DotA et al.

During dinner at a restaurant last Saturday to celebrate my nephew’s recent success in the Civil Engineering licensure exams, family members had a good laugh over my mistake. They pointed out that in last Saturday’s column piece, I named my nephew “Joseph” Ivan when his name is “John” Ivan. Apparently, I mixed up his name with that of another nephew, Ivan’s elder brother Joseph Gary.

The brothers are DotA players and avid fans of the online game. That is probably the reason why I have been fascinated by Ivan’s 9th place finish in the licensure exam. Although I’ve always known that he is very good in math, as a former online gaming fan myself (I was addicted for a while to “Command and Conquer: Generals”), I know the perils of video game addiction.

Incidentally, Ivan’s classmate and fellow topnotcher Kevin Melendres is an avid fan of DotA himself, according to a local newspaper report. DotA stands for Defense of the Ancients, a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) or real-time strategy (RTS) game for the video game Warcraft. Melendres said the key is to know what to prioritize and to turn an otherwise time-consuming hobby into a tool for relaxation and self-motivation.

As to the use of social media which is another popular pastime among the young (and old alike), I have observed that my nephews are not much into it. Ivan rarely posts photographs or status updates on Facebook. I (the uncle) am even the more social media savvy one. The only instance when I totally gave up Facebook for several months was when I was preparing for the Bar exam. I still did play “Command and Conquer: Generals” occasionally during that period as a form of relaxation. Just like Ivan and Kevin, I used it to motivate me and was always conscious to not allow the game to eat into my study time and to-do list.

If I may shamelessly recall with fondness that day when the results of the Bar exam came out in 2010. It was already late in the evening and I had already gone to kneeling in five different churches. Since I didn’t want to check the results myself, I was already thinking that I failed in the exam because there was not a single phone call or text message about the results from friends or family.

So decided to sulk in the relative comfort of online gaming at an internet cafe. As I was playing “Command and Conquer: Generals,” I was imagining a bleak future of slothing in front of the computer screen, playing online games days on end. That was when my mobile phone rang from a call coming from Sun.Star editor Michelle So, a good friend. She gave me the good news with a congratulatory greeting. For that I am forever grateful to Michelle.

Okay, I digressed, but what I truly want to impart to the youth of today is that every generation has its own set of challenges. Starkly one of yours is the distraction and addiction that gaming and networked technologies pose.

While the internet has made life more convenient, serious psychological and emotional complications are developing around it. For example, researchers have recently identified the excessive use of Facebook and other social media as having a similar short-term impact as using opioids and cocaine, albeit less intense.

Many young people like Ivan and Kevin have shown that there are ways around these threats and that these can be overcome. Yes, they play DotA. And yes, they topped the Civil Engineering licensure exams.