A RECENT SURVEY of 513 students from 84 colleges nationwide found that 34.89 percent of them spend a lot of time playing games on their smartphones, and 42.69 percent play occasionally. Only 18.13 percent responded they never play mobile games. China Youth Daily comments:

It seems the majority of college students nationwide play mobile games on smartphones, and the only difference among them lies in how long and how often they play.

Some of the students say they finish assignments first before playing games. However, the fact is that some college students have already become addicted to smartphone games. Especially since there are frequent reports of all the students in a dormitory playing the same mobile game on their smartphones, there are some who say electronic games have "kidnapped" college students.

Most college students are adults and they have the right to arrange their own schedule. However, that so many college students seem to be spending so much of their time playing smartphone games is a problem that should arouse our concern.

College years are often said to be the best part of a person's life. Being in their late teens or early 20s, college students have the opportunity to improve themselves as well as multiple choices for their futures.

What they should do is use the time to study and understand more about themselves and the world so they can prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead after graduation. That cannot be achieved by playing games.

Some argue that modern smartphone games also contain knowledge, but that knowledge is limited compared with the knowledge that can be obtained from books and interactions with other people in real life. If students spend too much time playing games on their smartphones, it is no idle worry to say they are wasting their time.

Young college students should stay true to their studies instead of being lured by smartphone games into wasting this precious time in their lives.