A 14-year-old boy from Panipat, Haryana named Saurabh, who was studying in class 9, was murdered by his 13-year-old friend. The reason why the murder happened was shocking. While Saurabh was playing a PUBG game on his phone, one of his friends asked for the phone to play as well. When Saurabh refused to give the phone, an intense fight broke out between them. The friend flew into range and strangled Saurabh, leading to his death. The friend ran away out of fear. After four days, someone found Saurabh’s decomposed body in a sugarcane field.
PUBG and Its Impact on Youth
The incident sheds light on the world of addiction to such games in the young adolescent population. Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is an online multiplayer game where hundreds of players fight in a battle Royale. In the past few years, many cases have found that young people have become addicted to this game, resulting in their engagement in violent behavior. Excessive gaming use can lead to neglect of real-life relationships. It can also reduce empathetic and emotional responsiveness between individuals.
It is important that we address the issues of video game addiction in the young population today and promote more responsible gaming habits among them. Adolescents may use video games as an escape from their real-life problems, eventually becoming an addiction. Video gaming is a growing issue worldwide, with its excessive and compulsive use of video games, it can lead to detrimental impacts on one’s physical and mental health. In this case, it posed a huge threat to interpersonal relationships by interfering with each other’s boundaries, leading to extreme consequences like death. As a society, we should raise awareness about the risks of video game addiction, and educate children on responsible gaming habits.
Coping with video game addiction:
- Recognize whether playing games is impacting your other parts of life. If you think that you do, take note of what areas are getting affected. Here are some prompts to get your thought processes started:
How long am I spending my time on games?
Have I started losing control over my anger?
Is it possible for me to refuse to play games when I am supposed to do something else?
Do I feel tempted to play all the time? - Setting clear boundaries: Play the game at a specific scheduled time to ensure that it does not affect other responsibilities such as work, school, relationships, and self-care. Set some realistic goals like “I want to reduce my usage from 5 hours a day to 3 hours a day, today” and celebrating small successes can help you build some self-efficacy.
- Practice Mindfulness: While taking steps to reduce the time playing the game, you may feel intense cravings to grab your phone and play. Observe the cravings and urges without judgment, instead of acting on the cravings immediately. This a way one can learn how to tolerate. It may seem hard initially, but you will start feeling rewarded when you realize that you are capable of detaching from something you were once addicted to.
- Find alternative activities as a way to distract yourself from playing games. These activities can be more healthy distractions like engaging in a sport, coloring, reading, dancing, etc.
- Sharing your feelings out to a dear friend or family member: Sharing the struggles with someone you trust and who can provide you with some emotional support and encouragement can help you build more mental strength. Talking about the problem, itself may release and relax.
Read More Article:
- Limiting the Gaming Addiction among Children
- What Is the Growing Concern Behind Digital Addiction?
- Study: Parental Perfectionism Linked to Compulsive Gaming
- Government Proposes Self-Regulation for Online Gaming Companies
