Coronavirus lockdown, self-quarantine, self-isolation: you’ve been practicing for it, haven’t you?
Let’s be honest here about two things: the Coronavirus is a pandemic, a word that comes from the Greek “pan” meaning “all” and “demos” meaning “people.” At this time, Coronavirus lockdown, self-quarantine or self-isolation is for the good of all people.
The second point is that physical social isolation is something that a lot of people from the West and the East are somewhat used to. After all, in the United States and the UK the average consumer spends almost 4 hours per day watching TV; 2 hours per day for people in Europe and Japan.
Also, people spend more than 3 hours per day on their mobile phones. Heavy phone users and 15% of children are isolated on their phones for more than 4 hours per day.
On average, people pick up their phone 58 times per day. In fact, most users find it challenging to go more than 10 minutes without checking their phone.
You are not alone
The high mobile phone usage generally is around social interaction habits: we chat, share news, send pictures, or spend time on Facebook (2.4 billion users), Instagram (1 billion users), Reddit (440 million users), Twitter (330 million users), etc. So, we might not always be physically social but at least we are social online.
So, there you have it. The Coronavirus lockdown, self-quarantine or self-isolation should not be too difficult on you.
Thus said, obviously there are a number of things you will miss: visiting your family (however little you’ve been doing it), volunteering at the local charity (however little you’ve been doing it), going to church (however little you’ve been doing it), interacting with co-workers, attending sports events and, sadly, not being able to go to your favorite local bar or pub.
But now you can spend even more time in front of the television or having a good debate on some social media platform or, even better, play online games.
Don’t pretend you don’t partake in such “trivial” things! While only 6% of women and 15% of men identity as “gamers” in reality 70% of people actually play games, of which more than 40% are women.
Video gaming is bigger than the movie and music industry combined. The average age of the gamer is 35, while a whopping 21% of game players are 50 years and older.
You won’t be alone. More than 20 million other self-isolators logged into online video game platform Steam to keep themselves entertained.
When you include all MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game), MORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) and Action RPG (Role-Playing Game), you’ll be one of some 2 billion self-isolating gamers, many playing up to 7 hours per day.
What and where to play
The list of available games is simply too long to post here. See Wikipedia’s List of MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) and List of MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games).
Whether you want to play on Android, iOS, a game console or PC, there are many genres too choose from:
Action games
Action-adventure games
Adventure games
Card games
Idle games
Puzzle games
Role-playing games
Simulation games
Strategy games
Sports games
Puzzle games
You’ll find any of the above genres at any of the most popular providers –
Blizzard Entertainment
Electronic Arts
GOG
Nintendo Switch
PlayStation Network
Steam
Xbox Live
After the game
You might also want to consider other ways to spend your free time. Read books or watch documentaries on YouTube or Vimeo or educational TED talks.
Even better, this is a great time to learn new skills with the Grow with Google free resources.
Coronavirus links