Ditching the Game Controller Means Controlling Your Life

Qur’an will give us cure and is a mercy for believers. Ustadh Michael Wolfender provides the example of one of the early believers in Islam, a slave, and how the Qur’an made him strong despite torture he endured for his faith. Ustadh Michael uses this example to illustrate how many are slaves to video games, which inherently, due to addictive behavior, teach you how not to take care of yourself. As stimulating activities, the psychology of video games makes the participants eager for further engagement, primarily due to dopamine release. This chemical release trains the brain to thus determine nothing is more fun than video games. Ustadh Michael explains how the ‘triumph circuit’ propagates a distortion of reality causing the participant reduced ability to overcome real life challenges, partly because of perceived false senses of victory derived from video games. Anxiety presents itself as the participant misperceives values of social status, sincere friendship and family relationships due to silo’ed activity. The body loses the ability to correctly identify and control emotions, as brain cells are killed. Video games move gray matter from one part of the brain to another. Actual socializing time is reduced, hindering building nurturing relationships. Video games commonly train poor social behavior, instilling blaming, shaming, cyberbullying and foul language. Studies show video games are linked to memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease. Allah’s Book, The Qur’an, will not make you strong in video games. It will make you strong in life. Ustadh Michael encourages students to leave video gaming and to start by seeking assistance and talking with parents. Replace video games with quality time with family, outdoors and Qur’an. Qur’an will free you so you are in control of your life. Ustadh Michael concludes with two measures of guidance to keep believers on the straight path.