Are you one of those gaming freaks who gets restless without a game or two? Do your children fight when you try to restrict their video games? Does your gaming session take a priority over a friend’s birthday treat? Putting it simply, are your video games more than a hobby for you? Ponder over this habit again because it is slowly corroding your social life!

PC games, video games and other online games are a good hobby but spending countless hours playing them can make you an addict at the same time, so much so that this even has the potential to ruin a relationship!

Recently a study published in Journal of Youth and Adolescence, conducted by Brigham Young University undergraduate Alex Jensen and his faculty mentor, Laura Walker, concluded that as they amount of time spent in front of the screens goes up the quality of relationships tend to decline sharply.

Walker says, “Relationship quality is one of a cluster of things that we found to be modestly associated with video games. The most striking part is that everything we found clustered around video game use is negative”.

Earlier researches believed that people who were reserved would shy away to games in their effort to keep themselves away from friends and peers. Also the ones who have been through difficult times in a relationship would resort to games in order to get over.

However it has also been empirically proven that a gaming addict spends all his leisure time in front of the screens being hardly bothered about the world and people around himself.

The results of various studies conducted all over the globe have concluded the following repercussions of this addiction: slump in class performances, loosing your ability to blend with people, break-ups and also divorces. This might sound exaggerated but is stunningly true!
Relationships, be that friendship, an affair or a mariage, requires time, effort, commitment, and dedication. However when all that is being given to a video game, relationships rust!

This addiction can also have countless other negatives. The intensifying exposure to computer games especially the ones violent in nature, tend to increase the involvement in risky behaviors like under rage driving, drinking, smoking and drug abuse. Also the excessive time spent on video games tends to tarnish the morals within the human beings, especially the teenagers.

Watch out before its too late!

Contemporary society lays inordinate importance on money and popularity as the measure of success. In such a social ethos, we are often assailed by feelings of loss of worth and jealousy when compared to those who seem to have it all. However we can lead a far more wholesome existence if we only try and control our responses to the rich and famous among us.

Start by making a “pros and cons” list of all the things you are jealous of. For instance while an advantage of being popular is always having someone to hang out with, the obvious disadvantage lies in not knowing whether the friends like your company or your wealth.

Make another list of all the good things that have happened to you in your past, of all the good traits you possess as well as the family members and friends you cherish. An account of all these blessings in black and white and on paper might not seem such a bad deal after all.

If possible, get to know the person you feel jealous of. Once you see beneath the obvious glitter of wealth and popularity, you may realise that their lives are ultimately not so great.

However don’t hang about the rich and famous all the time. Look for friends and acquaintances from your own social set or with similar interests. You will find there is so much to explore and enjoy that there is not enough time to brood about what you don’t possess.

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No two people can think completely alike and thus agree on every issue of the daily life. However in a marriage if the two partners are forever sparring on every little matter, soon the relationship is bound to sour. It is therefore best to choose your battles and decide which issues are worth standing your ground.

Try not be bothered about the small stuff. Instead of getting mad about the way your spouse puts toilet paper on the roll, let go or think of other non-confrontational ways of conveying your dissatisfactions.

Most important of all consider which issues are worth fighting for. Before you start a fight, reflect on expectations to see if they are realistic and reasonable.

Resolve issues as they arise. If something about your spouse is bothering you now, be polite and clear it right away instead of letting it fester and then bringing it up it some day when it has snowballed blown into major issue.

A lot of issues can be ironed out by effective communication. Express your feelings objectively instead of keeping them bottled inside. This will not only let your partner know how you feel about something but also prevent you from exploding later over a minor oversight.