Online Mobile Games Engulfing Youth's Future

''Rahul (pen name), a 15 years old boy, student of class X is playing free fire mobile game on his mobile for a long time. Amid playing, he needs a credit card to pay some money and to open the security of the game. Then he came to his elder brother madly looking for a credit card''. Imagine how much addicted he is to free fire.

This is an example of one boy. But there is a huge number boys around our country who are addicted to online games like these. Most importantly, they are our young generation. Though there is no specific data on the total number of teenagers addicted to games in Bangladesh. But it is assumed that a huge number of teenagers are addicted to online games like free fire and PUBG mobile game.

As the COVID-19 forced us to stay home and closed educational institutes for a long time, this brought a disaster in the life of youth. Closing school/college or educational institutes means students are out from their study routine. They have nothing to do amid this pandemic. Due to the high accessibility to smart devices, internet and vast amount of time, our teenagers use it negatively by playing free fire and PUBG mobile game. They are busy with playing free fire and PUBG for most of the time in a day.

This is happening for 4 months after government imposed lock-down and closure of all institutions from March 17. For this reason they have become fully addicted to this game. They cannot think anything except playing games. Even, whenever a group of teenagers come to each other they only discuss about the free fire mobile game that I witnessed in last month. After that I was observed teenagers of different villages of my district. Unfortunately, they are also addicted to this game. So it is crystal clear to us that, the situation is very alarming for our country. Except addiction, there are many demerits of playing those games. They are-

• This games are extremely violent. Excessive violence can trigger aggressive thoughts, emotions and behavior that can ultimately affect the mental health of the young generation. That is why many of our youths are frustrated.
• It makes the young people unproductive as they are always busy with game playing. So, as the time goes up their learning capability will decrease and ultimately they will be unproductive.
• This games make them unsocial as they are busy with gaming and don't interact with people. 
• It also hampers the physical health of the teenagers. While playing game they are sitting in a place for long time. That means they have no physical activity. It is well established that inadequate physical activity can cause various disease such as obesity and many others. On the other hand, staring at the mobile or computer screen for a long time can hamper eyesight which will turn into headache later.
• Playing this game changes the lifestyle pattern of the teenager. They lost regularity in their everyday life which is deleterious for their health and well-being.
• Kills the valuable time of teenager. 

The above discussion reflects the life threatening effect of playing free fire and PUBG. These so called online games are engulfing our youth's future. Youths are the most valuable wealth for any country. Proper counselling and nurturing can transform the youth into resources. Abstaining them from playing free fire and PUBG mobile game is our responsibility. If we make them conscious about the hazardous effect of playing games, they will try to come back. Any type of addiction needs proper guidance and counselling to come back in the normal life. Our parents can play a crucial role in counselling the teenagers. They can teach their children about the dangerous effect of gaming. In this way, an integrated and multiculturalism approach is necessary to build gaming free young generation. Let's act from the own family and make sustainable Bangladesh through the youth engagement. 

Writer
Md Billal Hossen
MS student
Faculty of Biological Science
Islamic University, Bangladesh
Email: [email protected]