Sunday, March 24, 2013

I Grew Up During the Video Game Craze



I Grew Up During the Video Game Craze

By Keith Bunn Jr.
March 24, 2013

Child of the 80's

As a child of the 80's, I grew up during the big video game craze. I use to ride my bike or took the bus to the local mall to just hangout and to play video games at Aladdin's Castle. I can't tell you how many quarters I pumped into those games. Towards the end of the 80's, the home version gaming consoles started to show up. Commodore 64, Atari, Nintendo, SEGA, etc...are just a few of gaming consoles that hit the market and since then, the numerous hours of game playing at home began by both children and adults. I know I have wasted tons of hours playing video games, especially during the time I was going through my divorce. On the weekends, I would pack up my PlayStation (the original) and go over to my friends house, and ate a lot of pizza, drank gallons of Mountain Dew, and played games, sometimes for days straight. So when a couple of co-workers, last week, were talking about how they couldn't wait to get home so they could play a recent and popular video game, I understood where they were coming from. However, I have learned in the past few years, playing video games for that many hours at a time is a horrible waste of time, unless you don't want to grow in any areas and remain where you are in your life.

Average Game Play

According to a recent study, the average American played 142 hours per person in 2012. I know this doesn't sound like a lot of time playing games but this is just an average. I don't know anyone who plays video games who just plays for 40 minutes a day. They play hours upon hours at a time. I did it too! But, when I realized that I wasn't getting anywhere in my life, my job, and my relationships I knew I had to make some changes, and one of those changes would have to be stop playing video games. Now I do have to admit, I did play one of my favorite a games last year, but it wasn't for very long because I really sucked at it. LOL! So I'm not against playing video games. I just don't think a person should spend all day playing video games. There are better things to do.

Alternatives

So what are some of things we can do instead of gaming? Here are just a few things I've thought up of what you could do.

1) LEARN: Learn about something that you are interested in that will improve your life personally or professionally by either reading books or taking a class.

2) Fix your finances: The average person spends more time on gaming, using social media, & watching TV than they do working on and fixing their finances. If we just took half the time working on and fixing our finances as we do all those other things, some peoples world would look a whole lot different. I know this isn't the most fun thing to do but being broke your whole life isn't fun either.

3) Be more social: Hang out with family and friends more. I'm not talking about spending a lot of money doing this. You can watch a DVD at home or at a friend's house, play a board game, go for a walk or bike ride, do something other than sit in front of a TV screen or monitor for hours playing games.

These are just a few things I came up with. I'm sure there are a ton more things you all can come up with. Again, I'm not against people playing video games and if you like where you're at in your life playing games hour upon hour, every day of your waking life, more power to you. But if you don't like where you're at, then make a change. You're only going to keep getting what you're getting if you don't.

Questions

1) How many hours a day are you playing video games?

2) What are some of the things you could be doing instead?

3) What are some other things you can come up with that you could be doing  that I didn't mention above? 

I hope my posts inspire you to look at what you’re doing financially and if needed, make some changes that will cause you to win financially. I also look forward to reading your views on any articles or postings that I may post. If you have any questions for me about my postings or about your finances, you can call me at (616) 454-2046 or e-mail me at cavuscoaching@gmail.com. For more money news, facts and ideas, follow me on Facebook, or Twitter. Thank you!


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