The Bitter Truth Of Video Game Escapism

How Video Games “Can” Destroy Your life

Have you ever played video games to cheer yourself up, because lately, your life has been going downhill?

Have you ever escaped into a supernatural world of a game that does not exist because you were too tired of the problems you had in the real world?

Have you ever isolated yourself in a room and kept staring at a screen for 5 hours straight because your life has been a bit harsh?

These are some questions that you might wanna ask yourself if you have been failing at life recently and are always feeling down and the only moment of happiness you ever get in your life is when you escape into an unreal world of a video game.

Anything if done or used excessively for the wrong purpose can be harmful. Video games are no different. In the novel, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, he describes a world filled with problems such as global warming, overpopulation, and financial crises which ultimately causes society to crumble into depression, though the people instead of facing these problems and trying to find a solution for it just create a virtual reality called Oasis. Many people use oasis as an escape from there awful reality.

Some people go to extreme lengths to be inside oasis. They isolate and lock themselves in their room for many days without seeing daylight and eating food. For some people oasis even ends up becoming their reality.

This is similar to The Simulation Hypothesis which basically states that we are living in a simulation because our original reality was really messed up, and having the technology to run a hyper-realistic simulation, we gravitated towards that, instead of finding a solution for our problems.

Addiction and Escapism

Avoidance

There are more than 2.5 billion gamers in the world which means if the world population comprised of 3 people, one of them would be a gamer. Now, not every gamer is addicted to gaming, many of them play games to have a little bit of fun with their friends and family but still, a lot of them play games to forget about their life problems.

In a recent study conducted in Beijing Normal University, 63 students who fit the addiction criteria of gaming were selected for MRI scans. They found out that gamers who were addicted to gaming were more likely to stay online which worsened their depressive symptoms.

We need to find creative ways to deal with the children who are retreating online , particularly when they are doing it to the exclusion of all else . (Dr Louise Theodosiou , A leading adolescent psychiatrist)

Lack of Self-Love and Confidence

Right now many people play video games because they get to be someone else, someone who is in a much better position than they currently are, now for some people instead of trying to improve themselves or loving themselves just the way they are, they start to hate themselves. This also causes that person to become addicted to that game because they get to be someone much cooler than themselves. They start to play that game as a means of escape from their life which they believe is miserable.

For example, let’s say Joe is a huge fan of the Street Fighter franchise and his favorite character is Ryu. Now instead of working out and training to look like Ryu, Joe stays in his house and plays street fighter for hours. This deteriorates Joe’s mental and physical health, but Joe doesn’t care because he gets to be the most badass guy in the world. Every day his life becomes more and more miserable and he does nothing to make it better. He plays video games to escape himself.

The Right Use Of Gaming

On the other hand, people who are happy with their lives never get addicted to gaming. They play games, not as a means of escape but to have just some extra fun in their lives and explore other people’s imagination and do things that are physically impossible to do in the real world.

According to a Spanish study done in 2016, children who played video games in moderation had better cognitive abilities than those who didn’t play video games at all. This means that playing games in moderation can actually be good for you. Personally, I think gaming has also sparked the creativity inside me.

This brings me to my last point about gaming, that is, if you want to play games it is completely fine to do so. Gaming like all the other things if done for the right purpose can prove to be good for you, but if you play games as a means of escape from the problems you have in your life instead of facing those problems, you’re not gonna end up well in the near future.