Top 10 effective ways to get rid of Smartphone gaming addiction

There is nothing wrong with playing your favorite game after coming back home from your workplace, at the time of commuting, or when you have some free time in your hand. But it is really bad if you free up time to play your favorite game as that will eventually affect your productivity, social life and every other positive aspect in your life. If you free up your time for playing your favorite game, it is the time when you should consider it as a form of addiction and it is high time that you got rid of gaming addiction in some way or the other. Gaming addiction can be for a particular game on your smartphone or your computer, but whatever may be the type of game or the device that you are playing the game on, gaming addiction is not at all something that you should take for granted.

If you can’t control your gaming addiction it will keep increasing and depending upon the type of game that you occasionally play, it can also affect you mentally and can also make you violent in your real life. So, there is no doubt about the fact that excessive gaming has drastic impacts on your lifestyle, which is the reason you should always keep a tab on your gameplay. So today I will talk about a few of the different ways so that you can get rid of gaming addiction, on any device that you are interested in. Getting rid of gaming addiction can be tough, and thus, you should have a clear vision of getting rid of gaming addiction. If you do not have a real vision to get rid of gaming addiction and give up in the middle it can have a more drastic impact, or at the worst, it can also intensify your gaming addiction. I will even try to talk about some specific ways to get rid of gaming addiction on both smartphones and computers so that you can follow the steps more specifically to get rid of gaming addiction.

Tips to get rid of gaming addiction on smartphone

So, without any further delay, let’s get started with the different ways you can get rid of gaming addiction on whatever device you are playing. 

Develop a hobby

If you have a lot of free time in your hand and you love spending that time playing some games, you can develop some new hobby in order to get rid of gaming addiction. In the beginning, the hobbies that you will pick up need not to be productive, but in spite of that, it can still be a big achievement for you. I am not talking about developing some tough hobbies like stamp or coin collecting, but you can develop some other simple hobbies like photography, reading some specific books or magazines any other type of books or articles. 

You can even go online to find some books and read them online. Additionally, you can also start listening to podcasts and audiobooks, if reading books is too boring for you. So, it isn’t always about developing a new hobby. You can also develop some new interests. What I simply want to say is, try doing something productive or anything else that adds some value to your life as that can be really helpful to get rid of addiction for gaming.

Stick to small single-player games

I have seen that most people are interested in playing multiplayer games like PUBG or other similar games which offer a different kind of fun and relaxation to the gamer. If you are addicted to the Battle Royale games, this is a real kind of addiction, which really requires some special treatment. We have already seen PUBF getting banned in a number of Indian cities and Tencent games also introduced some features so that the gamer plays the game within a limit. So, if you are interested in playing size Battle Royale games or other games, which are really very addictive, you can start playing some other single-player games like Temple Run for other small games, which you can play at any time of the day. 

You can also play some other brain games like Chess, Sudoku, which can sharpen your brain and will add more value to your life. Playing some other games like Temple Run or Subway Surfers might make you addicted to those games, but it is my personal experience is that at some point in time you will get bored playing those games. So, what I simply want to tell is, if you are addicted to playing multiplayer games, switching to single-player games, which can be a little difficult in the first place can be useful to get rid of the addiction.

Use a digital wellbeing app to limit gaming hour

If you start playing your favorite game and play it for unlimited hours, one thing that you can do is, keep a tab on the number of hours you are doing the game. If you play the game for more than two or three hours a single day, there will be a guilty feeling that you are spending your time in playing games other than doing something useful. You can depend on the Digital Wellbeing feature available by Google only for stock Android devices which can also disable the app or game for that single day if you play it for more than a certain number of hours that have been allotted to that game. 

If you are not using a stock Android device, you can also depend on third-party digital wellbeing apps. Depending upon the smartphone that you are using, the manufacturer might even bake in a similar type of digital wellbeing app, which can be good enough to help you get decent insights about your smartphone gaming habits and find out whether it is high time that you have left smartphone gaming.

Uninstall the game after use

No matter whether you’re playing on your smartphone or computer, most games require installation before you can play them on a computer or a smartphone. So, if you are highly addicted to a particular game, you can uninstall the game after you have played it. I know that’s painful. But that way, you will again need to download the game all over again, log in with all your credentials before you can get started with the game. Thus, if you want to play the game for maybe half an hour or one hour, you will require more time to download the game and carry out the initial activities. 

Depending upon your everyday activities, there might not be adequate time for you to carry out all the activities and we will be forced not to play the game all over again. I know, it can be really frustrating to delete or uninstall the game after you play it and reinstall it when you need to play the game, but this can be an effective way to get rid of gaming on your computer or a smartphone. If you have a slow internet connection, that will be more effective, as it will require more time to download the game before you can install it which will again be more useful to get rid of gaming addiction.

Keep your smartphone in a different room

Most people love playing games when they are relaxing. Games can be played by a gamer on a computer, laptop, smartphone or a gaming console. Most people love playing the game in their living room as that is the best place to relax, and it is their comfort zone. If you get addicted to playing games in that way, try to keep your computer, smartphone or your gaming device to a different room, so that you cannot get easy access to the device. This can be a little difficult in case of a laptop or smartphone, which you might require for other activities, but if it is a computer or a gaming console, this can be really tough to relocate the complete gaming setup to your living room if you want to play the game.

If you want to play the game for some time, you can move to a separate room to play the game, and as you cannot play the games while relaxing, that can be an effective way to get rid of addiction for gaming. If it is possible, you can also keep your smartphone or laptop away from your bed, and that is not only a way to get rid of giving for smartphone gaming, but it is also a great way of getting rid of addiction for smartphones altogether.

Learn a new skill

If you playing games on a computer, you can use the computer to do something else instead of playing games. You can do some productive work on your computer and if you do not have any kind of work that needs to be done on your computer after you return from your workplace, you can try something else. You can use your computer to listen to some songs, watch some movies, and one more thing that you can do is, learn some new skills. Learning a new skill is really going to help you in doing work faster in your workplace and you can also use your existing skills to open your own new business and earn money. 

Depending upon the type of skills that you will learn, it can be used for the number of purposes and you should also choose the most appropriate skill depending upon your likes. It can be a little difficult to get rid of gaming and start learning a new skill as your mind will always want to play a game, but once you can get rid of that, the new skill that you will learn can really be effective in a number of ways you can’t even imagine. Talking about learning a new skill, you can learn a new programming language, learn Photoshop or other professional programs from a number of reputed websites either for free or with a nominal subscription fee.

Socialize more

If you can’t find any of the ways that I have discussed here useful to get rid of gaming, you can try out a more straightforward approach to get out of gaming addiction. Instead of playing games on your computer or smartphone, you can go out and socialize with your friends and colleagues who are living close to you. That way, you can find out a new avenue to spend your extra time and gradually you will get rid of gaming. 

But you should find out the community, where you can talk about something else other than gaming. However, if you do not want to go out and socialize, especially during this lockdown because of COVID-19, when going ou isn’t advisable, you can also find out some online communities, where you can discuss a number of other things apart from gaming. That way, you can get interested in something else which can also be a great way of keeping yourself away from gaming on any device that you have access to.

Reward yourself for not playing

Most games that we all love playing have a reward system. For example, on completing a certain level or on killing a number of opponents, you are rewarded with something and we all keep playing to get those points. We also level up after completing certain missions within a game and that’s the way how the reward system work in most games. Getting more rewards within a short span of time is yet another reason, why most people are addicted to a particular or multiple games. So, instead of getting the reward from the game, you can instead reward yourself with something else, for not playing a certain game and doing something productive in return. 

For example, you can set a goal of not playing your favorite game for at least one day and at the end of the day, you will award yourself chocolate. If you do not play your favorite game for a week, you can reward yourself with something better than that of chocolate. It can be a milkshake or a fancy looking icecream. You shouldn’t cheat yourself in this reward system and using this type of reward system for not playing games can definitely help you get rid of gaming addiction, whatever may be the type of game that you play. At the end of the day, if you do not play your favorite game, you are getting something useful in real-life rather than getting virtual points or rewards in the virtual world of a game.

Make the conditions unsuitable for gaming

Most games require settling down at someplace to play the game. For example, if you are playing the game of PUBG, it requires settling down at a place, where there is a stable internet connection. Depending upon the type of game, you will require a proper situation to play the game with more fun. So, if you are addicted to playing a certain game like PUBG, you can try keeping yourself busy in some other work so that you do not get a proper and stable internet connection when you want to play the game. 

Furthermore, you can also turn off your Wi-Fi or mobile data, when you do not need it for something useful. That way, you will not be able to play the game. There are also certain games, which most people love playing while commuting, and if you are addicted to one of such games, try to keep yourself in a situation, when you are unable to play the game. So, in order to get rid of addiction for a certain game, making the situation around you uncomfortable can be really useful to get rid of addiction for that particular game.

Find something that gives real fun or credit

Most players love feeling those games, which gives them a sense of being a hero or gives them credit for their performance in the game. Just consider PUBG, where you will become the MVP of the team, if you have maximum kills, or if you should a wonderful performance within the game. This gives you a sense of being a hero and that is the reason, why most people addicted to the game and try to get the credit. Everybody in their life wants to achieve something and by playing most games, they can feel a glimpse of that. If you are one, who loves playing such kind of games to become a hero, try doing something more productive in your real life that will add more value to your life or to the life of some other person. 

This is something, which I am talking beyond technology, however, that is a cool way to get rid of gaming addiction. You can help a poor person, join some NGO, who works for poor and needy people, and if you work for them, you will not only get the sense of being a hero but you will also get respect at the same time. So, what I want to tell is, instead of getting some virtual respect by getting addicted to some game, try to do something that most people want and helping others is something that you can do at best.

Addiction for gaming can be as bad as an addiction for everything else and thus, you should never take it lightly. Otherwise, it will be too late when it will have a drastic impact on your mental health, which is something that nobody ever wants. Depending upon the specific case, there can be some other ways that you can follow in order to get rid of smartphone gaming, by taking assistant from your family, or by travelling to some please, where you can enjoy some natural beauty or something similar to that. Your sole intention should be getting rid of gaming addiction.

So, that was all about how you can get rid of gaming addiction on all types of devices. Do you know any other great way of getting rid of gaming addiction? Feel free to comment on the same below.

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