transformative
When Mansa stopped joining her family over dinners or weekend fun games, her parents didn’t find it unusual initially, as twelfth-graders often spend more time in studies, confined to their rooms. But when her mother found her glued to the screens not for studies but for some game called Free Fire, she felt uncomfortable. It was within a matter of a year, Mansa completely cut herself off from her family, started stealing money from her father’s wallet for her online gaming addiction.
Today, the parents feel terribly helpless as Mansa is being counselled and is going through a series of therapies. She could never appear for her 12th boards, has no friends and often shows an extremely aggressive behavior.
Online Gaming Culture- Pros & Cons
This is not just a story but many adolescent kids of this generation are showing such violent behaviour. Here’s Mansa’s parents were fortunate but many unfortunate parents have lost their kids to suicide as they were indulged into the online gaming in a dangerous way…
Online gaming or virtual games have been around for quite some time. While games like PUBG were banned and India, others like Free Fire or Poker picked up big time, especially during the lockdown. Result? Suicides, severe depression, low self esteem, zero socializing skills, sleep loss, or even drugs. In another case recently, a pathologist parents’ teenager son committed suicide and in the suicide note, he mentioned that he had withdrawn 40,000/- from his mother’s account for Free Fire game.
” Teenagers are going through a lot, they are missing their normal routines and they end up spending more time online. Communication is the only solution to tackle such serious issues. Today, even parents are working from home but that doesn’t mean that a proper communication is happening, even they end up spending most of their time online for work. Spend time with your child in a conventional way, maybe some board games, read a book together, cook together, do some gardening together, for example,”suggests pediatrician Dr. Varun Vij, Senior consultant Neonatologist Pediatrician, Max Smart Superspeciality Hospital , Saket.
Online world looks quite tempting as you feel that you are connected with people from all parts of the world, but in reality, it is not less than a click bait, be it poker that makes you bet for more money, or Free Fire battle game where you want to be the winner and feel good. Even a simple virtual snakes & Ladders, or online Ludo games can become addictive after a certain point.
Moderation is the key to everything, if you can learn the art of balancing your online and offline life, you will feel better and will be able to enjoy games in a healthy spirit.
