Photo by Jamie Kocur
This guest post is from my friend Jamie Kocur. She is a musician, songwriter, writer, and occasional worship leader who blogs about worship and her struggles with it at Rebooting Worship. Jamie is also one of the nicest people you will ever meet. You can follow her on Twitter at @jamiekocur.
My husband surprised me with an iPhone for my birthday. I was ecstatic, and eager to dive into all the fun and useful apps that the iPhone has to offer. I envisioned utilizing apps that would catapult my productivity as I pursue my dream of working with music and writing.
Unfortunately, I discovered the Sims, a fun, sunny, interactive world that you create online.
The Sims is an incredibly addictive game. It’s filled with virtual people that you have to take care of and tell what to do. These little guys won’t even use the bathroom until you tell them to.
It started out innocent enough. It was a fun little distraction from my day, and a treat for myself when I was done with whatever work I had set for myself.
Then it got ugly. Pretty soon I was checking on my little Sims five, six, or even more times a day.
“It’s 5:00! Time to send Maria to work!”
“Andras is starving! I must feed him!”
As you advance in the game, you add more characters and the Sims world gets bigger. You build their cute little houses and even adding a little Sim baby. The more Sims you have, the more time consuming the game becomes. Soon, every time I was “just checking on them” turned into a 30-minute ordeal. These guys are needy!
Each 30-minute session took 30 minutes away from work I needed to be doing on my dream.
Games aren’t bad. I think when used effectively, they’re a great way to give your brain some down time. Unfortunately, as in my case, they can become an addiction and problem. My Sims took away important time that I can never get back.
Enough is enough. I had to pull the plug. I deleted the app.
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