'Birdwatching saved me from my gaming addiction'

When things were at their worst Edward Bartlett was playing computer games twenty hours a day, sometimes only pausing to eat and sleep.

"I was addicted to video games," the 28-year-old said.

"I lived with friends, but for two years I never really saw them in real life them. We talked through a gaming microphone."

Now the University of Sheffield zoology student has swapped his gaming headset for a pair of binoculars as he's embraced a new passion - birdwatching.

Bartlett, who'd previously struggled with mental health difficulties, including depression, said gaming had initially provided an "escape" from his studies but had slowly overtaken his life.

"When you're playing games you're not thinking about reality and how things might be going in real life, so that's what sucked me in," he explained.

"It was the first thing I did when I woke up and I played all day until I was too exhausted to carry on.

"I didn't even realise I was addicted, but the moment the screen went away, there's this rush, sort of, feelings like, I really wish I'd get back to that game and then I'd think about things that I needed to do, like uni work and it would feel so overwhelming, like a crushing weight.

"[So] I'd play a game, and it would calm me down, because I wouldn't be thinking about it anymore, which didn't solve the problem at all".

Bartlett, from Kent, said anti-depressants and counselling helped with particularly difficult bouts of anxiety and depression, but it was a chance experience on a recent holiday to Wales that helped turn things around.

"I ended up in hospital and had an enforced period off the screens and then, on this holiday, I started to notice things around me and suddenly I was surrounded by nature," he said.

"It really sort of opened my eyes to how peaceful and different things can be."

In a bid to further his new found interest he was keen to join the university's bird watching society, but originally felt "too shy" to attend.

Eventually, after he plucked up the courage he "ended up having a lovely conversation with one of the members about the peregrines at the university".

That growing interest is borne out at the University of Sheffield too, where they have gone from 10 casual members in 2025 to more than 50 this year.

On Friday's many of the members can be found excitedly gazing up to the top of St George's Church in Sheffield, which is home to breeding peregrine falcons.

Freya Dunbar-Sims, 19, is the inclusion officer for the society and is adamant as to why membership has increased.

"I think in such a fast-paced world at the moment, everyone is just looking for ways to slow down and kind of look for more analogue hobbies and off their screens," she said.

"I think it's addictive. Once you get into it, you can't stop looking."

Aspen Fenzl, originally from Minnesota, said she got into birdwatching during the covid pandemic.

"I was back home in the States, so I kind of got into it just sitting at home, looking out the window, and then you start to appreciate the different personalities of the birds and the way that they interact with each other and the way you see them around, it's like seeing a friend almost."

Fenzl, a keen artist also like to draw the birds she spots in the wild, and says to her seeing a rare bird can feel like "seeing a celebrity".

"The first time you see it you're like, 'I've heard about you. I know everything about you. I know your habitat, where you live, your behaviours', and you see one and, just, especially being with other people you can share that joy with, it's just a really nice group."

Emma Tuckey from RSPB Old Moor, in Barnsley, said they have also seen a 50% increase in Gen-Z visitors.

"The fact that we're seeing this increase of 16-to-24-year-olds is just brilliant. It gives us a lot of hope for the future of nature conservation and preservation" she said.

"It was definitely seen as old and fuddy-duddy and you've got to have the kit, you've got to have the knowledge and if you got a bird wrong, you were judged, but I think it's just changing and since Covid people are just really valuing nature more."

After six years of delays, Bartlett is now finishing the third and final year of his zoology course.

Although he still plays computer games, it's now at a much more manageable level.

"Getting out into nature and birdwatching is insulating against problems I had," he said.

"Because, now if I've got free time I might think 'oh I could I could log on to that game' and then I think 'well yeah but I could also could also go outside' and I know that I'll feel really good afterwards."