Master of Distraction

In my nearly 15 years of playing video games, I have seen how videogames can be used for good and bad. Emily’s blog post for Tuesday made me question my idea of togetherness, which led to me remembering the times during Covid when my buddies and I would hop on XBOX for a few games of NHL, Call of Duty, or even Fortnite. Man, those were the days! Just a couple of unemployed highschool seniors grinding away for hours at a time without a care in the world. It was like clockwork. Everyday. All day. The only decisions we had to make were what game we were playing and who was at fault when our team died. Although we weren’t able to see each other for months, I never felt closer to my best friends. Even when we hang out now, we still talk about the awesome moments we had together. Video games helped us turn a negative into a once in a lifetime experience. Through the first few weeks of class, I have redefined what it means to be together. While I initially defined being together as being in the same physical location, the past few weeks made me reflect on my experiences and realize that togetherness isn’t such a clear concept. As I mentioned in my comment on Tuesday, I now think of togetherness as the act of progressing in personal relationships by way of any form of communication. 

Another example of video games serving as a distraction came more recently following the loss of a loved one in November. However, unlike my Covid story, video games were a more negative distraction. For me, video games became an outlet where I entered a different world. Everything seemed like it was going to be fine. But along with these feelings of separation from the real world, I found myself neglecting the true problems that loomed over me everyday. If I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I didn’t, and so I did just that. I sat in my room and played until I was forced to face the real world again. And every time I turned off my XBOX, I was hit with a wave of realization that I was pushing off my responsibilities and placing myself in a virtual world–a fantasy land. While I am a very happy individual, video games were consuming my days, as it was easier to grab the controller instead of open my laptop and face the overwhelming amount of homework that we college students have.Though it is human nature to opt for play over work, I found that this feeling was exacerbated by my recent experiences. 

Based on my two experiences, at the very least, I myself find video games are best at a happy medium. However, what I do find interesting is that over gaming and overuse of electronics is not a very common topic in the media or really anywhere for that matter. Have we really been so consumed by our devices that we are all, quite literally, addicted to them? My screen time on my phone alone has exceeded six hours per day, and it’s only been increasing since I’ve added more responsibilities to my plate during college. While I don’t consider myself addicted to video games, there are many people around the world, known as “shut-ins” who live their life online while they remain inside alone. As the internet has developed, more and more “shut-ins” have appeared, and the addiction is spreading quickly. While the effects of over gaming are not as easily recognizable as other addictions, gaming addiction leads to similar symptoms of the more well known addictions, and as we know addiction can lead to isolation and negative effects on personal relationships. 

I completely understand that I’ve contradicted myself in this post by saying that video games can promote togetherness while also harming it, but isn’t that what the blog posts are for? Anyway, as for closing remarks, I want to encourage everyone to be mindful of the time we are spending on our devices. While we may think we are taking a break for a few quick games, an hour or two quickly turns into a full day away from what really matters around us. 

-MSC

How an Online Friend Group Made Me Extroverted

It was March 2020. I was a junior in high school and had just been told that school was cancelled for the foreseeable future. For weeks, I wasted away in my childhood bedroom, binging Modern Family and getting eye strain from spending every waking hour on my phone, laptop, or TV. Like everyone else, I was astounded by the fact that there was truly nothing to do besides lie in hiding until the whole thing blew over. So I kept watching YouTube videos, kept doomscrolling on Instagram and Twitter, and kept staying up until unfortunate hours of the night. My days were desperately lacking in real human connection, but how could that be fixed when everyone was stuck in their houses?

The answer, at least for me, was to turn to people online. I joined a large Discord server that I found at the end of a YouTube video, not knowing what to expect. As someone who hadn’t been allowed to play multiplayer games growing up, I had no idea what online “etiquette” was or how to make people like me. The learning curve, as I quickly found out, was steep. There were many times where I’d enter a voice chat to play Among Us or Fall Guys and be too shy to talk, or not understand references to other “popular” people on the server. Even worse were the occasional toxic users that would make sexist remarks or just generally be bullies. But I stuck with it (because again, I had nothing else to do) and slowly built up a small group of friends through shared interests and sending each other memes. They were from all over the place: Britain, Australia, and Canada to name a few, not to mention many states across the U.S.

Playing “Fashion Famous” on Roblox with some friends. We were definitely more interested in gaming as a social activity, rather than a competitive event.

Soon enough, I was on the server every day for hours, chatting, streaming movies, and playing games like Brawlhalla and Fistful of Frags. I even watched one of my friends play through the entirety of Red Dead Redemption II. Slowly, I became one of the “popular” people myself. As someone who went unnoticed throughout high school, this was a huge change, and it made me feel amazing. People actually wanted to talk to me, play games with me, ask me questions? I had never considered that my presence could be something positive to a lot of people, as sad as that sounds. Suddenly, I was the one who was reaching out to new members, cracking jokes in voice chat, and coming up with ideas on how to get even more people to join. It was truly the first time I had ever felt extroverted, and I loved it.

Though I have way less time to sit around and chat online now, I’ve kept the same group of online friends throughout the past three years. We’re all at different colleges (or unis, as my British friends say), but we play games together often and have even talked about meeting up this summer. I truly believe that the confidence I gained from my online friends has turned me into a much more capable and social person, and I highly doubt I’d be as successful in college without their impact. So although my friends at Vandy can rightfully make fun of me for being a Discord mod, I’ll always appreciate the online personalities who shaped who I am today.