Week 7: Ballz
This past weekend my boyfriend was playing a game that I had not seen in years. The game is called Ballz and consists of shooting balls toward blocks and each time it touches them the number goes down until it is gone (0). Once I saw him playing I knew I needed to play again. I used to love that game so much and I was super good at it. I re-downloaded the game and immediately got sucked back into it. I played for the next three hours straight while we were relaxing and watching TV. Once he was getting ready to go home for the night and I put my phone down I realized how I was feeling. I was an anxious mess. I had let this game take over my life in such a short time. I deleted the game but the anxious feelings stayed. Since I played this game years ago I have discovered that for me I need to play games with levels. The infinite nature of games does not work for me, I get too invested and I lose myself. I only play games on my phone to get my mind off of things for a little bit. I want to reduce my anxiety about things in life but non-leveled games do the opposite.
It always amazes me how much media can consume our lives without us even realizing it. I too am guilty of this very thing! I will sit down to study and the next thing I know I have been scrolling through instagram for an hour. To prevent this, I have tried to set time limits for myself. Media can truly be a source for good in our lives, but it also has the power to become controlling of our days and emotions. I love that you were able to have this realization and find the balance between media use and mental health.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely had this same thing happen several times to me! It is crazy just how much time we can spend on a game without even realizing it and even more so how much it affects our mental state without us even knowing. Thanks for the post!
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