Thoughts upon uninstalling "Temple Run 2" from my phone

May 16, 2014 · 4 minute read · Comments
smartphonegamesTemple Run

I have a confession to make.

Two years ago, when I finally got my first smartphone, I downloaded a free game, Temple Run, and quickly became a bit obsessed with it.

This was the first computer game I had played in twenty years, actually; although in college I played a fair number of games (including actual physical arcade games in the basement of the college dining hall), including Dark Castle, which I commandeered friends’ Macs to play (I owned only an Apple IIe in college, for word processing purposes), the last time I played computer games was in grad school twenty years ago, when I conquered a Mac game called “Kung Fu Chivalry”. Somehow, after actually winning that game, I totally lost interest in playing computer games again (despite being annoyed about never finishing “Beyond Dark Castle”).

I noticed that my reaction time and coordination were quite rusty after twenty years away from this kind of game, and was determined to get good at Temple Run. I was really bad for a while, but then everything started falling into place, and I got good enough that I got a bit bored. I forgot about the game for a long time.

Months later, Temple Run 2 came out, and I got that, and deleted the original Temple Run. The graphics were much better and the action was more interesting, but again, I got good enough that I got bored. Eventually I stopped playing the game. It’s probably been almost a year since I last played it, actually.

But I still had it on my phone, just in case I got “bored” or wanted to check up on my reaction time to see if I had retained my improvements. I never did end up playing it again though. Finally, I just deleted it, to free up space on my phone and to commit to saying goodbye to the game.

Thoughts flashed through my mind as I deleted the game.

We are always choosing how to spend our time; we must own our choices

I felt guilty every time I played the game on the phone (or the iPad, on which I had also installed the game, but I didn’t play it often on that). Part of me thought it was a waste of time. Part of me rationalized that I was “training” my brain and fingers to improve my overall reaction time and motor coordination.

I don’t like feeling guilty about anything. I’d rather just do the thing in all good conscience, or not do it at all. At some point, I resolved the dissonance for good by no longer playing the game.

I noticed how I had let the smartphone intrude on my life

Obviously, upon getting my first smartphone, I was excited by all the things I could do that I couldn’t do before. I could check my email anywhere, read my RSS feeds, Facebook, etc. I even loaded up some of my books onto the phone.

I found myself pulling out the phone to play the game when I was “bored” while riding in a car or something. Then I realized that I was missing the scenery, or just plain quiet time away from technology. Eventually, I decided to minimize the use of my phone when away from home or work, where I’m already in front of a computer most of the time already anyway. Yes, I can spend several hours without checking my phone for email (especially if I’m in the middle of nowhere with no reception).

I got sucked in by fear of losing my accumulated “wealth”

I took so long to delete the game because I kept thinking that if I ever wanted to keep playing, I had racked up a lot of points and “unlocked” various powers, so I wanted to keep all that “just in case”. So keeping the game wasn’t even really about my enjoyment of it any more; I just liked the “wealth” I had accumulated. I was hoarding what was really worthless. The only thing I could do with my unlocked powers was continue playing the game to earn more powers.

What was once fun and useful may become stale

I still believe that it was worth spending some time playing the game. It really did improve my mental functioning to a degree. But there were no further benefits to be gained. It is worth periodically evaluating whether old activities or habits are still doing us any good, even if they once did.

Conclusion

I had my fun with Temple Run, learned some things about myself along the way, and now am done.

How do you feel when you uninstall a favorite game or app, or declutter in some other way? Do you feel sadness? Relief? Regret? Pride?