[ad_1]

Although in the not too distant past I have come to be ashamed of it, there is nothing embarrassing about dedicating some of your time to video games for mobile. In addition to having conquered me, for example, Merge Mansion it has transformed my relationship with mobile gaming and social media. Thanks to Merge Mansion, I stopped compulsively scrolling on my phone chasing bad news, a practice known as doomscrolling (an English neologism born from the union of words doomthat is “misfortune”, and scrolling“Scrolling”).

Replacing social media with games

To be totally honest, that wasn’t my initial goal. When I clicked on the ad of Merge Mansion on Instagram, I wasn’t looking for a way to avoid social media. Nonetheless, by betting on a mobile game rather than a console game, I managed to condition my brain to open Merge Mansion rather than Twitter, TikTok or Instagram every time I picked up the phone. As it turns out, that’s a lot easier than developing the habit of grabbing a controller instead of the phone.

How did this happy accident happen? Like (I assume) many of you, over the past year my evenings have begun to take a toxic turn, which invariably led me to absent-mindedly pick up my phone and start doing scrolling. I didn’t even realize I was doing it until the 10pm alarm went off, which reminded me that it was time to go to bed. Mine was aunhealthy habit: I could never really relax and woke up every morning without feeling rested.

Then, however, I started playing Merge Mansion. In a nutshell, the aim of the game is to produce objects and then melt them. To make the objects, you need to use energy, which is available in limited quantities. It takes about 15 minutes to run out of resources, which means they are there several moments that allow you to stop the game in a natural way. Unlike the doomscrollingwhich can evaporate hours of your life without you realizing it, the mechanics of Merge Mansion makes it easy to keep track of the time you are spending on the game. In other words, it is a pastime much easier to manage.

The same cannot be said of social media. Not that I haven’t tried: I’ve tried to keep some apps away from my phone’s home screen. I have set time limits. At one point I even tried to delete the apps directly: however, having to use social media for my work, this solution soon proved impractical.

The mental health benefits

Mobile games have become a loophole. Instead of deleting Twitter or TikTok, I put games on the home screen. When I take out my phone, I’m now the first thing I see. I’m not just talking about Merge Mansion. I am also playing a Family Farm Adventure. I was not convinced not to open social media: the point is that not I want more do it. I prefer to play.

.

[ad_2]

Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *