Cooperative unit/Hunan Academy of Educational Sciences
Hunan Provincial Education Association Primary and Secondary School Mental Health and Career Education Professional Committee
Expert of this issue / Zhang Peilin of Zhounan Meixi Lake Middle School in Changsha City
Moderator/Science and Education News Reporter Wang Yan
"My classmates all have their own computers, and I want one too." In the first semester of junior high school, Xiaoyu took the first place in the class, and his parents fulfilled their promise and equipped him with a computer in the bedroom. His parents and him agreed on three chapters, and they could only play the computer during winter and summer vacations and weekends, but what people did not expect was that after the winter vacation this year, Xiaoyu could not stop - every time he thought of playing games for half an hour, but in the end he always played most of the day. After the school started, his parents told him that he was "focused on learning and could not play games anymore."
He promised to be good, but at night, he was full of game graphics and music. So, after his parents were asleep, he secretly opened the computer to play games. Over time, the teacher found that Xiaoyu had some abnormalities: he was often late for school for no reason, listless in class, and was named by the teacher many times for sleeping on the table. In addition, he also lost interest in learning, and his grades continued to decline.
"Why did I become a 'game bug'?" For Xiaoyu's distress, let's listen to the advice of Zhang Peilin, a psychology teacher at Zhounan Meixihu Middle School in Changsha City, Hunan Province.
Zhang Peilin: Online games should be one of the ways for teenagers to relax and entertain after learning, but teenagers are still in the period of physical and mental development, the brain area responsible for self-control has not yet fully matured, and the self-control ability is relatively weak.
Like many adolescent students, Xiaoyu pursues her own individuality and independence on the one hand, and on the other hand, she worries about being isolated by the group and losing the common language with her peers. From this point of view, playing games is actually an effective way to promote peer interaction and build a sense of belonging among peers.
However, teenagers' self-control ability is weak, coupled with the game developer's guidance under the guidance of psychologists, they are well versed in the game psychology of satisfying players with continuous tasks and rewards, and some students often play until midnight with the idea of "only playing for 10 minutes and doing homework immediately". Xiao Yu was no exception, and he quickly joined the ranks of "game bugs".
In fact, not all teenagers will be addicted to online games, so why can some students play games in moderation? In addition to individual differences in brain development and self-control levels, factors such as learning pressure, peer interaction, parent-child communication, and social environment may have an impact.
Say goodbye to the "game bugs"
In the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), published by the World Health Organization in 2018, "gaming addiction" was listed as a mental illness for the first time. If there is a student's play behavior that has completely lost control and seriously affects normal life, then professional support should be sought in time for treatment as soon as possible. Most of the people around us are not addicted, more are "game bugs". So how can the "game bugs" get out of the trap of online games?
(1) Recognize the harm caused by addiction to online games. Staring at the screen for a long time, manipulating the mouse and keyboard will not only affect the development of vision and cervical spine, but also cause insomnia, neurasthenia, and decreased resistance. Scientific studies have shown that after a long period of addiction to the Internet, the brain structure will change, and the individual's control ability and cognitive function will be affected. In addition, some online games also have unhealthy factors such as violence, which are infiltrated for a long time and are not conducive to physical and mental health. Problems such as depression, anxiety, and loneliness are also often accompanied by online problems.
(2) With the help of external forces, take the initiative to establish good behavior habits. You can reach an agreement with parents that when the brain is still able to maintain rationality, the time to play the game and the corresponding reward and punishment mechanism can be stipulated in advance; you can also try to transfer the principles of task settings, timely feedback, reward measures and other principles in the game to the establishment of their own behavior habits, so that they can also experience the sense of achievement of "setting goals - completing challenges - harvesting rewards" in real life.
(3) Cultivate other interests and hobbies, and have a variety of ways to enjoy yourself. There are many people who like to play games, look at mobile phones, and surf the Internet, but not everyone is addicted. Those who can't help themselves are often because they have turned games, mobile phones, etc. into the only source of happiness in life. Therefore, we should explore different interests and hobbies: painting, listening to songs, writing a diary, making food, learning a sport, getting close to nature, etc., so that you can have multiple sources of happiness.
In spring, are the flowers in the garden in full bloom? Let's take our eyes off that little screen and look out the window more; or ask a few of our classmates to go out for a walk, and you'll find that the world we live in is so beautiful and vast.