The Addiction to Online Games and Social Media with Solutions

By Writer Arav Maheshwari

“I once went outside. The graphics were much better. Perhaps I never knew that when I was inside my room.”

The above quote will be your reaction when you shall be addicted to games and your comfort, and suddenly, you will have to go outside.
Let us discuss the addiction to online games and social media. This article also includes solutions. Let us start with a question: What do we do when we get bored, given our phone and nothing to do? Would we read an e-book, the relationship between Israel and Palestine, a good article on Medium, or watch an educational video?

A Person Possibly Addicted to Instagram

No, we would not. We would tempt to do something entertaining rather than something productive or challenging. We will unlock our phones and open Call of Duty, Minecraft, or Instagram. In layman’s words, we will open a game or social media app for info- or entertainment.

You might be surprised that gaming and social media can also act as a friend rather than an enemy — like a frenemy! Rather than immediately mock social media and its boos, first, let us know the few advantages of controlled gaming and social media.

1. Entertainment: We get entertained for a while. Everyone loves sitting on couches or beds and watching funny YouTube Shorts. They help us pass our time.
2. Eye-hand Coordination: Shooting games like Call of Duty improve our eye-hand coordination. When our eyes see a threat in the game, our fingers start controlling your game using various buttons and commands, in sync at the perfect timing — or what experts call — using eye-hand coordination.
3. Creativity Enhancement: Sandbox games, like Minecraft, help us discover our inner creativity. Minecraft has over eight hundred blocks to choose from for your builds. Now, that is a lot!
4. Cognitive Development: It refers to how we think, explore, and understand things. It is about developing our knowledge, various skills, and our problem-solving. It assists in this rapidly-developing world. And certain games enhance our cognition.
5. Skill Development: Social media usage can be positive as well. I learned many things on YouTube and Wikipedia concerning physics, relativity, English grammar, languages and dialects, countries, and fun facts.
6. Stress Management: Playing online games and using social media is a great way to distract us from our problems.
7. Current Affairs: If this is not enough, social media keeps us updated about the nation and the world on social problems like rape and theft, laws and bills, politics, celebrities, and discoveries and inventions benefitting humanity.

Problems start arising when we do things in excess. And yeah, this also applies to positive things like studying. It may cause depression and tiredness.

“Anything in excess is not wise and can cause demise.”

Excessive device use gradually results in significant changes in our lives and has the power to influence many areas of our lives negatively.

Teenagers and even 6-year-old kids nowadays are addicted to mobile devices. These youngsters are indeed fast learners, and the environment surrounding them can ruin their personalities. There will be a lot of harmful effects on them.

1. Immorality: They might develop an unlawful or violent character.
2. Harm to Health: They might forget about their physical health while damaging their emotional health.
3. Depression: They can get furious when defeated in an online game. They may develop thoughts to take revenge for a thing meant for just entertainment, not for rooting in a violent character. They can end up in depression and even lead to suicide in the worst case — which enables me to put on my next point.
4. Suicide: It can also happen because of playing games that are not meant and suitable for their age. For example, the Mumbai Mirror in July 2020 reported that a 13-year-old committed suicide after losing in an online game. The public discovered that he was depressed after losing the shooting game. Ostensibly, for this reason alone, he took away his life! Shooting games either are or must be 16+ as individuals younger than this age may not be able to or are not supposed to control the elements and results of these games.
5. Cyberbullying: In today’s world, threats and cyberbullying have happened to every teenager at least twice. Comparitech, a company aimed to “improve their [our] cyber security and privacy online,” surveyed over 1000 parents of children over five years. They found that one-fifth of the bullying happening in the region was through cyberbullying, and 19.2%, 11%, 7.9%, 6.8%, and 3.8% through social media, text, video games, non-social media websites, and email, respectively. It is shocking!
6. Prolonged cyberbullying and adult content like pornography and sexual content can be another cause of teen depression and suicide. The bullies often point out the teen’s problems and weaknesses. They make them feel unconfident. And nudity may provoke a sense of discomfort, regret, and shame in their heart.
7. Diversion from Roles: If not going to that extent, children also get diverted from their responsibilities and daily chores like homework and assignments. Adults might forget their work and other priorities.

The Survey by Comparitech (Mentioned Earlier)

Fortunately, this article also contains solutions:

1. Goal-Setting: Set a time-bound long goal in a series of smaller ones.
2. Learning New Things: Find your interest and talent. Learn new things. It can be anything like photography, videography, editing, writing, blogging, acting, singing, dancing, cooking, drawing, coloring, painting, spreading knowledge and positivity, learning a new language, coding, building websites, et cetera. There is a lot to explore in this world! You must ensure that they are unrelated to gaming or any other distractors. Otherwise, then, you might want to go and play again.
3. Innovation: You can use your skills to start a new business or to work on a new idea or art form. It will also keep you away from your addiction.
4. Screen Time: You must try as hard not to play games and use social media apps excessively. Setting up screen time on your device is an excellent option.
5. Locking up the Distractor: You can ask a member of your family to help you concentrate on your work by seizing your distraction, id est your phone, until you don’t complete your tasks.

I am not sharing all of this by theory. I, myself, once got addicted to social media. I tried these ways out! They worked. And that is why I am sharing them with you! Go ahead, try them. Eso es. ¡Adiós! (Spanish for “That is it. Bye!”)