Just log out, turn off and experience life

From: The Nation Newspaper, Bangkok, 21-09-2009, http://www.nationmultimedia.com
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Today's youth and some adults may be spending too much time online and ending up losing opportunities to develop other skills and have meaningful off-line experience and face-to-face relationships. In Bangkok, schoolchildren and some adults spend an inordinate amount of the time at Internet cafes or in front of their notebook computers playing online games, checking out Facebook or literally Twittering their life away on their mobile phones.

A more balanced approach is needed lest these people end up treating their online virtual life as more important or a substitute to their off-line real life.

There is no debate about the merits and marvels of the Internet. Wikipedia and Google have opened access to a treasure trove of information in ways unimaginable to people two decades ago. Twitter has changed the face of revolt in Iran and will likely play a more crucial role in future political struggles elsewhere. And the seemingly less-hi-tech e-mail has managed to make inter-continental relationships possible as well as affordable. Facebook and MySpace have also reinvented virtual social networking. Today, one can also play online games with multiple others from various parts of the globe in real time.

Nevertheless, despite the obvious merit of these technological innovations, one must recognise that too much of anything is always harmful. Some people have ended up becoming addicted to online life and relations and fail to nurture their off-line life as a result. Others have ended up having less time for serious book reading and contemplation, preferring the easier way to google up everything.

The virtual world, to some, has become a replacement for the real world's face-to-face interaction and relations. No one should doubt that no matter how hi-tech and dazzling these new Internet technologies are, they can never replace the real-life experience of our five senses. Looking at any number of pages of snow online can never replace the real-life experience of being physically exposed to snowy winter. Google as many maps as you like about different parts of Rome but it cannot compensate for taking a leisurely stroll in that majestic old imperial capital by foot. Also, none of the sweet words online sent through e-mail can ever replace a real embrace and kiss of lovers or the joy of having a real face-to-face chat with friends while having lunch or dinner together.

Parents should spend more time with their children, face-to-face and enjoy the here and now. Often time, online activity distracts people from the present. Their minds drift far away and unfortunately are no longer rooted to the present, not mindful and contemplative about the moment.

In the US, a string of books have been written about the possible adverse effects of spending too much time online. Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University and author of the 2008 best-selling book "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardises Our Future", asks if digital diversion of the young has cut kids off from history, civics, literature and fine art.

Bauerlein answers in the affirmative. "Teenagers live in the present and the immediate. What happened long ago and far away doesn't impress them. They care about what occurred last week in the cafeteria, not what took place during the Great Depression. They heed the words of Facebook, not the Gettysburg Address. They focus on other kids in the English class, not leaders in Congress," the author wrote. "These young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. Or a better way to put it is to say that they are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond - friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook."

His suggested remedy is that children need a reprieve and a retreat. "For them to grow up into mindful citizens and discerning consumers, then, adolescents must break the social circuit and think beyond the clique and the schoolyard. But they can't do it themselves - peer pressure is too strong - and so adults must help draw them away."

Do some people see a parallel of sorts to some youth (and even some adults) in Thailand? One may not need to totally agree with Bauerlein to appreciate his concerns.

Some Thai parents and adults may do well to think about the issue. In fact, teenagers and young adults should be encouraged to discuss and debate the pros and cons of their digital dependency, if not addiction, in the hope that they may eventually develop a less euphoric and more realistic view of what an online-dependent life really entails and what repercussions it has for not just themselves but society as a whole.

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