it is true that internet addiction has become a thing of concern of late, but the shabby and sordid way in which this particular article was written makes me go grab a knife. with liberal quotes from eminent personalities which include a vice-president of an unknown internet security company, a psychiatrist, and a sexaganerian who runs a cyber society, the article calls everyone who does long ours on the internet as internet junkies, and potential Script Kiddies (neologism for hackers, i think). So essentially, guys out there, we are all junkies, addicted.
The article further elucidates that (i am quoting here) "...they (internet junkies) lose their ability to grow as individuals and there’s a huge chance of them losing touch with reality. It doesn’t allow them to develop their personality traits..." it even goes to the extent of saying "For school and college-goers, the responsibility is studies. They don’t have to earn a livelihood, so they go online just to kill time. "
How nice, i come online to kill time, you come online to kill time, Ramanujam who comes online (And who recently made $50o through payperpost) comes online to kill time...Brutal generalization, the entire blogging scenario is just an activity to kill time ...
A self proclaimed evangelist even went to the extent of suggesting a positive remedy to the situation by educating the youngsters on the positive aspects of the internet. I am one of those die hard debaters with a stand that the internet in its entirety is completely positive with may be a few loopholes(read porno and phishing ), so when some one goes about saying "yeah you know the internet has a few positive aspects too.." i call that anachronism, incongruence or may be just simply out of place..anyway the suggestion was to '...to get data on topics such as diverse as nanotechnology...' boy, in my years of reading english (and constantly screwing it up all the same) i have never ever, (Stress on the word ever) heard such an expression as 'such as diverse as' ..too many as(s)es around...
Anyway the article suggests a few tips to come out of your addiction, here they go:
Plan activities outside the computer
point taken, what else?
Cultivate the reading habit
what do you think we are doing online, watching porno?Take part in sports
what if i can run or swim or play cricket?
Listen to music
yeah where do i download music from? thin air?
Be focussed while surfing
WTF?
Dear Hindu,
the only reason why we are still buying you is because of met plus, your main paper sucks anyday and has literally become a political manifesto. if you decided that you want to bring your met plus section on par with your main paper, then i am double sure you are going to loose your readers...you cant even bank on the cartoons anymore ...DC comes with calvin and hobbes too :) make sure you dont get caught in a blunder anymore
DISCLAIMER
this is my personal opinion on my private blog where i can go about doing what i like, this is unlike the above case where an author screwed up an entire news paper with his well researched story. i guess the author himself did long hours on the internet and came up with this article because he was not 'focused'.