So many parents complain of mobile game addiction among their kids. Some parents deprive their kids of their mobile. However, since the schools have also shifted their communication systems to WhatsApp groups, it is often impossible for them to keep their kids away from the mobiles. Once kids lay their hands on mobiles, they naturally get attracted to the games. What is so fascinating about these games?
I feel that two crucial elements make these games so addictive. First, they offer instant rewards in the form of points. For example, if someone plays a game like Heyday, we see on the screen of the mobile our farm growing bigger and if we play for a few hours, we may become the owner of a big farm, with so many chickens, big fields, can start trading our wheat, and buy ship and trucks. Second, there is very little effort in the process. We can win all these rewards with little effort of the finger. It seems almost magical that we can sow the seeds with a little finger slide and cut the crops with the same effort. We have so many choices to make and most of the choices pay us quite attractive rewards. These two elements are present in almost all screen addictions such as addiction to social media and reels on YouTube. The reward is instant and there is very little effort. In the case of social media, the reward is in the form of likes and an increase in the network of friends. In the case of YouTube reels, the reward is getting to know something new.
The crucial question is why do we have addiction? It is because all these rewards disappear the moment we get out of the virtual world. The moment we switch off the mobile and the App, the reward is gone. We are not able to handle that vacuum or that hollowness. That is the reason we want to play more and more. I have made so many friends on Facebook with so much effort, I have made so many fields and properties on Heyday, I have got so many likes on social media, and I have got so many followers, how can I let them go. That inability to handle the perceived hollowness of reality seems to be the primary reason for the addiction.
Probably, the same games we keep playing in the society as well. The game of money, validations, power, and relationships in the real world (https://observationwithawareness.blogspot.com/2024/11/games-we-play.html). We get addicted to these games as well apparently for the same two reasons. Here too, the reward is instant and there is little effort. Not as instant as the mobile games but it is quite visible. We make an effort and earn money, we accept what society believes in and get validation from society, we pretend to be working for the betterment of the people and get positions of power, and we pretend to be good to people and get a network of relationships. In fact, the advancement of the technology has enabled interaction between the mobile games and the social games. The followers and subscribers on YouTube can get you money in the social game of money. That is one more reason why mobile games have become all the more attractive.
Why people are addicted to social games? It is because of the primary reason that there is a hollowness and vacuum that we are not able to handle. I have worked hard my entire life to earn a few points in these social games in the form of money, validation, positions, and people around me who I presume to be standing with me. If I leave this, I have nothing to look forward to. I have invested so much in my family that I have nothing to look forward to beyond my family. There is an inner hollowness. We have moved farther and farther from the inner self due to our addiction to social games. That is probably the reason that we have the biggest fear in our lives that at some point in time, we will have to die leaving all these reward points. The battery of the body will die and all these reward points will disappear and we are not ready to face reality. That is why we become restless to make the best use of these reward points. That is why that inner connection is a strict no-no to most people and they look down upon spirituality as a post-retirement pursuit when their body does not allow the enjoyment of these reward points. However, they are unable to realize that by that time, our unconscious mind is so addicted that there are huge withdrawal symptoms that we are unable to handle and we die in the deaddiction camp of old age deprived of our sensory pleasures.
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