Gaming is the only thing that actually grabs my attention and doesn’t feel like a chore. Anything that requires commitment for a long term goal doesn’t seem to get my interest.
Growing up I never wanted a phone or console. Only thing I used to play occasionally was pokemon/mario on a DS. Gaming was never my thing until I got my first iPad gifted to me at age 11 and that started my love of mobile games like CoC, angry birds and Minecraft pe. Progressed to Xbox with gta, cod and fifa. Sunk hours of my life into it. One summer off school I barely left the house and just played games all day until I was suffering motion sickness after 10+ hours of playing.
Around this time I also got into watching gameplay commentaries on YouTube and would have screen times approaching 15 hours some days. That was more interesting than actually playing the games myself so I actually quit gaming because it was just more fun to see others do it. Stopped caring about school and lost my spot on the sports teams due to my lack of training.
Years later I got back into gaming and stopped watching so much YouTube. Reels and shorts are a cancer imo so I’ve tried to avoid them.
It was only when I stopped to look around at the state of the place I live. Inside it’s not too bad but outside is a mess. Set myself a task to tidy the garden and make it look nice again. It doesn’t offer instant gratification like gaming. Every 15 minutes doing yard work feels like a really big task compared to mindlessly playing games. Come to think of it everything is so boring compared to gaming. It’s all I want to do when I finish work. I didn’t wash or clean my car for almost a year because it would take a whole hour of my time that I’d rather spend shooting pixel guns or driving digital cars on a PlayStation. Even when I’m walking outside, I need audio books on to keep my interest.
Not sure I want to fully quit gaming so possibly not the right subreddit for this but I do now have doubts about how I’m spending or arguably wasting my time. I’m essentially practicing a skill that brings no tangible or meaningful improvement to my life. Possibly reaction times and quick thinking but it feels like a flimsy justification. The most boring hobby I can think of for me would be golf yet even that would provide some walking outside, practicing a swing, meeting new people and reducing the number of swings taken to complete the course.
Has anyone quit or reduced their game time and found they’re able to enjoy more simple activities?