The Things That Made Me Quit Mobile Game
I once struggled to get a mobile game away from myself. I tried several things to stop playing the mobile game and eventually made it somehow. I had tried and managed to spend less time on my smartphone before, but quitting a mobile game was a different kind of challenge. (If you're interested, see this post about how I reduced my smartphone time.)
In this post, I will tell you what kind of attempts I made and what really made me quit the mobile game.
 |
| Photo by SCREEN POST on Unsplash |
How I got indulged in the mobile game
I used to be addicted to a mobile game. I rarely played mobile games, but one day I felt like playing a kart-racing mobile game somehow. I tried that game, and it was fascinating. Since then, I used to play it for an hour or more almost every day.
But a month or more after I started the game, I gradually felt less excited than before and became frustrated. I began to long to get that mobile game away from me, but I couldn't. It was no longer as exciting as it was, but I couldn't help playing it for hours. It was a waste of time.
Moreover, I used to sleep less and play the game more. I started to take less care of my health. I didn't see a doctor, but I wouldn't have been surprised if I had been diagnosed with gaming addiction. I was terribly upset, so I decided to get out of hell.
What didn't work #1: Uninstall game app
First, I decided to stop playing that game and uninstalled it from my smartphone. Goodbye!
The next day, I reinstalled that game, signed into my account, and played it again. Why am I playing this? Didn't I make up my mind to say goodbye to that game? I uninstalled it again, swearing that I never did it again.
The next day, I reinstalled that game, signed into my account, and played it again despite my swear.
I hadn't expected that I would take the trouble to reinstall the mobile game again and again.
What didn't work #2: Use Screen Time
You can limit how many minutes you can use an app with Screen Time. Once you reach the limit, you have to either stop using it or enter your passcode to extend the time limit. If you choose to get another 15 minutes, the app is unlocked. It will be locked 15 minutes later, and you will be asked to extend the period again.
After finding that the game's uninstallation was insufficient, I tried to use Screen Time. I expected the lock, which took every 15 minutes, to remind me that it was time to stop playing the game. I also hoped that entering the passcode to unlock the app every 15 minutes would be so tedious that I wouldn't feel like playing the game for so long.
Unfortunately, however, the reality didn't go as expected. One day I entered the passcode to unlock the app at least seven times. What is worse, when I got fed up with entering the passcode, I began to choose to extend the time limit for an hour.
I found one thing from that experience. As Gretchen Rubin says in her book, Better Than Before, some people can't do something in moderation. And I'm one of them.
What I Learned About Habits – Reading "Better Than Before"
The book "Better Than Before" tells us the strategies to make habits. I'll share what I've learned from it with my personal experience in this post.
What didn't work #3: Reset account data
I needed to find another way that didn't rely on my will and enabled me to quit the mobile game permanently. Finally, I decided to
reset my account data. Dozens of items I collected were deleted.
I did it! Life without that kart racing game is waiting for me.
However, things were not so easy. By resetting my account data, I felt refreshed. Feeling as if I got a brand new life in that game's world, I was able to enjoy that game again from scratch. But wait, I intended to reset the data to throw that game away. I had to look for another way.
What didn't work #4: Delete account
Even the account data reset didn't work, so what was next? Delete the account itself. I decided to delete my account. I said to myself I wouldn't play the kart racing game again.
When proceeding with the account deletion, however, there was a pitfall. A description said, "You may reactivate your account for a period of four weeks after deletion." That meant I needed to keep strong willpower not to reactivate the account for no less than four weeks. And as my expectation, my firm willpower didn't last for so long. Also, even if my account had been deleted immediately, I might have signed up again.
At this point, I finally realized that I needed to eliminate the root cause of my desire to play the mobile game. In the case of SNS apps, the root cause was easy accessibility. But when it comes to the mobile game, the root cause was that I desired to play it.
What worked #1: Read books about the mobile game addiction
I needed to eliminate the root cause of my desire to play the mobile game. With this in mind, I read some books about smartphone game addiction. It helped me stop playing smartphone games.
While I didn't get specific ways to stop playing games from the book, reading the book helped me understand why I can't stop playing smartphone games.
For example, smartphone games are designed to be exciting and not make you bored. There is a gacha system that makes you happy when you pull in a rare item, login bonuses that you get when you log in every day, and so on. I realized that since these games were created with ingenuity by professionals in game production, there was no way I could stop playing them by sheer force of will.
I was trying to stop playing smartphone games without understanding what they were. To defeat an enemy, you must first learn about the enemy. Therefore, reading books about smartphone games gave me hints about how to fundamentally stop playing them.
– After successfully quitting the mobile game addiction and when I no longer played the mobile game, I read Insta-Brain. As mentioned in another post about Insta-Brain, the book says people are excited by the anticipation that something good "might" happen. That's exactly why gacha systems are a lot of fun.
What worked #2: Find something else interesting
This method is easy and effective, although there are some caveats to be aware of. And this method is also one that doesn't rely on one's willpower.
I thought I couldn't stop playing the mobile game because I couldn't find anything else I wanted to or should do. With this in mind, I considered what else might be interesting and what I should do besides playing the smartphone game. Then I tried what came to mind. Practice drawing, practice programming, reading books, and so on. As a result, programming practice, especially programming quizzes, suited me perfectly. I gradually became absorbed in practicing quizzes, and the idea of playing the smartphone game disappeared gradually.
However, there is a word of caution in this approach. If you make a mistake in the object of your enthusiasm, the situation will simply be the same except for whether what you are doing is a smartphone game or not.
That's precisely what happened to me. I was passionate about programming quizzes but realized I was merely interested in solving puzzles rather than honing my software engineering skills. In the end, I had to think about how to avoid spending too much time on programming quizzes.
What worked #3: Think of what I need to do to be my ideal self
Considering what I needed to do to be my ideal self was the most important thing to get out of smartphone game addiction.
What should I do essentially to quit the mobile game? Thinking like that, I tried to remember why I felt like playing the mobile game. Then I came up with the idea that I was lost in life.
It had been a year since I started working, and I was just getting used to my job and unsure what to do. What I was studying at college was helpful for my job only partially. I was disappointed with my job and myself. Though I was learning new things in my own way for my future self, I didn't feel that was meaningful to me.
I was looking for something exciting to distract my mind and found a good thing, the kart racing game. I could feel a sense of accomplishment when I took first place in the race. Gathering items also gave me a sense of accomplishment, and I especially felt content when I collected a rare item occasionally. The game brought me instant satisfaction. That's why I couldn't get out of the mobile game.
After realizing that, I began to consider my future ideal self. Should I hone my skills in software engineering to seek a better position? Or do I need to start learning how to build a team for my future career as a manager? I couldn't clarify what I wanted to be, but I came to one conclusion: I should do something more worthwhile than just spending time for nothing. I restarted reading books about programming, management, and something since then. At first, I sometimes felt like playing that smartphone game, but gradually that feeling disappeared.
I got a takeaway from this experience. You'll feel like killing time if you have no purpose in life, and you won't kill time if you have a purpose.
Conclusion
I've written about how I stopped playing a mobile game in this post. What I've realized through trying to quit a mobile game is that:
- You need to find a root cause to stop a bad habit. Superficial countermeasures don't work.
- If you want to stop something you started as a distraction but can't stop, perhaps you've lost sight of the meaning of life.
If you have a similar problem, I hope what I've learned from my experience helps improve the situation.
