View Single Post
Old 07-02-2009, 06:20 PM   #8
Prussia!
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Jacks on the villa (Hurricane State of Citrus)
Posts: 93
Maybe turn it around and make it constructive somehow? I used to play video games, but I sold all my consoles and things so we could afford school expenses. Never owned more than a game at a time anyway (too expensive). But, more to the point, the one exception was my DS- because I use it to practice Spanish. I have a Pokemon GBA game from Spain, and it's absolutely shocking how much better my Spanish has gotten while playing it. I've picked up so much vocabulary, grammar, and colloquialisms, it's crazy. I still don't play it much, because I always get antsy when I don't feel like I'm being productive, but, eh. Of all the ways to waste time, one that can at least serve a somewhat dual-purpose is a considerably lesser evil.
So if you're studying any foreign language, try playing your game in that. You'll get the most from it if it's more text-based, but even shooters and things have conversations and whatnot.
As for anything else... I don't know. Math, science, etc. can't really be practiced that way.

As for quitting... Well, just take away your access. Delete your account, delete your savegame, break the disk, corrupt the program irreversibly, uninstall, get banned, I don't know. But if you really want to stop, do something you can't undo. That should be discouraging enough.
Otherwise, for things without that option, it's just a matter of taking the time to decide you absolutely do not want to do it anymore. Generally, if you keep going back and feeling guilty afterward, it's because you don't feel disinclined enough beforehand. It's just not that big a deal to you. "Just a little while won't hurt..." kind of thing. So just set your foot down with yourself, put it into the big picture, and make a decision on how you'll allow this to affect your future. Just 30 minutes wasted a day would be 210 a week, or 3.5 hours- so about 14 hours wasted a month. That's not that much, but the focus and time lost could very well be the difference between Harvard and... I don't know, Brown. Or something. Whatever. You decide what the time would do. If you think there's something better to do with that time, take out some paper and calculate and schedule out exactly what could be done with the time you're spending on games. Anything that helps you see the forest in the midst of scuffling around trees would do you good.
If the forest even matters to you more than trees, that is. After all, you should enjoy life. Don't go around being guilty if you really enjoy it. If it's that important to you, schedule a set time each day to relax and have fun playing it. That way, you don't let it get out of hand. You don't want to upset your sleeping schedule just because you wanted to raise another level or whatever. That's not healthy.
Have your fun wisely if you truly enjoy it; but, if there's something more constructive that you'd enjoy equally, find it and do it.
Prussia! is offline   Reply