Technology turns us into RAGING CRACKHEADS
Study maps our addiction
Tech is like crack. If young people were to go without their favourite gadgets, they'd suffer withdrawal symptoms comparable to those of a heavy drug user going cold turkey, it has been claimed.
A study has shown that students who were subjected to a tech-free day reacted in a distressed, confused and isolated state. Some were even itching in a restless fashion.
The research, titled The World Unplugged, subjected young adults between the ages of 17 and 23 throughout ten countries, to a technology ban. No phones, internet or television for 24 hours.
Participants were allowed to use landline phones and read books, but as gadget addicts, it wasn't enough stimulation and one in five claimed to be distressed, while 11 per cent felt isolated.
One guinea-pig from the UK claimed: "I am an addict. How could I survive 24 hours without it? Media is my drug; without it I was lost."
Not everyone was so downbeat about the ban though. At least 21 per cent of participants said they could feel the benefits of going without gadgets.
One American participant wrote: “I’ve lived with the same people for three years now, they’re my best friends, and I think that this is one of the best days we’ve spent with together. I was able to really see them, without any distractions, and we were able to revert to simple pleasures.”
The study concludes that kids these days are so dependent on their tech and social networking, that they no longer even read the news, instead relying on short status updates for their source of information. If you fit into this bracket, here's a link to our Reg Hardware FaceCrack page. "Like" us and we'll keep you informed of our reviews within 140 characters too. ®
COMMENTS
I call bullshit
"heavy drug user going cold turkey"
I've been addicted to some fairly heavy duty prescription painkillers. Going without tech for a while just does not compare.
One is habitual, the other is physical and habitual. Withdrawing from drugs physically hurts _a lot_.
And that wasn't even cold turkey
Sixth sense
I think Anon E Mus hits it on the head. And, contrary to a few comments, I don't see young people getting a phone as parental neglect or abuse or whatever, not saying it's a great thing but it sounds to me like those people in the 1950s that said Rock and Roll was corrupting our youth, and so on. It's a societal change and you can either fight it or go with it.
Food for thought, if you read some of Victor Vinge's writings on the technological singularity, he sees the possible methods of some super-human intelligence emerging as being:
1) Computer becomes self-aware and gains super-human intelligence.
2) Computer netwrok (and possibly associated users) does the same.
3) Computer/human interface becomes so intimate the user can be considered superhumanly intelligent.
4) Biological upgrades.
Obviously, Facebook updates and tweeting are not helping anyone's intelligence. But it appears to me things are moving very much towards #3, at least in terms of people being able to stay in communications; I see people fire off and read texts almost subconsciously, they can literally keep up a verbal conversation while they are having a text conversation with someone else. This seems for some much less like them typing and reading an external device, and more like the device is a direct extension of their consciousness. Even with those awful touch screen keyboards haha.
I could see it being unnerving to have this taken away, it's almost like saying you are going to remove someone's sense of hearing or touch for a day to see how they like it.
So, a couple of my cousins have this bad (they're about 10 years younger than me.) It's like
(One of my uncles): "We're going to the retirement home to visit your great aunt, she's not in good health so we're seeing her while we can."
Them: "OK." *tap* *tap*
Me, I say real casually... "Oh, umm... when I was there a few days ago, there was not cell phone service, the mountain blocks the signal."
Them: "Umm, what? Really?" *TAPTAPTAPTAPTAP* (they both looked a bit startled, and started texting like madmen, I think warning everyone they'd be out of contact for a good half hour or hour.) They managed not to get the shakes for that hour or so. When we got back in service, it sounded like their phones were going to explode from dozens of queued texts shooting into them.
