This time we'll talk about games and procrastination.
Do you play games?
There are many benefits to playing games, such as the opportunity to form a community, make friends, and mature socially by playing with friends.
Some people say that games are harmful because of their inappropriate expressions. However, I would like to talk about such things only after the causal relationship is proven.The study I'm going to introduce is investigating whether or not people who play games are just procrastinating.
The Study
Procrastination can be a serious problem for many people, and playing video games is considered to be one of them.
One of the reasons why video games are associated with procrastination is that they provide immediate gratification and feedback, while at the same time distracting us from tasks that are not as engaging or challenging.
It becomes unclear whether playing video games causes procrastination and changes the potential rewards one may get in the future.
More than 500 participants were included in the two studies, which included two surveys on video game habits and measures of procrastination tendencies.
Participants in Study 1 performed an empirical discounting task, and participants in Study 2 performed a five-trial adjusted delayed discounting task, with both tasks assessing preference for delayed greater rewards.In the results of Study 1, time spent playing video games was not significantly related to procrastination or reward reduction.
In the results of Study 2, hours of video games were also not strongly associated with procrastination or delayed rewards.
However, those who played games to escape from reality and reduce stress were found to have more procrastination problems than those who played for entertainment, reward, or social reasons.
Discussion
In this study, playing video games is unlikely to be directly related to the problem of procrastination.To begin with, the benefits of video games include increased attention span, improved creativity and problem solving skills, increased positive emotions, relaxation, and anxiety reduction.
There doesn't seem to be any one genre of game that is necessarily this one, it seems to be a matter of the emotional state of playing.
Immersing oneself in a game in order to escape from real life problems only postpones the real problems, and even with these benefits, the problems may not be solved.
Because of such extreme casereport, it is only too easy to criticize by unilaterally labeling game time as XX minutes or that playing that genre is not good.
The information obtained from this study is that there is no problem with the amount of time spent playing or the genre, but the problem is that people play games only to escape from real life problems.
People who are also known as "game junkies" only immerse themselves in games to avoid the problems they are facing in reality, and they have no problem with the games themselves.
And I think you should know that such people are not so rare.
Nordby K, Løkken RA, Pfuhl G. Playing a video game is more than mere procrastination. BMC Psychol. 2019;7(1):33. published 2019 Jun 13. doi:10.1186/s 40359-019-0309-9
Conclusion
The results of the study on games and procrastination suggest that we need to change our perception of games.
Games played to escape from real life problems are problematic, but games played for entertainment purposes, such as genre and playing time, are not necessarily harmful.
If the problem is that an individual or people around them are too immersed in a game, it is not the game itself that is to blame, but the behavior that should be done, and whether or not they are immersed in it to escape from it is another matter.
It is an easy decision to ask them to quit the game in order to solve the problem, but they should also know that doing so may not solve the problem.
Nordby K, Løkken RA, Pfuhl G. Playing a video game is more than mere procrastination. BMC Psychol. 2019;7(1):33. published 2019 Jun 13. doi:10.1186/s 40359-019-0309-9
