Everyone knows them, everyone has played them, everyone has or had them on their smartphones: MOBILE GAMING APPs!
No matter if Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans, Flappy Bird, Tetris or various others. These are games that sometimes you just can't put aside or suddenly have to reach for your mobile phone. They trigger a real addiction. But why do such games make you addictive?

Dopamine

There are many theories. Most people agree that every time a row of tetris disintegrates or a pig's lair is torn, the brain spills a stream of dopamine. Dopamine is a kind of happiness hormone, although it can also be called a body's own drug. The feeling of contentment that arises as a result of this allows us to keep on playing.

Emotional attachment

If something has a face, it's much harder to let go of it because we build an emotional bond to it. How many Clash of Clan players would say: My village needs me! Even though we know that these things are not real. At Farm Heroes, something in our minds says,"We can't just abandon these little vegetables!"

This also works with cute voices. Charles Mauro, Human Factors Engineer says Angry Birds wouldn't have been so successful without the "Wiiiiiiiiihhhh" of the bird being shot down. He doesn't think Angry Birds would have been so successful without that human touch.

Finding patterns is fun

Judy Willis is a neurologist. She has specialised in the science of learning and says that it is not only a pleasure for us to find patterns, but also the opportunity to discover them is a pleasure for us. In "Candy Crush Saga", two pink tiles next to each other would not produce a pattern yet. But they are close enough to each other that one could foresee (or hope) that another suitable shape would show up somewhere else.
If this actually happens, we feel pleasure. The search for patterns is all about good predictions,"says Willis. "In the end, the game most frequently played is the one that regularly puts players to the task of making predictions and getting immediate feedback."

Feasible challenge

To use the words of Samuel Beckett:"Try again. Fail again. Better fail." If a game is too easy, we quickly lose interest in it. If it's too hard, we'll put it aside prematurely. The games that fascinate us most give us the opportunity to fail a little better every time we try. This satisfies the deep desire in all of us to constantly improve our skills.

Let's take Angry Birds, for example. When you shoot a bird into the air, it leaves a dotted line where its trajectory is. This allows readjustments to be made during the next test. According to Mauro, this guideline is essential for the success of the game. "It puts you in a position to say,' I want to try again because I learned something last time.'"

Willis calls this "not-too-heavy-and-not-too-light point" a "achievable challenge". While we believe that we are driven by self-determination, it doesn't stop there, says Willis:"To solve a task - no matter how small - releases dopamine.

What do these games really get us?

You can get really addicted to it and you hide everyday life.
The games are designed in such a way that they are not too light, but also not too heavy; a feasible challenge that gives us success. We play, move on and our brain shakes out dopamine and gives us a feeling of satisfaction and success. We have actually done nothing to help us in our lives.

The last few days I've been busy trying to be as productive as possible and I've noticed that the games on my iPhone have kept me from being productive to the maximum. I have always played some games in the "breaks" because they are not waiting for me.....
I was aware of it, but I hadn't really understood it so far, nor had I drawn any conclusions from it.

I have played a lot of games in my youth, but I have also acquired a lot of skills from which I was also able to dig my dopamine and also learned skills and abilities which are meaningful: Wheelies by bike, juggling with 3 balls, balance on a slackline, card tricks, playing certain songs on a musical instrument; just to name a few. Isn't such success better? How many times have you told each other,"I'd like to be able to do that?" Then get out and learn it!!!! Do it, do it, move forward and don't surrender until you have reached your goal. It may be harder, but to quote Pele: The more difficult the victory, the greater the joy of victory.

It's fun, but at the end of the day such games are no gain for everyday life. I have written down a large list of goals I want to achieve this year. And no games app takes me further. They are more likely to slow me down. They give me neither financial freedom nor sporting success, nor new skills and abilities. They're just eating my precious time. Nobody will think you're cool if you say in 10 years time that you've set a record in a game; and even if you do, it's not really something you can do something with. But if you show someone something of your acquired skills and impress them, you have more use for yourself than any other game.

I have also deleted all my games a few days ago and can only emphasize that it was definitely a step in the right direction. I recommend you to do the same.

There is not little time that we do not have, but a lot of time that we do not use.

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Good Reasons to delete your mobile game apps

Dopamine

Emotional attachment

Finding patterns is fun

Feasible challenge

What do these games really get us?