When we live in a world surrounded by distractions, it’s fairly easy to lack the motivation and productivity to go through our daily tasks. While distractions have certain benefits such as helping us balance our lives, they can also trigger feelings of laziness.
When you’re caught in distractions like video games, it’s easy to spend hours playing without an awareness that you just wasted an entire day with that distraction.
If you’re not careful, distractions like video games can trigger laziness rather than prevent it. In this article, we’ll be discussing how video games can encourage laziness.
Do video games make us lazy?
Video games are extremely addicting so if you’re not disciplined enough to control yourself, you’ll spend hours playing video games without realizing that you just wasted a significant amount of time. Video games were created to be engaging and interactive and as a result, they can make you lazier than productive.
Reasons why video games make us lazy
1. Video games release dopamine
Dopamine is the hormone responsible for making you feel good and happy about yourself. While this can be seen as a good thing, when your brain gets used to this constant dopamine exposure, you’ll depend on it to feel good about yourself.
This is what leads to video game addiction because the more you feel good about playing video games, the more hooked you will be. Eventually, you’ll find yourself prioritizing playing video games instead of other significant activities you could be doing with your time.
This alone can cause a negative impact on your motivation and it’s why video games can make you feel lazier.
2. Video games deprive you of sleep
Playing video games and sleep are highly interconnected with one another. It’s so easy to choose to play video games instead of going to bed early.
As a result, you don’t realize that you’re living a sleep-deprived lifestyle and that lack of sleep can negatively impact your mental functions and the way your brain works. In short, this means you won’t have the energy to be productive or motivated enough even if you could, because of the fatigue and exhaustion caused by playing video games all night instead of resting.
3. Video games create an escape from reality
One of the reasons why video games are such a common distraction is because of their ability to create an alternative reality, especially when you’re dealing with a particularly difficult circumstance in your life.
However, as a result, you don’t face your problems, but you run away from them through video games. The more you escape your problems, the more you’ll never have the motivation or courage to acknowledge and take accountability for your actions.
This also goes for when you make a mistake – instead of owning up to them, you use video games as an escape to avoid having to face what you did.
Video games make you lazier because you’re dwelling in a reality that isn’t real or a reality that’s much better than the actual version of the truth.
4. Video games waste your time
Video games are so engaging and interactive that if you’re not disciplined enough to stop yourself, you will play video games for days without doing anything meaningful with your time. Instead of doing activities like exercise or working on a new project, you’re stuck on playing video games, and this is what causes laziness.
You spend mindless hours of your day on a game and even if you claim to play for just an hour, this can easily turn into eight hours without awareness. Similar to how social media works, playing video games can make you feel like you’re going through the motions in your life without a sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Video games might feel great initially because of the burst of dopamine it gives, but after a while, you’ll feel worse and you’ll never see it coming.
5. Video games damage your mental health
Individuals who are going through anxiety, depression, or other forms of mental illness find it harder to feel motivated and productive throughout their day. The more you play video games, the more it will become detrimental to your health.
In relation to the above-mentioned on escaping reality, the more you repress your difficult feelings, the more mental problems will arise later on.
This is especially true for those who are prone to have a negative thought pattern and when these people have a video game addiction, they’ll find it even more frustrating to get out of bed in the morning and do anything meaningful.
6. Video games prevent you from taking action
When you’re dealing with something difficult such as a breakup or loss of income, video games are distracting enough that it prevents you to get up and do something about the crisis in your life. Video games might make you feel better about yourself and your situation, but they won’t do anything to change your life unless you take the necessary steps to do so.
Video games will make you engaged and addicted enough to get lost in the virtual reality of life and forget that you need to do something about your life to change it.
This is also why individuals who are addicted to playing video games for hours don’t usually take accountability or responsibility for their life, but they usually complain about it without taking the necessary steps to change it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I hope this article helped gain insight into everything you needed to know about how video games can cause laziness. Video games aren’t entirely bad, but it’s important to have the necessary self-control and discipline if you want to lead a productive life.
If you lack self-awareness, your life can easily become meaningless and unproductive because of video game addiction. They don’t just damage your overall health and well-being, but they can turn you away from your goals and ambition if you’re not aware of the hours you spend playing video games.