Online Games Among Millennial Generation, In this millennial era, the widespread use of electronic devices such as mobile phones, PCs, laptops, and others, are widely used for various purposes. Information technology is constantly evolving at this time, constantly bringing change and impacting social life. One of them, the great influence of online games on the current generation. An online game is a network-connected game program that we can play anytime, anywhere and can be played together in groups around the world and the game itself displays interesting images as desired, supported by a computer (Bobby Bodenheimer, 1999).
Online Games Among Millennial Generation
In today’s digital age, mobile gaming has become a favorite of gamers. This is in line with the high number of smartphone users around the world, including Indonesia. Currently online games are spreading in society, especially among teenagers. Even this game can be accessed by all circles by teenagers, parents, and even children. All the games offered in online games provide entertainment that can make gamers motivated to play it again and again or addictive. This type of game in the virtual world can be reached by everyone around the world without limits and time. The situation is different with traditional games that tend to rely on the muscles of the body.
Online Games Among Generations
Online games, more use of the brain’s ability to think and the agility of the fingers in pressing the buttons of the controller stick. Newzoo data shows the number of smartphone users worldwide will reach more than 3.3 billion during 2019. The total number of mobile gamers worldwide will reach 2.3 billion. In Indonesia alone, smartphone users reach more than 82 million. Mobile game players in Indonesia reach more than 52 million. Indonesia is ranked 17th globally with the largest number of mobile gamers. Indonesia also contributed USD 624 million or the equivalent of Rp 8.7 trillion for mobile gaming during 2019.
Online games themselves have an appeal that makes people prefer to play than learn. This is evidenced by the large number of teenagers who spend time in front of a computer or mobile rather than books. As a result, learning activities are disrupted. In fact, online games do not simply have a negative impact. There are also positive impacts such as, one can find new things, new opponents and new tactics. Some of the online games also present games that have a nuance of brainstorming and require a person to concentrate. Online Games Among Millennial Generation,
The most surprising positive impact of online games is that, playing the game about 20 minutes before learning can increase concentration in learning. This has been done by researchers in the United States, New York. Children who already know a strategy in the game can improve the ability to develop in Mathematics, Problem Solving (problem solving), and the ability to read especially if the game can be played in English. However, we see gamers who play online games, most forget time and forget about other activities. So, there are assumptions that make playing online games negative. Even so, if played continuously and excessively. Even so, online games are more likely to have a negative effect if a person is addicted. This can lead to forgetting about time,
Sometimes gamers do not realize if they are too busy playing online games. In fact, to the point of forgetting to eat, drink. And the lack of exercise can make the body vulnerable to disease. Due to the lack of smooth metabolism of the body, the radiation emitted by the monitor can also damage the eyes and nerves. This is proven to be often encountered by gamers who often use glasses. A gamer is sometimes isolated, making it difficult to socialize with the community. They prefer to interact with fellow opponents to play. Sometimes, gamers often look depressed, because they lose the game or get upset with a teammate who can not work with him. Various negative impacts not only on health but also cause many criminal acts committed by the ‘addicts’ of online games.
One example is the $ 5,000 dollar grab where the Madden tournament is being held at a Pizza restaurant, Florida. The tournament had to end in a bloodbath because David Katz (24) was angry and started shooting people blindly after losing the tournament (gamebrott.com).
Another example of an impact on mental health. Pavel Mateev (15 years old) from Tomsk, Russia who ended his life in a sadistic way by beheading himself with a chainsaw on the morning of September 4. The Russian Investigative Committee also investigated the case, focusing on the hypothesis of “incitement to suicide”.
However, if Mateev’s reason is not because of the dangerous game, then his addiction and emotion to online games itself made him do such a desperate thing. The International Health Agency (WHO) indicates that video game addiction is one of the mental disorders (gamebrott.com).
It is best for gamers to be good at dividing time and not forget about other activities and not to prioritize playing games. There are some tips so that a person can stop from addiction to online games such as, follow activities that are more useful so as not to remember to continue to play online games, parental supervision for children to prevent children from plunging into the world of games. And further tips to quit game addiction must have a strong intention to quit, and so on.
From this can at least reduce the negative impact of playing online games. As we know that something excessive will definitely have a bad impact, even with this online game. We can play games just to relieve stress but back to each individual where we must limit ourselves so as not to be too excessive in playing games so as not to end up addicted to games.