11:26 AM (of Saturday, June 8th 2024)
Today is Friday, June 7th 2024. What would happen if for an entire day, I stopped consuming video games and anime? This week I've consumed way too much of both and found it detrimental. On Sunday and Monday combined, I consumed over 12 hours of this video game called AFK Journey. It's a dangerously addicting mobile video game. Throughout this year too, I've been watching anime frequently, and since I've seen practically all of the popular dubbed ones over the years, end up watching a lot of old content on repeat.
That's a strong claim, right? To claim to have watched practically all of the popular dubbed anime. I think I have. I have seen so many. Each season is only 12 episodes long, often an entire series is just 12 episodes, each around 22 minutes long, so combined an entire series can be 4 hours long total. An entire series or two can be watched within an afternoon. While working or exercising or cleaning, even though I mainly put music or an audiobook up during these activities, or have nothing on at all, I might choose to have some anime playing in the background, and the entire series can be played through in less than a working day.
So yeah, I think I have seen practically all of the popular dubbed anime out there and even a lot of the unpopular ones. I've really seen countless of them that I don't even remember all their names. There is an anime about being the 8th son, and there's also anime about being the 7th son. There's another anime about I think 6 siblings, all trying to become the next king or queen, I don't remember the name. There is an anime about 7 witches, several anime about 7 companions, 7 sins, 7 samurai. There is an anime about sextuplets. There is an anime about quintuplets. The ones I've described is just me recalling anime that involve a lot of siblings or type of people connected in some way, not even branching out and naming other kinds. I really have seen so many.
I have this book called How to Retire Happy, Healthy, Wild, and Free and one of the sections is about avoiding television altogether for a happy and meaningful retirement. I'm not retired, but the advice in it can be applied to every day leisure time. This is a book about spending your leisure time wisely, and it argues that to find meaning, you can't waste it on frivolous non-activities like watching television.
I've also absorbed some content from Game Quitters.It's a YouTube channel with currently 28.4k subscribers as I write this, and only around 1000 views on average per video. I think they are an absolute hit. I have seen people like Jauwn and Louis Rossman go from no subscribers and no views, to millions. I was watching Louis Rossman years before he ever became popular, and it took him years to become popular. He uploaded videos for maybe 5 years before anything took off, and now he has 2 million subscribers. It's similar with Jauwn, for years, or maybe just a year, he had no views, Seriously. When I was watching him, his videos only had hundreds of views, that's it. Now all his videos, including all his past ones, have hundreds of thousands of views.
I think Game Quitters is going to be a hit as well. He has what it takes. The content of his videos are pretty top notch. I can't say that I watched his content for years like I did Louis Rossman and Jauwn, that I was there when he had less than 1k subscribers, which I was there for Jauwn when he had like 200, not 200k, just 200, and I was watching Louis Rossman when he had around 6k subscribers. But I was there when Game Quitters had 28.4k subscribers. Yeah. He makes top notch videos.
Anyway, one of GQ's videos is about, well, all his videos are basically about this, about how games are a waste of time and how quitting them can have you reclaim your life. The only games that I will play are the brain training ones. They're not addicting, and they make me want to quit as soon as I play them, really. It's a chore to do 100 math problems or solve a long PEMDAS equation. It's a chore to memorize several numbers or symbols and recall them a second later. It's a chore to solve puzzle problems. So yeah, these games are not addicting. They are the only ones I'll play.
We really only realize their detrimental effects from people who don't consume either. I still haven't fully realized the benefits of no anime and no video games yet, as I did fall to these vices later at night. However, throughout the day, I didn't engage in either, and I just ended up working all day. I didn't do any additional exercises, nor clean more, nor was I any happier I think, but I did get more done at work. I did feel more content with doing nothing.
And that's the trap with video games and anime, they want to constantly grab our attention and give us dopamine, so that when' we're doing a boring activity, like cleaning, it feels boring.
Anyway, I went to the gym later that night with some friends. We did some new workouts, we're doing a new routine called power lifting. Prior, we were doing this program called strength. Power lifting is more dynamic, though they have a lot of the same workouts. Afterwards we went to get some Acai, or they did. I ended up not getting any, since you could only order through the drive thru, and I parked my car and walked inside instead. We ended up eating inside and just talked and hung out. I hung out with Eric and Strauss, Strauss is a new guy we met a few weeks back, he is vegan as well. Very cool, very jacked guy.
Afterwards I could have hung out more with them, but just decided to go home. At home I consumed anime and video games. Maybe I should quit Waifu Zone Combat as well? It's currently the only game I play, and I'm rank 1 in server 1. There's these two other extreme players who have surpassed me, but they're on different servers. Maybe they paid more, or they are the developers themselves? They have extremely rare and highly leveled Waifus, and they both have the same exact ones. How and why? So that's why I think they're not actual players.
But yeah, quitting this game would mean the loss of this ranking, but perhaps a gain in life.
What I did discover today, is how valuable time is, and how much we can do with time, if we didn't spend it playing video games or watching anime. I got so much done today, all because I didn't partake in either activities for most of the day. At night though, I couldn't help myself. I played video games and I watched anime, and that was all I did.
I also read some pages of a book today, and browsed social media a lot more without anime and video games. Maybe I should quit social media too? Again, we can really only tell the benefits from people who have experienced quitting these activities. But I mainly use social media for animal activism. I don't waste my time with doing dumb stuff on it like talking about video games or anime. I think having your life revolving around such meaningless activities, though I get it, the heroes in the anime and video games are cool, is doubly terrible. It's just so meaningless.
Anyway, that was my day today. I just worked a lot, went to the gym, and found comfort in a less dopamine life.
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