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Will stopping playing games, along with spending my time on youtube, make studying fun for me?


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Posted

Hi everyone, I'm Ale.

I recently decided to stop gaming, even if I did very little. I started playing Sea of Thieves and that was really messing up my dopamine reward sistem.

Like I costantly thought about gaming and what I could do next in the game, and activities like studying became a boredom.

I also decided to stop using youtube. It was a waste of time and I was messing up my brain.

Now the qjuestion is: will my effort make studying more fun? I can't really do a dopamine detox because I still live with my family, but I really hope cutting out these activities will help me considering studying fun again.

It has been a year since I deleted my social media and distracting apps. I still have whatsapp but it's for going out and keeping in contact.

Let me know your thoughts about this!

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Posted

Hey ale, welcome to GameQuitters!

I think you're having the right mindset over here, I agree with most of the things you've said. 

One thing I would recommend you think more about is how exactly you stop using Youtube. For me, I realized that since I will still use it daily for watching all kinds of things anyways (music, art tutorials, etc.), I disabled search and watch history (and deleted them as well) so that most of my recommendations are directly from my subscriptions. Not sure how much you use YouTube, but I recommend to think more about it as well!

About making studying more fun: hmmm didn't happen for me- studying actually got more boring. Instead, I tried developing more hobbies- I made an ArtStation account to look at art every day, I began learning composition and digital art in my freetime, and started exercising more regularly. I say, if you feel like studying isn't getting more fun, try finding other ways of making your day more fun- studying isn't always the answer haha.

Cheers!

Po

Posted

Hi Ale! Welcome to gamequitters community!

Studying becoming a boredom has been a long-time problem for me so I would recommend every 20 minutes take a small break and every 60 minutes (3x20mins) switch to a new activity.

Quitting Youtube and gaming has helped me achieve my goals in studying and etc. and I hope it might benefit you too as not everyone functions the same way. Although Youtube and gaming has distracted me entirely, I still watch Youtube in moderation when I am done with work and sometimes play small games with my friends with I have the time.

Good luck!

monkey

Posted (edited)

I'm going to go against the tide on this one and say it will to some degree.

 

Gaming sets a high threshold for enjoyment of a task or activity, pretty similar to other endorphin releasing activities like cocaine use or consuming sugar. Your brain likes to balance itself out, so It will reduce the endorphins released, or reduce their effect. The result is you need to game, JUST TO FEEL NORMAL. You may not even enjoy it anymore. This also makes it difficult to enjoy every day activities, like studying because again, the threshold is set so high.


So while you may not immediately start to LOVE subjects you currently hate, you will gain a kind of appreciation for them. You should also find it way easier to engage in subjects that you do enjoy. At least, according to my personal experience.

 

Another thing to consider is that one of videogaming's primary detriments to your ability to study is reduced attention span and lack of deep engagement. Sometimes you really have to hit a flow state to enjoy the material that you're studying. But you have to feel psychologically safe to do that. If you've skipped multiple weeks of class, or crammed until you reach the final cumulative test, you're going to freak out and that's going to stop you from engaging. So yeah, there's that.

Edited by OptimisticMalcontent
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