The last time I played a video game was two days ago, on Wednesday, so this is my second gaming-free day. But that's not the only thing I want to be free of. I have had many attempts at quitting gaming, and something that was common among all of these was an increased urge to spend time on the internet. This time, I am heavily focusing on also abstaining from internet entertainment.
This is beneficial for several reasons. Firstly, of course, the internet offers some of the same things that gaming offers, most importantly the temporary escape and (para)social community, and if I was only quitting gaming, I would not be solving these problems. Secondly, I have noticed that there is a feedback-loop between internet content and gaming, because there is so much gaming content on the internet. If I didn't quit extensive internet use as well, I would constantly be bombarded with gaming content, telling me about new expansions, exciting patches and early-access releases. In the past, this has often led me back to gaming. Thirdly, internet entertainment keeps me from pursuing the hobbies I actually want to do, which, as Cam says, are key to quitting gaming as they offer challenge and measurable growth.
And, well, it has been zero days since consuming internet entertainment. This is somewhat expected. Internet content is much harder to block and exterminate from the computer than video games. Still, I am unhappy with hours I spent on Youtube and Reddit today, and I noticed that I had difficulty reading afterwards. I also experienced some cravings after watching gaming content.
Besides that, though, I spent some lovely hours with my girlfriend, and went on a nice walk. But I didn't get as much work done as I wanted to, mostly because of the distractions described above.
The plan for this diary is to continue a bit like this. Some thoughts and reflections, and a brief overview of how I spent my day. I am also keeping a paper diary, which I expect to be more important to me in the future, which is why I will keep these posts relatively short.