I was recently talking about this with a friend of mine and after seeing this meme, it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to throw out an opinion that may be painful for many and useful for others. I started playing video games when I was 5 or 6 years old and I literally DID NOT STOP until I was 16. By not stopping I mean that it was what I liked the most and I got to have days of playing 11 hours straight to the same video game until my eyes watered. I didn't like any sport especially, I was fat and my 2 best friends were dedicated to the same thing.
I tell you this because my crack towards video game addiction does not come from an outsider's point of view, but I understand perfectly well what it is to be hooked. I was mostly addicted to Halo 2 on Xbox Live. I loved making friends over there and ended up being quite pro. Also Lineage 2 and some other mmorpg like that. My life was garbage. There were few things that fulfilled me as much as going online and playing games, to say the least. Improving my skills and getting new armor or leveling up was what generated the most dopamine and made me wake up every day with eagerness.
Why am I telling you all of this?
Because after reaching certain achievements in several games, I started to wonder why I should dedicate so much time to something so artificial, non-tangible and not very transferable in my day to day life as videogames were. That's why this meme and its final conclusion of "I feel empty" caught my attention. It didn't take me even 2 months to stop feeling full playing those same videogames. I tried new videogames, I proposed new challenges in the ones I already had under control and each time they brought me less and less of that "happiness".
It was with 16/17 when I started to go out more often, I became interested in music, I found sports that I liked and I started to connect with kids who were also developing a new mentality at the same time as me. Still, every now and then I would try to get back to the way I used to feel. I would turn on the console/PC and get the dopamine rush of "let's hit X game hard". Fifteen minutes would go by and my brain would say, "What are you doing this for?" "What's the point of finishing this game? What do you really want to level up in this game for if it doesn't add anything to your day to day life?" Those issues won the battle and my transition to the real world was complete. Eventually I realized that real life was the most powerful, complex and least boring video game there was.
I realized that I could improve my fitness, my perception of the world, create a clan of 100% real friends, learn new skills, and that all of this had its rewards and goals: getting a good job, discovering new places, meeting a woman to connect with, and so on. What's my point?
My perspective on all of this is that we don't need to go to the extreme of Llados Fitness (because I know some will excuse themselves with hyperbole) but we also can't keep behaving like we're 15 years old.
I see that there is a sector of the population, mostly male, who are between 20-40 years old and not only spend too much time playing video games, but it is clear how they have neglected the most important areas of the adult human experience. Anyone who has experienced or is experiencing this meme is getting a call. Your mind is telling you that you need to grow up and stop trying to anchor your entire personality and time in moving dolls across a screen.
Do you think you came into the world to dedicate your life to pretending a life in a digital universe created by a billion dollar company that is only out to make money at the expense of you experiencing a cheap imitation of what real life is like without the risks that come with it? I doubt it.
Because after reaching certain achievements in several games, I started to wonder why I should dedicate so much time to something so artificial, non-tangible and not very transferable in my day to day life as videogames were. That's why this meme and its final conclusion of "I feel empty" caught my attention. It didn't take me even 2 months to stop feeling full playing those same videogames. I tried new videogames, I proposed new challenges in the ones I already had under control and each time they brought me less and less of that "happiness".