End Game: Should You Stop Yourself from Gaming?

Gaming is a common hobby, especially in the US. The number of gamers has increased by two-fold because of the pandemic, and because of its easy-to-pick-up nature, experts believe that many more will become gamers by the end of the year. However, gaming is known to have a bad reputation among traditional thinkers, relating it to many societal problems we have today. Although gaming can have detrimental effects on people's lives, it only happens when gaming itself is abused.

More than 227 million Americans are gamers. Most of these gamers are either teenagers or adults. They spend an average of six hours every week playing video games. It's a near essential hobby for many people and a way to distress after a long day's work.

Stopping Gaming
However, gaming has been scrutinized for being addictive and detrimental to physical and mental health. But these claims are outright biased. Those addicted to video games are only a tiny percentage of the given population. There are many more who live healthy lives while gaming.

Experts believe that stopping yourself from gaming isn't the answer but instead balancing your game times. Gaming for a couple of hours a day can be relaxing. Moreover, they offer a sense of achievement. Because of this, stopping gaming abruptly because someone told you to do so can be detrimental to your health.

Restlessness
Some people can't seem to stay in place if they haven't played for quite some time. Restlessness can affect people's performance and their general disposition. This is why one of the ideal setups is to have a gaming laptop with you wherever you go. You can use them for both business and leisure, so if you're feeling restless during a business trip, you can always play with your laptop.

Education
Games are also known to educate children and all sorts of people. It represents various ideas and historical moments in our civilization. Moreover, experts believe that video games can teach children what's morally good and what's morally bad. Parents can take advantage of this and expedite their children's learning.

Abruptly stopping a child from playing can be detrimental to their motivation. They are likely to develop tantrums and hate their parents. The key to this is limiting playtime instead and making their playtime more meaningful than before.

Life Skills
Some video games can even teach life skills and also help people exercise. The existence of virtual reality in video games can burn off fats from most people. Moreover, some cooperative games teach people the importance of communication and coordination.

These life skills can certainly be learned in school or at work, but the learnings are more emphasized and applied in video games. It's a platform where people can learn something about themselves. A person's talent can even be discovered through video gaming.

Socialization
Lastly, it's a way for people to socialize amidst the pandemic. Video games have taken the form of socializing activities among many Americans. This nurtures people's need to connect with one another. In other words, video games have the capability of connecting people worldwide. It's a place where people can earn friends and sustain those relationships.

So there are many reasons why you shouldn't stop gaming. The advantages are worthwhile as long as you keep your gaming life balanced. But what about those who are suffering from video game addiction?

Video Game Addiction
The Diagnostic Statistical Manual isn't sure yet whether if video game addiction is a mental disorder or not. But there are certainly some people who are experiencing mental health problems because of gaming. However, experts believe that this is just a form of coping and that there is an underlying problem within video game addiction, such as parietal and societal problems.

In this case, it's important for people to learn other coping mechanisms, not necessarily to replace video gaming, but to supplement it. For example, it should deduct the amount of playtime a person has in favor of socialization and exercise.

There are also social support groups willing to help these people to get out of this slump.

Video gaming isn't an inherent problem for most people, and those people who are addicted to it usually have underlying issues of their own. There are various ways to help these people out without resorting to removing the only thing they are doing to cope with the world. Psychological help is one of these things.

Stopping gaming might only make their position a lot worse. Learn to understand their situation before telling them to stop.