I don't know how not a single comment here has mentioned ADHD, but it's possible your kid could be suffering from some form of executive dysfunction that could be linked to ADHD. Internet gaming (and the internet in general) intentionally exploits these types of vulnerabilities, which makes it even worse. Here are some resources on ADHD:
I am autistic and have ADHD myself so I know a bit about it. If you suspect something it may be worth bringing it up with your kid to see if they care. If they're anything like me they'll care, but if they don't care the situation gets a lot more complicated.
In other words: there's a difference between genuinely wanting to get good grades and not being able to, and blowing it off because you only want to do the bare minimum. I fell into the former bracket. Solutions vary between them.
"Not being able to" doesn't mean not being capable of doing it. It usually means being fully capable of doing it but being unable to actually get your brain to do it because it wants to do something else more. This is a thing and it's called ADHD. It's usually easy to tell when someone has it because they can be incredibly gifted and then barely manage to use that gift (resulting in everyone calling them lazy).
> I'll try to read the first problem and my eyes will just sort of gloss over it and won't take it in.
This (and your comment) is exactly spot on. I had this big time and nobody understood me (and I didn't know that it was a disorder, so I just felt like I was useless). When something doesn't interest me, I'm perfectly capable of physically doing the task, but my brain absolutely refuses to focus on the task for more than one second. It led to me just wasting days on end on trying to study, but getting nowhere, while everyone else just saw me play games, or do random tasks, or anything other than studying, and kept trying to "help" with useless "just sit down and do it" advice.
If this is what your kid has, go to a specialist and try to find something that will focus him. For me, that was working in groups. I always had a really tough time at work because I wasn't productive at all when things weren't interesting, but working with someone in a meeting (usually staying silent, just knowing that the other person was there and also doing work) somehow focused me enough on the task at hand and made me productive.
ADHD is a very real thing, and people who are otherwise perfectly capable of performing a task are just entirely unable to. It has really bad results if you don't get help, and even worse if you don't understand that that's what it is.
unfortunately it looks like my comment happens to be one of the few that OP hasn't replied to, so my only hope is that they saw it and might consider it.
https://invisibleup.com/articles/27/
https://gekk.info/articles/adhd.html
https://twitter.com/ErynnBrook/status/1011311249513070594
I am autistic and have ADHD myself so I know a bit about it. If you suspect something it may be worth bringing it up with your kid to see if they care. If they're anything like me they'll care, but if they don't care the situation gets a lot more complicated.
In other words: there's a difference between genuinely wanting to get good grades and not being able to, and blowing it off because you only want to do the bare minimum. I fell into the former bracket. Solutions vary between them.
"Not being able to" doesn't mean not being capable of doing it. It usually means being fully capable of doing it but being unable to actually get your brain to do it because it wants to do something else more. This is a thing and it's called ADHD. It's usually easy to tell when someone has it because they can be incredibly gifted and then barely manage to use that gift (resulting in everyone calling them lazy).