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A competitor plays Honor of Kings during the 2017 King Pro League Spring Season in Shanghai in April. [Photo/China Daily] |
Over half of the 2,013 respondents in a survey conducted recently by China Youth Daily believed that overindulging in mobile games may result from a person’s weak will power for a meaningful life.
According to the survey, 73.9 percent of respondents acknowledged that they love mobile games, while 78.4 percent of them revealed that they know many people who are addicted.
The survey consisted of 54.9 percent males and 45.1 percent females with 75.7 percent of them holding at least a bachelor’s degree; 19.1 percent are high school or technical secondary school graduates, while 5.2 percent have graduated or yet to be graduated from middle school.
“I never used to like mobile games as I thought they were worthless and harmful to the eyes,” said Du Yiting, a university freshman from Tianjin.
“But when my classmates always talked about the games with phrases and terms that I was not aware of, I was worried that I may become excluded if I did not start playing the games,” she recalled.
To maintain her friendship with her classmates, Du started playing mobile games, which later became an addiction that she struggled to get rid of.
During her summer vacation, she started playing games before even getting out of bed and then joined up with her classmates from noon till nighttime.
According to the survey, 85.3 percent of respondents claimed that they can control the time spent playing mobile games, while, 14.2 percent reckoned they are addicted to the games.
Zhao Limin from Beijing found her son had become deeply engrossed in the games, ignoring meal times and bedtimes. Many things can trigger his mood swings such as shouting, clapping and stamping. When she dissuaded her boy from spending too much time on the games he would lose his temper.
Zhao’s son epitomizes a common scenario in the life of game addicts.
“A friend of mine has spent 10,000 yuan (US$1,480) on tools and software upgrades for mobile games.” Du said.
Xiang Ligang, an analyst of the telecommunication industry, said that the easy access, convenient portability and role-play excitement have resulted in the addiction to mobile games.
According to Xiang, the government should set ceilings on the charges of mobile games and parents should help develop diverse hobbies for their children during the vacation other than leaving them alone to play mobile games.
More than 65 percent of respondents supported the idea of creating a rating system for mobile games to prevent young people becoming overindulgent in them.
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