Why I Quit Video Games and Why You Should Too
I used to play video games for 1–2 hours a day.
Two months later:
- Writing 3 Medium articles a week
- Networking with 5 new people a week
- Spending more time with the important people in my life
These are the simple lessons I wish someone taught me:
Video Games As a Form of Escapism
With work, it’s easy to get stressed and worried. And at the end of a long work day, it is challenging to sit down and work through our troubles.
Enter video games.
An enjoyable escape from reality that allows players to “relax”.
Quick hits of dopamine from video games allow people to feel good with little effort.
Now in moderation, there’s nothing wrong with that…
But it’s easy for the time spent playing to go from 1 hour a day to 2 hours to 3 in no time at all.
Ever since I stopped playing games I have found myself to be:
- More focused
- Less irritable
- More present
You might surprise yourself with how your life improves without video games.
“Expensive” Dopamine
Our brains optimize for dopamine — which by itself is not a bad thing.
But when you throw video games into the mix the easy dopamine makes games more exciting than our work.
Alex Becker summarizes this well in a short Twitter thread:
Our minds do a wonderful job of continuing to try to solve problems after the fact. Many professionals seek to take advantage of this fact. Ex. successful writers choose to give themselves a few days between writing and editing.
Technology has come a long way in a short period of time and our brains have not yet caught up.
When we experience a challenge in a game our brains still think “Oh no — a snake!” even though the snake is now a difficult boss or a challenging mission.
As a result, we will continue to think about those problems even though they pose no physical danger.
And that’s why video games provide “expensive” dopamine. Because playing games comes at the cost of our limited time and energy.
The Health Benefits
As with any habit, the first few days after you stop can be tough.
Luckily there are a lot of unexpected benefits when you stop gaming.
In the 2 weeks after I stopped to play video games I:
- Got less distracted: I was able to use small blocks of time effectively instead of playing games (ex. 15 minutes between meetings).
- Took more time to improve my health: continued therapy and improved my focus in the gym.
- Slept better: stopped bedtime procrastination.
- Got better at embracing challenges head-on.
Try to pause your gaming for 2 weeks to make a pros and cons list of your experience during that break. Then you can make an objective decision about whether you should continue to play.
There is Still Hope
Don’t fret — you can still play in moderation.
Try allowing yourself to play a new game once a year for a month and then not play at all for the rest of the year. 1 month of distraction and 11 months of focus.
Key Message: You will surprise yourself with what you are capable of when you stop playing video games. Give it a try!
If you enjoyed this article you can follow me on Medium for more content like this every week.
