Can PUBG make you hostile?

If 20 years ago someone told me if I would want to play a video game, it would be an opportunity seized and conquered. What we played then is nothing compared to what children play these days.

Recently at a meeting, I was asked if social media was a natural occurrence in our lives. It took me a while to answer that question. I was torn between deciding whether it was really needed or we could do without it?

Honestly, social media is platform similar to your partner and kids, you sometimes want to stay away from them to improve your mental peace however you cannot stay without them for long.

Imagine, people going for holistic experiences for their mental and spiritual health. Social Media is indeed a great platform to showcase your talent, learn things you haven’t learnt or learn things you wanted to learn, had some knowledge around them but didn’t know how to?

Everything has its pros and cons. This article isn’t about the pros and cons. I have covered a few articles on the social media syndrome.

Social Media Syndrome

I would rather say, how technology, is an integral part of our lives and how sometimes we are enslaved to it. Like this one 

Read This

Coming back to video games. I was recently asked to play PUBG. Woah!! I can almost here the sigh of exhilaration some of you just took. Yes, the insanity for PUBG is humongous. The reason I say insanity is because people derive fun and pleasure out of being in an unknown battleground and killing others.

I know this post may receive a lot of flak for even penning down this article however like everything that needs to be balances in life, this needs to be watched and balanced too.

I know of many parents who talk about their kids being aggressive, short tempered, ill mannered, secluded, sometimes even socially withdrawn and they have, at some point or the other mentioned that their children, play a lot of video games, especially the ones that involve violence.

Playing online games is something that I believe is a permissible act, as long as your child is having fun and sometimes learning too.

 I would like to quote something I read off the internet,

“Video games change your brain,” according to University of Wisconsin psychologist C. Shawn Green. Playing games alter the brain’s physiological structure in the same manner as do learning to read, navigating using a map, or playing the piano. Much like exercise can build muscle, the effective combination of concentration and rewarding surges of neurotransmitters like dopamine strengthen neural circuits which can build the brain.

This can happen if your activity is moderated just the way a certain amount of exercise is good for your body in day. However, like anything done in excess is harmful similarly, playing PUBG can have the following negative effects.

Make you violent and aggressive – Playing violent video games can hamper your mood and emotional stability and make you aggressive, violent and can cause problems with your behavior.

Cause Vision Problems – Now since this game is available on the phone too, it can have some serious repercussions on your eye sight and can also lead to problems like headaches, vertigo etc.

Social Withdrawal – Every person who is engrossed in an activity longer than they should be, can eventually withdraw themselves from the social circuit. They want to ensure that they are ahead of the other players and don’t get killed. They may even want to collect some awards while playing the game. This can make them withdraw from their daily rituals too.

Time Imbalance – Since it requires you to constantly fight for survival, it is bound to be time consuming and may cause havoc to your work and personal life schedules.

Addictive – Anything in proportion is good however when the proportion disrupts, it can cause addiction. If you have played this game once, you cannot stop at just one game! You would want to play multiple times. All you need to do is strike a balance.

Technology, I believe has advanced for our development and not destruction. Let’s use it wisely and to our benefits.