Confessions of An Ex-Gaming Junkie.

Benjamin Toh, a student from a top boys' school was doing very well until he became addicted to computer games. This is very prevalent in our society today. Computer gaming companies are constantly trying to come up with new games to entertain our youth. Such an example is a Massive Multi-player Online Role-playing Game(MMORPG) called Maple Story. Fantasy games such as these are causing more and more teenagers to become addicted to the computer and as such causing their studies to deteriorate. The reason for teenagers to become addicted to these games is that it takes them away to another dimension of their own where they are free from stress and homework. It is a world where there is no stress, no parents and no work. It provides an outlet to help the students relief stress. However, why does this outlet keep students away from studies? The problem lies in the unwillingness to return to the real world. Teenagers like it when they are free to do anything they like without the restraining order of parents or teachers. Even those whose parents grounded from computer games will still not be able to study as their minds will be on the game itself and not on the task at hand. As such these MMORPGs capture youths and locked their minds in another dimension. In my opinion, addiction to computer games has also partially got to do with the parents and the people around the child. If the teenager experiences too much stress or pressure, they will turn to computer games as it is an outlet to relief stress. I myself play computer games and I am not afraid to admit, I too get addicted sometimes. I can play for around five hours straight without even realising it. This brings me to my next point, time management. Another result of this addiction is poor time management. On a normal school day, studies take up around 13 hours of their day leaving them very little time to play computer games. This causes the students to play through the night even though they have school the next day. When they are in school, they will be too tired to consentrate and as such their studies will go down the drain. Computer games by itself is not a bad thing as i have mentioned, it is an outlet to relief stress. However, it becomes a bad thing once a person gets hooked on to it, it affects their studies and their social life. The student would not want to go out with their friends just so he can stay home to play computer games. After awhile, his friends will stop inviting him and he will lose his friends slowly. As a remedy to this addiction, parents should constantly monitor their child's time management. The student must also be mature enough to know when it is time to return to the real world and if they are not mature enough they should not even start playing.


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