Video Games Addiction -> How Nasty Are They?
"On your deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent more time playing Angry Birds?"
Napoleon on Deathbed by Jean Baptiste Mauzaisse
This is a question I received during the Q&A sessions of one of my presentations in high school. I'm going to be honest with you and say that took me by surprise, as it seemed to me people embraced my topic and my presentation stood out. Moreover, my former classmates are not gamers and the fact they really paid attention to me made me consider that I "nailed it". But there comes this sassy question, full of irony, whose answer should not sound like an excuse for playing games by any means. I realised then that people tend to believe that playing video games results in a kind of awful addiction that lead you nowhere, except for maybe regretting wasting precious time of your life in a virtual environment that doesn't help you achieve anything in real life. For all of these people, I will try to develop my answer to that sassy question and prove they are wrong.
First of all, the development of an addiction is strictly related to our personality, the way in which we classify priorities and use our ambition. I would relate that to our education, as we need to grow up with a system of values well implemented in our habit. Video games are indeed a good source of entertainment but when are they prevented from becoming an addiction? The answer is "when we are balanced". I don't necessarily refer to stunning time management skills, but to the amount of fulfilment in our lives, so that we are not tempted to replace ourselves with the avatar in video games because the things work better for him and seem to be easier to achieve.
I have never been addicted to anything, including video games, but I have to admit that it happened to spend too much time playing them. That wasn't because I particularly enjoyed them, but because I couldn't get through a particular level. The difficulty of the level then triggered my ambition and I wasn't at ease until I managed to complete that level or that part of it that kept me busy for such a long time. Eventually, my curiosity followed up and I continued playing a little bit more because I deserved to know what comes after the level that gave me hell for a while. However, the most important thing in this is to know when to stop, when to put your avatar on stand by and continue your life, with your own duties and gaining your own achievements based on your own real experience.
Going back to the main question of this topic, I actually googled for top five regrets of the dying and I found this article on The Guardian, dating from 2012, in which the hospice workers were asked about the most common regrets they heard from the patients. So here's the top:
1. "I wish I hadn't worked so hard."
2. "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."
3. "I wish I had let myself be happier."
4. "I wish I had the courage to express my true self."
5. "I wish I had lived a life true to my dreams, instead of what others expected of me."
As far as I know, no one told the hospice workers "I wish I had spent more time playing video games". Anyway, reading all of those things made me think of five deep human cravings that video games help us fulfil very easily, in a fun way.
1. Avoiding the negation, this sentence could be written as "I wish I spent more time with my family, with my kids when they were growing up."
Playing video games has tremendous family benefits. As a kid, I remember my dad was very busy and I got to spend little time with him, but when the moment came, we were both playing Mario and Bonkheads together and it felt like he had always been there, with me. A recent study proved that parents who are playing video games with their kids have stronger real life relationships with them and the kids are more likely to talk to them when a difficult situation occurs.
2. Social games like Scrabble, Charades, Draw Something, Farm Ville and many more help you develop stronger relationship with your friends and avoid a daily routine. Michigan University was conducting a research that proves these games are incredibly powerful relationship management tools, as they help us stay connected with people in our social network that with otherwise grow distant from, if we weren't playing games together.
3. There are times when we push ourselves way too hard for our own good and as a result, we fall into an awful depression that may prevent us from even talking to our beloved ones. A study by East Carolina University found out that online games can outperform drugs for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Playing a game for 30 minutes a day is enough to create a dramatic boost in mood, which increases happiness.
4. The avatar we create in a game is our way to express our true selves. The most heroic, idealised versions of who we might become and everybody can see that. Sometimes we can see the cravings and aspirations of the others or their personality by simply having a look at what they play as and how they create their character to look like.
Stanford University has been doing research for five year now to document how playing a game with an idealised avatar changes how we think and act in real life, making as more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
5. It is true that we are part of society and unavoidably, we are somehow defined by the people we work with or spend the majority of our time with. Sometimes we want to break free from the quotidian, we want to be someone else or do things that are not possible in the real world. Video games are amazing parallel worlds that et you have a break in this whole rat race we are all trapped in. But, if you ask me, the best part of them is that sometimes they are so marvellous that they convince you to want to become a game artist. Cheers for those games!
I have never been addicted to anything, including video games, but I have to admit that it happened to spend too much time playing them. That wasn't because I particularly enjoyed them, but because I couldn't get through a particular level. The difficulty of the level then triggered my ambition and I wasn't at ease until I managed to complete that level or that part of it that kept me busy for such a long time. Eventually, my curiosity followed up and I continued playing a little bit more because I deserved to know what comes after the level that gave me hell for a while. However, the most important thing in this is to know when to stop, when to put your avatar on stand by and continue your life, with your own duties and gaining your own achievements based on your own real experience.
Going back to the main question of this topic, I actually googled for top five regrets of the dying and I found this article on The Guardian, dating from 2012, in which the hospice workers were asked about the most common regrets they heard from the patients. So here's the top:
1. "I wish I hadn't worked so hard."
2. "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."
3. "I wish I had let myself be happier."
4. "I wish I had the courage to express my true self."
5. "I wish I had lived a life true to my dreams, instead of what others expected of me."
As far as I know, no one told the hospice workers "I wish I had spent more time playing video games". Anyway, reading all of those things made me think of five deep human cravings that video games help us fulfil very easily, in a fun way.
1. Avoiding the negation, this sentence could be written as "I wish I spent more time with my family, with my kids when they were growing up."
Playing video games has tremendous family benefits. As a kid, I remember my dad was very busy and I got to spend little time with him, but when the moment came, we were both playing Mario and Bonkheads together and it felt like he had always been there, with me. A recent study proved that parents who are playing video games with their kids have stronger real life relationships with them and the kids are more likely to talk to them when a difficult situation occurs.
2. Social games like Scrabble, Charades, Draw Something, Farm Ville and many more help you develop stronger relationship with your friends and avoid a daily routine. Michigan University was conducting a research that proves these games are incredibly powerful relationship management tools, as they help us stay connected with people in our social network that with otherwise grow distant from, if we weren't playing games together.
3. There are times when we push ourselves way too hard for our own good and as a result, we fall into an awful depression that may prevent us from even talking to our beloved ones. A study by East Carolina University found out that online games can outperform drugs for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Playing a game for 30 minutes a day is enough to create a dramatic boost in mood, which increases happiness.
4. The avatar we create in a game is our way to express our true selves. The most heroic, idealised versions of who we might become and everybody can see that. Sometimes we can see the cravings and aspirations of the others or their personality by simply having a look at what they play as and how they create their character to look like.
Stanford University has been doing research for five year now to document how playing a game with an idealised avatar changes how we think and act in real life, making as more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
5. It is true that we are part of society and unavoidably, we are somehow defined by the people we work with or spend the majority of our time with. Sometimes we want to break free from the quotidian, we want to be someone else or do things that are not possible in the real world. Video games are amazing parallel worlds that et you have a break in this whole rat race we are all trapped in. But, if you ask me, the best part of them is that sometimes they are so marvellous that they convince you to want to become a game artist. Cheers for those games!
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