what to do instead of playing video games

As parents, information technology is worrying and disheartening to find that your kid does not want to appoint in any action apart from playing video games for sixteen hours a mean solar day. Telling them to read books does not work. Asking them to exercise chores does non work either. Your kid will lash out and want to go dorsum to playing games. These are non corking alternatives to video games.

Parents are by and large clueless nearly what activities to recommend to their inhouse gamer. When the child feels forced to sit down and read a book, something that they don't savor, it does more harm than good. It sows resentment in the child and the parent because the child will go back to gaming against the parent'due south wishes, and the child feels forced to do something that is fundamentally unenjoyable for them.

There is a fundamental lack of agreement on both sides of this equation. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how video games touch on your child. It helps to sympathize why certain activities are more fun while others are boring for your child, and how, as parents, yous tin can help them regain residuum using alternatives to video games.

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12 Alternatives to Video Games

• Art, dance, or music lessons
• Nature activities such equally whitewater rafting or hiking
• Martial arts
• Learning to code
• Internships at startups
• Competitive Sports
• Boy Scouts/Eagle Scouts
• Volunteering
• Tutoring
• Learning creative art forms
• Playing the stock market with phantom portfolios or small-scale amounts of money
• Roller coasters

While information technology is useful to know the alternatives to video games that tin work, this listing is incomplete without understanding why sure activities piece of work for certain kinds of gamers.

Before we swoop into what activities you can replace gaming with, nosotros first need to learn how bad your gaming addiction is. We designed this quiz to help you effigy this out:

Unlike kinds of gamers seek to fulfill different needs from video games. To learn what these needs are, we first demand to understand how games impact the mind.

How do Video Games Impact the Brain?

Video games impact the brain in several ways. However, nosotros are going to focus on there are 3 singled-out effects:

1. Dopamine Exhaustion
2. Suppressing Negative Emotions
3. Triumph Circuit

Dopamine Exhaustion

Our encephalon releases a neurotransmitter chosen dopamine when nosotros are having fun. This chemic governs the feeling of pleasure. When we play games, our brain releases a constant supply of dopamine with random bursts.

Over time, our encephalon gets used to a sure level of dopamine, and we need to play for longer durations to have the same amount of fun. If we keep playing for prolonged periods, our encephalon gets used to a sure amount of dopamine, which makes other activities feel less enjoyable. Anything other than gaming is non as fun.

Negative Emotion Suppression

Video games also suppress negative emotions. The amygdala is the part of our encephalon that governs the feeling of negative emotion. It is active when we experience negative emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, frustration, etc. Moreover, fMRI studies have shown that when nosotros beginning playing a video game while our amygdala is active and we are feeling negative emotions, our amygdala shuts off.

Over fourth dimension, this can lead to a status called Alexithymia, which is the inability to determine your inner emotional state. That is why video games are great coping mechanisms. One can easily play a game and feel better.

Triumph Circuit

The Triumph circuit is non a concrete structure in our brains. Information technology is more than of a psychological pattern that all human beings share. The triumph excursion gets activated when we feel challenged and, as a consequence of overcoming that challenge, receive a reward.

Learn more about the triumph excursion in this video:

Video games have found a fashion to hack this circuit. If we feel inadequately challenged, we can plough on a video game and change that. Video games provide u.s. with challenges and advantage us in a way that is subservient to us. As a result, we don't demand to rely on the existent world to experience tested and receive rewards.

Click hither to learn more nigh why these three factors make video games addictive.

Alternatives to Playing Video Games

Now that we understand how video games affect the brain and the needs that they fulfill, we tin can start to look at different activities that will make suitable replacements for your child'south gaming addiction.

However, the first step is to sympathize what kinds of games your child plays. This understanding volition assist you determine whether they will enjoy a particular hobby or not since dissimilar types of games fulfill dissimilar needs. Some of the game genres mentioned here are:

• MMORPGs such as Terminal Fantasy xiv and World of Warcraft.
• Adventure games such equally The Legend of Zelda, Nighttime Souls, and Skyrim.
• Start Person Shooters (FPS) such equally Fortnite and Phone call of Duty.
• Sports games such as FIFA.
• Collectible Card Games (CCGs) such as Hearthstone, Artifact, and Gwent.
• Clan games such every bit Disharmonism of Clans.
• Turn-Based Strategy games such equally the Civilizations, XCOM, and the Total War serial.
• MOBAs such equally League of Legends and Dota 2.
• Role-Playing Games (RPGs) such as the Final Fantasy series, Witcher, and Diablo 3.

Alternatives to Video Games for Your Resident Gamer

• Martial Arts, Competitive sports, and Rollercoasters: These activities are suitable for players of Starting time-Person Shooter and Sports games. These gamers enjoy the thrill they get from a sense of danger. They take a high competitive drive and love winning against adversity. They also like to larn new skills.
• Internships at Startups: Internships are great for players of Collectible Card Games and Strategy Games. These gamers honey to sympathise complex systems and achieve quantitative mastery over a subject. They also take a loftier competitive drive. Since startups are complex and competitive systems that require employees to do more than than just their daily tasks, a gamer will feel adequately challenged there. Bonus points if information technology is a tech, financial or political startup, as they require a loftier degree of strategizing and problem-solving.
• Male child Scouts/Eagle Scouts, Volunteering, and Habitat for Humanity: These activities are suitable for players of Clan games and MMORPGs. The players of these games normally play for a feeling of a shared community, so community-based activities that involve working together towards a common goal will nigh probable exist enjoyable for these gamers.
• Learning to lawmaking, Tutoring: Players of RPGs, Turn-Based Strategy, and CCGs will enjoy coding and tutoring since they involve understanding a system, quantitative mastery, and learning new skills (similar to internships at startups).
• Playing the stock market with phantom portfolios or small amounts of coin: CCG and Plough-Based strategy gamers will enjoy playing the stock marketplace (safely). These players go satisfaction from planning out and executing a successful strategy, and they tin can accomplish the same feeling from the stock market.
• Nature activities: Outdoor activities work for players of adventure games, MOBAs, and sports games, considering these players enjoy exploration and are highly curious. Hiking is excellent for those non seeking adrenaline, while whitewater rafting works for those seeking adrenaline.
• Learning an art or artistic form: Players of take a chance games will savour learning to play a musical instrument, woodworking, painting, sculpture, etc. because they activate parts of the brain that interpret sensory information. These people get rushes from seeing new things, navigating new landscapes, and creating something new.

Alternatives to Video Games that volition NOT work

• Reading a volume: In theory, reading a volume is a suitable replacement for a gamer. Books can offer rich stories and enjoyable narratives, much like video games. They can likewise act as an escape from the real world. Moreover, they also come with not bad benefits, such as boosting reading comprehension, increased vocabulary, and improved communication skills. However, reading a book is likewise dull for a brain that likes faster-paced activity. A gamer'due south mind has high dopamine tolerance, and books cannot alive up to the standard of "fun" set by video games. At the beginning of their gaming cleanse, a gamer will not be able to read or savor books. They will not have the attention bridge because the book is non fast-paced enough to be stimulating.
• Playing lath games with family: Board games also seem similar a proficient replacement activity for video games. However, many gamers feel quite defensive when their games become taken abroad from them. If they take to do something else, such as play a board game with family unit, they will associate the negative feelings of non existence able to play games with spending fourth dimension with family. Every bit a parent, this is not a good association to instill in your kid. It is more effective to spend fourth dimension with your child while they're playing games. That will help them go used to your presence when they are having fun, and they volition not feel threatened that their games will get taken away. Aside from that, board games are too slow for the gamer, as they're slow compared to video games.
• Play outside: While spending time in nature is groovy for your child, "playing outside" is also abstract for a gamer to process. Moreover, i of the biggest reasons that children turn to video games is because they get bullied outside their homes. If your kid escapes to video games to avert playing exterior with their friends, they might be doing it for a good reason.
• Household chores: Permit's face it — chores are irksome, especially for children. Information technology will be especially difficult for a gamer to stop playing games and do chores considering they're still at home where their video games are accessible. Their surroundings hasn't changed, and they will continue wondering why they take to do chores when they can play video games.

Open-Ended vs. Close-Ended Problem Solving

Some activities won't work for gamers because they are too abstract. For example, "working out" is not actionable. How does ane workout?

Video games put us in an environment, tell usa the rules, and then ask united states of america to solve a problem given a particular set of weather. A gamer'southward heed gets used to going through this process, so when they find themself in a situation where the rules are unclear or open-ended, they get stuck. They don't know how to deal with these open up-ended problems, because video games have trained their minds to solve close-concluded issues.

That affects a gamer's motivation every bit well. Players are less probable to clean their room because their brain does not know how to solve open-ended problems. It is difficult for them to break down that task into actionable steps, which keeps them from attempting that task in the first place.

Learn more about open up-ended vs close-ended problem-solving in this video:

One solution to this problem is to assist them suspension downward this task into several steps. For instance, cleaning your room tin be broken down into cleaning your cupboard, picking clothes off the flooring, making the bed, etc. Each of these is an actionable task that volition help the gamer larn how to solve open-ended problems.

Click here to read more than nigh detoxing your child from video games.

Conclusion

To propose activities that piece of work for your child, you need to understand what games they enjoy playing. That will give you a meaning insight into how their brain functions and why the games they play are enjoyable to them.

The commencement step to doing that is to get on their team. If your child's perspective is "Me + video games vs. my parents," and so it volition be hard to get them to practice annihilation.

Our Parents Class tin assistance you build rapport with your kid and help them regain rest. Click here to larn more.

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Source: https://www.healthygamer.gg/blog/13-hobbies-to-replace-video-games

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