Gaming Disorder Ruins Teenagers’ Life?
The issue of gaming disorder is nothing new in the town, but the soaring figure of gaming addicts is reaching an alarming rate. Nowadays, teenagers love to play the games, but some of them cannot control themselves and get hooked on them. Even their parents cannot stop their kids from getting offline from the screens. Worse still, this leads to the more serious phenomenon, which is more and more teen players are suffering from gaming disorder unconsciously. There are already in records numerous cases of young online-game players’ collapsing or having sudden deaths, after playing games for more than 20 hours consecutively.
The first reason why teenagers have gaming disorder could be because of their stressful school life. They might have problems in studies. Hence, they cannot gain satisfaction from academic work. Some might not have good or harmonic relationship with their peers or families. So, they seek comfort and sense of achievements from the virtual world, for it provides them with escapes from the stresses and strains of either work or studies. According to a recent survey, it is found that those who suffer from inferiority complex are more likely to be addicted to the Internet.
Some health experts suggest that a person who plays games for more than 6 hours a day may be addicted to the game. As a result, we must come up with some effective measures to alleviate or solve the problem of gaming disorder. Personally, I suggest that teenagers should open their mind and talk to friends and families. Effective communication is always part of the solution to all problems. When we find our siblings or friends are addicted to online games, we ought to give them a helping hand. We should remind them how they should manage their time and help them to stay away from mobile phones, computers or any other electronic devices which can get access to the games. For instance, we can organize outdoor activities such as cycling, hiking or ball games. It is beneficial for the addicts to find new hobbies rather than playing online games.
Other than parents’ encouraging the addicts to develop new hobbies, the government should take up the responsibility to ease the problem. It was high time the government should put in place the use of real-names for game registration. It can limit the playing time of the gaming teenagers. In China, the government has already implemented this policy with the support of the largest game-producing company Tencent. It restricts teenagers from playing the games continually and for too long.
The root cause of gaming disorder is perhaps the low self-confidence of some schoolers. Schools should provide more non-academic activities to encourage students to develop their hobbies or to excel in their talents. It is most desirable that teenagers should attain a sense of achievement and gain personal satisfaction. When this is the case, they will not be hooked to playing online games, so as to acquire a sense of accomplishment.
Last but not least, parents should not put excessive expectations on their kids concerning their academic performances. Unreasonable hopes might create heavy burden and tremendous pressure on them. If parents are more supportive towards their children and help them solve the problems they have in their studies, they will not need to escape into the virtual world in order to find a comfort zone.
To conclude, everyone has the right to choose his or her hobbies. We should do something meaning in our life rather than investing too much time on playing online games. If a teenager has any problems, he or she should not hesitate to seek professional help. So, I hope you will not become the next victim of gaming disorders.