Tech addiction a growing problem

As a child born in this generation, I grow up with computers, electronic games and hand-phone. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t have a PC at home or a hand-phone or anyone who doesn’t leave home without their hand-phone.

 

Technology has indeed become a large part of our everyday lives. That is why this article is certainly a wake-up call. We can’t help being surrounded by these things; at home or in school. But what we don’t know it’s that it’s all too easy to get addicted to them (cell phones, video games, PDAs and the Internet) without realizing it.

 

These new technology is just too awesome. I, myself cannot wait to get my hands on the latest 3G iphone.

 

With hand-phones such as these, Blackberries, IM and email, anyone can find themselves perpetually in communication.

 

But how much is too much? How do we know whether we are addicts or not?

 

I know someone who spent most of his time online playing games. Each time I logged on, usually at night, at anytime, he was online. He was online after school, at some internet café, till late at night. Weekends he was online for the whole day. It was not until recently that he was put into ‘cold turkey’ by his father.

 

 I was told that he was so addicted to the games, he would do anything to get his hands on the computer….like hacking into his siblings’ computers after his was confiscated by his dad. They even went to the extent of pulling out all the cables and locked the room where the computers are in. Yet he would break into the room and tried to get online. Poor fellow, he is now without his computer, except when he is doing his school work with his dad looking over his shoulders, and he is also on curfew after school. His is probably the worst case I know.

 

Psychologists have officially classified technology addiction as an impulse disorder that can be as socially devastating as alcoholism, gambling, sex and drug addiction.

 

They have drawn out a list of warning signs of personal technology addiction: 

 

• An inability to predict the amount of time you spend on the computer;

•  A sense of euphoria while using the computer;
•  Lying to employers and family about computer activity;
•  Withdrawal from real life hobbies and social interactions; and
•  Health issues such as carpal tunnel syndrome, eye strain, weight gain and backaches.

 

Going through the list, I am quite relieved that I do not fall under the category of ‘addict’ but I would be lying if I said I don’t enjoy online games, IM etc., etc…

Heck! All my friends do too. We play on-line games and chat on line for hours. It’s a teen thing. As long as we are responsible and in control and do not lose sight of reality and what is important, going on-line to play an occasional game is cool.

 

 

I feel that it is the individual’s responsibility to manage his time and be considerate to his family. It is too easy and tempting what is available for us on the internet. It is scary to hear that people have to seek professional advice for this sort of addiction. I would not want to end up like that someone I know. No way.

Democracy Creates Stability In A Society

Democracy creates stability in a society

Democracy refers to a country that has a democratic form of government. The word democracy means rule by the people. Abraham Lincoln describes it as ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’

In democracies, government is voted in by the people, and most voting decisions are based on majority rule- that is, more than half the votes cast.

The most important aspects of democracy are the equality and freedom of individual. This is the reason for democracy being a preferred choice of government by most people in the different various countries.

Democracy is adopted in many different countries such as Singapore, United States. Australia, United Kingdom, Thailand, India, etc..

Stability is the capacity to resist being unsettled or upset or to resist destruction.

Democracy is good for the country as it stabilizes the society because democracy takes care of the people resulting in happiness. Therefore, society in democracies would not be upset or unsettled. In democracies, the government that is voted by the people takes care of them by providing economic security, such as minimum wage laws, health service provision, education subsidies, etc. Many democracies aim to provide a minimum standard of living and adequate medical care for all the citizens.

Citizens of democracies are entitled to protect their rights and have equal opportunity to pursue their lives and careers and also have equal rights of political participation.

On the other hand, many democratic governments have failed, resulting in total chaos and instability in the country. This is sometimes due to the inability to maintain agreement among the people. Democratic government is likely to be unstable when the citizens are divided. Democracy is based on the assumption that the majority is always right. But what if the majority is wrong? People can be manipulated by the media. It is possible for the majority to make a mistake and vote in the wrong person who succumbs to corruption.

What about the minority? Their voice won’t be heard because in democracy, majority rules. Thus, democracy can result in discrimination and persecution.

For democracy to work in an acceptable way, firstly, there need to be a constitution that guarantees freedom of speech and religion. Secondly, the citizens must be informed and play an active role to speak out on important issues. This is one way to ensure against corruption. Democracy needs educated people who can think for themselves. When all these conditions are met, I would say that democracy creates stability in a society.

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Post 1 - Teenage and Social Issues

Here is the article (I cannot give you a link as it requires you to log in to view the page)

School's out, Internet safety classes are in

Section:
Gen Y

By:
DEBBIE YONG

Publication:
The Straits Times 25/11/2007

Page:
49

No. of words:
631

More parents are attending workshops to learn how to keep their children safe from online dangers

'TIS the season for trouble-making.

As teenagers are left at home alone and unchaperoned in front of their computers this school holiday, more worried parents and educators are signing up for Internet safety courses to guard against the dangers that lurk online.

Just last month, lab technician B.H. Tan, 49, was using his family computer when he discovered several pornographic links in his Web browser's history folder.

When he questioned his two sons, aged 14 and 13, about it, neither of them owned up.

So Mr Tan signed up for an Internet seminar conducted by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore last

Saturday to learn about how he could block access to such sites.

He said: "Naturally, we were quite concerned as parents but it's sometimes more difficult for parents to tell the kids to stop than to let the experts do the talking."

Mr Tan and his family of five were among 200 seminar attendees who sat through talks by a lawyer and several representatives from Microsoft, eBay, the Internet Industry Association of Singapore and the Internet Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an international organisation responsible for taking legal action against unauthorised file-sharing.

Said another parent at the four-hour seminar, sales support secretary Maureen Koh, 42, who lets her two sons have "uncontrolled" use of the computer during the holidays: "My sons tell me that all their downloads are legal, but we really don't have the time to watch over them every second to make sure that they are not breaking any laws."

Besides ad hoc workshops run by firms and schools, four-hour Cyber Wellness workshops for parents are organised monthly by Touch Cyber Wellness and Sports (TC&F), a service of Touch Community Services.

Explaining the slight increase in the number of parents phoning in to enquire about TC&F programmes during the school holidays, Mr Poh Yeang Cherng, the manager of TC&F, said: "The end of the year is also when exam results are out, that's when parents realise the extent of the problem."

Mr Poh, who has been heading the service since its inception in 2001, said that issues such as extensive gaming and safety on social networking sites and chatrooms are perennial concerns, but more parents have been requesting coverage of topics such as blogging and cyber-bullying.

Said Madam So Mun Yee, vice-principal of Tanjong Katong Secondary School, which has been working with TC&F to organise workshops for parents for the past six years: "Our children are only with us during school hours, so it is important to work in partnership with parents to educate students on staying safe on the Internet all year round."

One previous participant of the school's seminar, businessman Teh Thien Yew, 52, is doing more than educating just his own two teenage boys this school holiday.

Two weeks ago, he grouped together four boys from Tanjong Katong Secondary School's football team, which he helps oversee as a parent-volunteer, to do a project on cyber-bullying.

The boys meet before their twice-weekly soccer practices in the holidays to discuss information on the topic which they gathered through surveying friends, school counsellors and researching the Internet.

Their intended product: a 16-page handbook with tips on identifying and avoiding cyber-bullying. Five hundred copies of it will be distributed to Secondary 1 students and their parents at the start of next year.

Said Mr Teh: "The reality is that most students will stay online in front of their computers during the school holidays. We can't stop them but we can at least educate ourselves on what they are getting into.

"Most parents roughly know but don't know enough, and that may not be wise enough."

debyong@sph.com.sg

'The reality is that most students will stay online in front of their computers during the school holidays, we can't stop them but we can at least educate ourselves on what they are getting into.'

– MR TEH THIEN YEW, 52, father of two teenage boys

My Views

One of the greatest inventions of mankind is probably the computer, but at the same time it is also an evil because of the social problems it creates. This article basically tells us about the concerns that parents have with their teenage excessive exposure to being on-line and the problems most teenagers face with the internet such as, pornography, gaming addiction, illegal downloading of media, cyber bullying, etc.

I agree with this text that there are many teenagers getting themselves into the traps of the internet. The main issue in this article is that teenagers are falling for the traps of the internet and their parents are resorting to attending workshops to learn how to keep their children safe from online dangers. From this article, we can infer that there are all sorts of problems teenagers face while using the internet and that the parents are trying to stop it. In the article, it states that there are parents resorting to going to workshops to learn how to keep their children safe from online dangers. This is in fact, true because I know several parents who do go for these workshops because they are afraid for their children being in danger of the internet. Some of these parents are afraid of their children getting addicted to gaming while some are afraid that their children are hooked on to pornography or getting bullied online by other interent users. This is a real problem as it can lead to worst consequences such as failing of examinations, meeting the wrong people, running away from home or even doing things against the law.

I, myself was once addicted to computer games and it led to me failing in many school subjects and also doing badly in my sport, sailing. My self-esteem got lower, did not want to go out together with my family; just wanted to stay home to be in front of the computer because I could not stop playing only until it was at about 2 - 3 in the morning. Fortunately, I have very caring and understanding parents who advised me and constantly remind me of the dangers of addiction, how it would ruin my future, my life. Being addicted to the internet is very easy, but trying to kick it is extremely hard. i recently took up a sport that I really enjoyed in which I think I can excell in and it is at least helping me to cut down on the time I spend in front of the computer. I personally feel that those boys from the soccer team in Tanjong Katong Secondary School are doing the right thing by targeting the young (secondary ones) to teach them about the dangers of the internet. I also feel that there should be more workshops for internet addicts rather than more workshops for the internet addicts' parents.

I strongly feel that all parents, like my parents should play a major part in helping their child from getting addicted to the internet . One good tip for getting yourself out of addiction from internet is to find something that you have a lot of interest in to replace the internet. My cousin was once addicted to on-line gaming and nobody thought he could be saved but ever since he started a band and met his girlfriend, he started to spend less and less time on the computer. This is a good solution, but it also must be controlled and not overdone.

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