As readers of this column knows there is no shame in a mobile game† Despite the fact that at some point in my not-too-distant past I was ashamed of my consumption of corny phone games, Merge townhouse conquered my soul, transforming my relationship with mobile gaming and social media. Tune Merge townhouse made it possible for me to disable doomscrolling.
Before we go any further, a moment of honesty: this was not planned. I wasn’t trying to avoid social media when I clicked on that Instagram ad for To merge (clear). Instead, investing in a mobile game instead of a console game allowed me to train my lizard brain to open To merge— instead of Twitter, TikTok, or Instagram — every time I grabbed my phone. This turns out to be much easier than getting into the habit of picking up a controller instead of a phone.
How did this happy accident happen? Like (I assume) many of you, my nights over the past year or so started to take a toxic form that always ended with me absently picking up my phone and just… scrolling. I wouldn’t even realize I was doing it until my 10pm alarm went off reminding me to get ready for bed. I would become the reason journalist Karen K. Ho started send reminders to people on Twitter telling them to put their devices down. It was unhealthy; I could never really relax and woke up every morning feeling anything but rested.
Then I started to play Merge townhouse. The game works by letting you create objects and then put them together. To produce items you have to use energy, and eventually it will run out. It only takes 15 minutes to exhaust your resources, so many natural stopping points are built in. Unlike doom scrolling, which can evaporate hours of your life before you know it, Merge townhouse‘s energy mechanism makes it easy to keep track of how much time you spend in the game. It is, simply put, a much more manageable pastime.
The use of social media is not nearly as manageable. Believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve tried hiding certain apps far from my home screen; I have set screen time limits. At one point I even tried removing them altogether, but as a person who relies on social media professionally, that just wasn’t practical.
Mobile games became a loophole. Instead of deleting Twitter or TikTok, I just kept games on my home screen. Now when I take out my phone, they are the first thing I see. And it’s not just Merge townhouse, or. i play too Family Farm Adventure† It’s not that I convinced myself not to open the social media apps, but I won’t want to more. I prefer to play games.
And you know what? I don’t care if I play all night. It’s fun, it’s relaxing and it’s satisfying. I get a real sense of accomplishment when I upgrade a building or make dirt out of a fountain. And I usually play for 15 or 30 minutes and then go find a book or turn on the TV.
It even shows in my mobile habits: Before I started playing Merge townhouse, I spent about two hours a day on Twitter. Now it’s an hour a day for mobile gaming and only half an hour – sometimes even less – for the poisonous bird app. Mobile gaming really improves my quality of life, and it didn’t even take any real work on my part.
While some people have been lucky replace doom scrolling with handheld gamingthat is not the case with me. I absolutely love my Switch (and my new Steam Deck – more on that in the coming weeks), but the most important thing for me is that the games are on my phone. I don’t need to have another device within reach to access the games. Since my doom scrolling is an automatic bad habit, I had to make the solution automatic as well. For me, that meant mobile.
If you’re not much of a mobile gamer but are interested in getting started, try downloading a few types of titles. I find merge and enhance games the most successful for me. I don’t necessarily like free-to-play games that land you to have to spend money to succeed (although I definitely bought some add-on packs in Merge townhouse guilt-free – it protects my sanity, okay?). It’s worth experimenting to see what works and what looks good on a smaller screen (many iOS mobile games display better on an iPad).
Either way, if you’re looking to break that doomscrolling habit, it’s worth diving into. Speaking of digging, get ready to plant some flowers Merge townhouse†