

According to Nielsen, the average U.S. gamer spent 6.3 hours a week playing video games during 2013. That’s up from 5.1 hours in 2011. The majority of these gamers are not the neighbor kids next door, the average age of a video game player 35 years old. These are adults who, instead of playing with their kids or spend time cultivating their skills to create value, are spending hours on entertainment. Is this a bad thing?

In general, I think that playing video games is an extremely poor use of your time. There is nothing inherently bad about video games but when used excessively, like most things, they can be damaging.

Instead, I purpose that moderation is practiced. Of course, determining when your video game usage becomes excessive is the hard part. If video games become a barrier between you and family, friends, your goals, or relationships it’s time to discipline the habit.

Don’t become obsessed, but practice moderation in all things.