Thursday 27 March 2014

Candy Crush addicts come clean: 'Life's too short for sliding candies around'

Candy Crush users spent $493m in 2013, leading to burned retinas and empty wallets. We scoured the web for tales of your app addiction


The number of glassy-eyed, finger-swiping Candy Crush Saga users who live among us is staggering: 93m people play this sweet little app more than 1bn times per day.


To be an addict, by definition, is to habituate to something compulsively or obsessively. Candy Crushers can be found riding trains and buses around the world, missing their stops, tripping onto platforms and wandering into crowds of people. They're sitting at the desk next to you, heads down, twitchy fingers trailing set of jelly-looking fruits. They search for quiet places to play, away from kids and spouses, and find themselves locked in the bathroom, trying not to drop the phone into the bathwater. Perhaps you are reading this with a blush of recognition.


You are not alone. I deleted this after two months as noticed I was becoming obsessed with it and that my language had negotiated - I had started swearing at the mobile! I missed it for a day.


I too am free. I started to realise that spending countless hours on this hateful game would be something I would actively regret on my death bed. With my heart in my mouth I pressed delete. I've never looked back.


It's like any other addiction - you control it, or it controls you. I play it - am on level 406 - but I have strict rules: I don't spend any money on it, and I don't ask my friends for lives (though I do give them if they ask me). That limits the number of lives I have, so limits the time I can play it, and then I pick up a book. Books - now there's a tricky addiction...


My sister is at level 410 and is calling it "pretty normal in Hong Kong". Somebody needs to call the WHO. Thanks to you asking this question, I've just quit, just before reaching level 100. Thank you for helping me, please let me help you in return. Delete the app. Press and hold the icon, little "x" top left corner. It's going to threaten you, saying that it will delete all your data, it's okay. It's just "data". You can do it. I just did, thanks to you. Yes your friends ( the ones you want to keep ) have quit too. You are right. Life really is too short for sliding candies around. DELETE, MOVE ON, spend your time on something else. Try Code Academy, get a book. "The lowland" by Jhumpa Lahiri was really good. Paul Auster's "Invisible". "What the dog saw" by Malcolm Gladwell is a shorter, easier read.


Tell your parents you spent $700 of their money on the game like I did. I was never allowed to play after that


i finally kicked my candy crush obsession...with clash of clans


You guys, I kicked my #CandyCrush habit, only to become addicted to mofo #TinySheep New life goal: run a real life sheep farm #OCD #AppAnon


Twitter cured my Candy Crush addiction




















via Technology | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1haBvtb