Addiction To Technology

Watch this youtube video and make note of what the host and psychologist say; "addiction to technology is the fastest growing illness of the 21st century". Is addiction to technology a problem? Children institutionalized at very early ages are likely to have bonding problems, and taking away their computers will not resolve the problem.

According to the news report, this "danger", is the same old story about Dungeons and Dragons from 30yrs ago. I think less blame should be put on the technology / video game industry. While children need to develop social skills, and playing World of Warcraft all day probably doesn't help, it doesn't mean that all or the majority of children will end up this way.

You can virtually interact with thousands of other people per day in multilayer games. Some people build up huge networks of relationships that are every bit as complicated as real relationships. But I don't think it's the same as relationships in real life. Sometimes these MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), or just MMOs in general (Massive Multiplayer One Games) can take away your real life.

Everyone deserves time to do nothing but play a game all day. But at 16 he should definitely learn something about computers, rather than playing a game all day, EVERY day. If I were his parents, I would definitely limit his game playing, and think of some way to use all that free time into something more productive.

Once again, the media gets the story wrong. The issue isn't technology addiction; the issue is he could've made better use of his time. If he mastered MS Office, and it took him 16hrs a day for 3 months, is that "technology addiction" a bad thing? Shit, even if he learned how to program his own simple games, his time would be well spent.