Internet gaming – Hobby or habit?

Have you ever wondered how strong is the urge in you to “play a little” on the mobile phone while travelling on the tube or waiting for your turn at the doctor’s? Are there times, when your fingers may be itching to switch to a gaming site in the middle of revising physics for the exam next day?

Well then, my friend, you may be on the verge of getting bitten by the “Gaming bug” and its time you reign in your urge before it takes over your senses and precious years of your life!

Thanks to easy access to internet, through tabloids and mobiles, the number of video games and the number of persons playing them, are increasing exponentially across the world. There are multiple gaming companies that are earning billions by creating and selling highly attractive games to young adolescents. It is high time we all take note of this new development around us and recognize the dangers it may bring in.

Does Gaming make us quick thinkers?

There is a school of thought, in support of the gaming companies, that believes that gaming requires sharp cognitive skills and dexterity, and hence is good for hand-eye-brain coordination. While there is no denying that high level of alertness might be good for the brains, but I strongly believe that excessively longer durations of this alertness can do more harm than good to human minds. Long amounts of exposure to digital screens can cause irrevocable damage to the eyes. These days videogames have high pitched musical sounds to match their vigour, which can cause great damage to delicate eardrums, as gamers prefer to use headphones for privacy.

Are gamers poor at social interaction?

Many of us would have been silent observers to seeing the phenomenon of gamers withdrawing from active participation in social life. Gamers tend to shy away from verbal in-person interactions and are unable to communicate to people around them. This lack of interest in connecting to friends and making new acquaintances can have a very negative impact on their personality.

Merely a game or serious addiction?

Gaming may develop into an addiction as strong and dangerous as Gambling. There in a great rush of adrenalin or thrill that one feels on winning a game or crossing a certain level of a game. A young person starts desiring this feeling of thrill every day and then every moment. That’s the reason she or he wants to run away from the real world and step into the world of gaming where she/he is a hero. This parallel world that they have created for themselves, becomes a zone of comfort where they can spend hours and hours without any disturbance. And this is exactly where they start craving to be, all the time. Hence at the slightest opportunity, they would want to switch on their electronic device and immerse themselves!

So what should we do?

As friends, if we notice someone close to us who has started shying away and likes to play more than an hour or two of videogames in her or his room, it is time we take sit up and help. We should make efforts to encourage our friend to engage in other activities that might be of interest to her/him. As family, we may wish to have a conversation and initiate the process of curtailed timings by fixing specific slots in a week for digital exposure.

And what if we ourselves are the potential addicts? There is no harm in reaching out for help, the sooner the better. We must look for outdoor activities or other hobbies that we may have liked before the internet gaming bug caught us. We may want to keep a strict check on our gaming hours by putting alarms at the end of the allotted slot. We must ensure sleeping at the right time in order to avoid late night gaming patterns. We also must try and stay away from opening new websites offering free trial games.

I hope that there is increasing awareness about this issue and youngsters are encouraged to talk more openly about what they might be facing. We do not know when the simple act of gaming, can take away the precious time and health and relationships that we nurture so carefully in our lifetimes. We also need to endeavor to help persons in need who require to be taken away from the screen in their early youth so that they do not waste the prime of their lives in addictive habits and destroy their potential for success in life later.