‘You certainly notice things, don’t you?’ she said, puffing away.
‘Notice, notice, notice. We’ll have to call you Miss Notice.’
‘I certainly notice you always fiddle around with your pipe when you’re thinking thoughts you don’t much like,’ said Agnes. ‘It’s displacement activity.’
«Carpe Jugulum» by Terry Pratchett
While displacement activities might signal a problem, or a specific other activity, I wonder whether they cannot be useful. For example, if you want to play a fantasy game like Skyrim, but you really do not want to sink the time into a fictional world, why not look at a Skyrim cookbook or fan sites posting recipes and instead create something? Or why not go outside and explore, instead of walking in a fictional world?
After all, it’s “only” identifying which specific need this game scratches, and find something in the real world with real consequences (and usually actual skill building and physical exercise) that satisfies this need.
Just a thought.
