Wednesday, July 21, 2021

I'm Not Playing Around

 ... on my phone, at least.

For the last few months, I'd noticed that both wife kitteh and I had the habit of playing games on our phones while we watched TV. In the back of my mind, I felt this was insulting to the people who made the shows or were playing the sports. There were nuances to the shots and dialog that went right past me as I burst bubbles. I also missed soccer goals because I was looking at my phone instead of watching the game.

Pure entertainment, broadcast for my imperial amusement, was insufficient for my royal highness. My royal highness required ever more layered diversion. I wondered if the next steps might be scented candles and massages to enjoy while watching the greatest national soccer teams in Europe play and breaking bricks with balls on my phone. Ridiculous.

And so I deleted all of the games. It's cut back significantly on my distractedness, but I feel cravings for them whenever I have an idle moment. Waiting on hold, allowing a program to finish running, downloading a file, all of these things were times when I would whip out the phone and break bricks or burst bubbles.

I don't miss it, I'm just surprised at what a crutch it had become.

Nobody would confuse this with visiting the Louvre.

3 comments:

tim eisele said...

Wow. I never really got into the phone games, and didn't realize that they got so addictive that people would keep playing them while simultaneously indulging in some other form of amusement. That's like going to a restaurant for dinner, but then simultaneously popping M&Ms from a bag in your pocket the whole time you were eating.

K T Cat said...

Dopamine is a serious drug.

One Brow said...

I have kept it to online versions of board games, for the most part. I play a lot of 18xx on a couple of different sites.

I agree those computer games seem almost too tempting.