Dear Dish-It: My Friend Ignores Me for the Computer

Dec 12, 2011

Dear Dish-It,

Whenever I go to my friend’s house she just ignores me for the computer. She has a trampoline … I want to use it! I don’t want to watch her play Sims 3 all day. What should I do?

tired of being bored

Computer Obsession

Dear tobb,

Everyone seems to be so into playing computer and video games these days … sometimes it seems like these things take over every part of our lives, kind of like an addiction! I’m happy to hear that you have other interests … as far as your friend goes, there are a few things you can try to do to get her attention away from the screen and back onto you!

Talk to Her

If you haven’t tried talking to your friend about what’s bothering you yet, now is the time. Pick a moment when she isn’t fixated on a game. Ask her to please hear you out, then tell her how you feel that you are being ignored in as nice a way as possible. Let her know that you totally understand how much fun playing games on the computer can be, but say that you would like to set aside certain times to do other things together. Then, let her have a chance to say how she feels and see if you can work out a plan together.

Invite Her Over

This problem may be solved by inviting your friend over to your house instead of going to her place. Since you’ll be on your own “turf,” you can set some rules about how much time you spend on the computer and how much time you spend doing other things. Just make sure to compromise by agreeing to spend one hour playing video games and one hour doing something else – try not to be bossy about it. No one likes being friends with someone who always wants things their way!

Make a Plan

The same kind of plan could work at your friend’s house, too. Once you’ve talked to her and let her know how you feel, try to come to an agreement about how much time you’ll spend playing computer games when you are at her house and how much time you’ll spend doing something that you want to do – like jumping on the trampoline. I bet that once you get your friend away from her computer and doing something else, she’ll agree that there are plenty of other ways to spend time with friends than playing Sims 3!