Under your control or not? Internet addictions are real...

Some new studies are out, pointing out the troublesome backside of our connectedness online via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and texting (SMS in Swedish). A new study concludes that the internet is more addictive than alcohol and nicotine, and I am starting to believe that (I don't have the link to the study yet, will post it when I find it). I have worried about this a long time, and have made a conscious decision not to be active on Facebook, not to have a twitter account, and try to keep the flow of information into and out of my head under my own control.  But in today's world you can't do your job unless you are connected online, and without an e-mail account that you check everyday, your career and job availability would mostly be dead (well, maybe not if you are an artist living in New Hampshire, but I think you know what I mean... :).

I make it harder for me to be or get too addicted by not getting a smartphone, not having the laptop at the breakfast table, and consciously turning off e-mail and Skype during stretches of time at work, but the feeling is still there - "Oh, what is new? What is going on?  Who needs me now?  What cool things am I missing!?"  I believe that this deluge of wanted and unwanted information plays straight into our psychological triggers in our brain.  We get addicted, if we want it or not.  And the more we use it, the more addicted we get.

 (from Toothpaste for dinner, used with permission on this blog)

I teach at a university and cellphone and internet use is not allowed in my classroom.  But 30 seconds before class starts half the class is sitting with their cell phones and earpieces and hangs out online.  They are not present in the moment in the classroom.  After class starts, they put it away, because I do stop the lecture and ask students who text/surf/etc. on the internet if they want to leave the classroom.  So far, nobody has when I asked, everybody just apologies.

Some professors just give up and let the students do whatever they want, but I want to present a counterpoint to the deluge and addiction out there.  If you are in my class you should be focused on the class and the topic, nothing else.  I know this is hard, from my own experience, since I have been through many boring lectures, meetings and seminars in my day.  But if so, then doodle with a pen while listening, don't run to the internet and get totally off-track.

Meetings, which is a whole other subject.  I often sit in meeting at the big university with fancy professors, busy staff, or pompous administrators, and nearly half of them are playing around with their gadgets (mostly Blackberries, iPads or iPhones these days).  It is not only horribly rude to the persons that are trying to get things done, it is also inefficient and leads to longer, and more boring, meetings that take on the feeling that these meetings are unimportant.  If I lead a meeting from now on, I will ask everybody to refrain from any internet use, pay attention to the meeting and focus on solutions, instead of drifting off into unfocused realities.  Senior professors that just got an iPad or iPhone are the worst...

Remember when TV was all bad for you?  Carrying an iPhone with you is a lot worse than having a TV on at home (I do think TV on all the time is bad too).  But the iPhone is there, in your pocket, like a happy pill that you can take as often and as much as you can.  Who can say no?  And when there are free games that become truly addictive, a hundred contacts (that you really don't know), and everything is instant, forever, and shallow - it is not necessarily always a good thing.

The internet and social media could be used in a good way, and often is, but how do we make sure WE are in charge of our time and lives, and not someone else?   Gambling is considered an addition, but I think excessive internet use should be classified as one as well.  The problem is that internet use is EVERYWHERE, and includes kids from 2 years old and upwards. And here I am, blogging about the problems with the internet... :P

(from Toothpaste for dinner, used with permission on this blog)

So, here is my advice.  Turn off your cell phone sometimes.  Never check e-mail or your phone in bed. Read a book.  Insist on being unavailable at times.  Refuse to get addicted, use the internet on your terms.  Focus, focus, focus.  Laugh at funny YouTube videos, blog, and post photos and videos online, when you feel like it, not when you feel like you have to.  Let us enhance the good things about the internet, and not forget that the real things are things you can touch and think about without the help of a screen, like a deer vertebrae in a forest, a good book, making pasta primavera, and creating things that are possible to touch, view, smell.  In 3 months, nobody will care how many friends you have online, but you will care about how many friends you could have a good time with in person at your house.  And that is what really matters.

Don't get me wrong here, I think there are really creative and positive uses for internet resources, it is just the addiction and the lack of focus on real things that gets to me. It is all about the quality of the input to and output from of our brains. There isn't enough thinking in the world anymore. 

OK, enough ranting from me, and here are some articles about this for those of you that want to read even more:

Uppdaterade och sömnlösa (DN.se, in Swedish, "Updated and sleepless")

Why studios need to think about the ethics of social gaming (The Guardian, UK)

Internet addiction test 

Internet addiction disorder 

Attached to Technology and Paying a Price (NY Times article)

Things that are wrong: Chinese prisoner at gold farms...

... who are forced to play computer games day in and out to earn money for their guards and prison directors. Not only are computer games a waste of time, but this 'gold farming' is even worse, much worse.  Political prisoners, etc., that are forced to stare at computer screen in a virtual, non-reality world to earn fake money for points and gold in the game, that then other players around the world are willing to pay for.  Unbelievable. So wrong.

Ponderings on generation D

The Digital Generation is not just teenagers that text 5000 messages a month, toddlers with iphones, or 8-year old kids that love Nintendo (those youngsters are called Generation Z).  It is all of the rest of us too - all of us that use digital tools like GPS, computers, digital cameras, cell phones, DVD players, ipods, ATMs ('bankomat'), etc.  We are all becoming more and more dependent on these things, and at the same time our power over them is becoming severely limited.

What do you do when your cell phone doesn't work?  Call the company (on another phone), and then probably send it in to get another one. When the computer breaks? After searching the internet and not understanding much of the geeky advice there, maybe buy a new one, or send it in for expensive service.  When the battery to the ipod is dead?  Throw it away and buy a new one.  It is the true new wear-and-discard society ("slit och släng" in Swedish).

We have lost so much power over our own surroundings, our own capabilities. Repair is no longer in our hands for many of these gadgets, so we are powerless.  Same for cars - it used to be that you could do some repairs by yourself, but the new cars have all these electronics in them so you stand there with your wrench and can't do much except for change a tire or so.  Same with new dishwashers, fridges, and washing machines.  Many aren't even worth repairing by the experts, so they just send you new ones as long as you have warranty left.  Products seem to be just made to break, so we can buy more and more...  It is sickening, and not smart or sustainable at all.

There has been a lot in the news here in the US about how The Digital Generation is affected by our online-additions.  I will copy little snippets here on the blog and link to the articles if you want to read more.  Mainly these articles focus on lack of attention, lack of focus, lack of face-to-face friendships, and lack of problem solving.  I think we all need to think about how all of this affects everybody, and even if you yourself is not severely affected, I am sure you might have people around you that are or can be.  It is hard to break addictions, but I think many of these behaviors play just into the human minds addiction and attention centers. 

Some of these technologies are so new that there aren't really any social rules about them.  For example - in my opinion it is not OK to text messages on your cell phone during class, dinner, conversations, etc. but people do, all the time.  I know professors who text and e-mail during lectures and meetings.

I recently had a cab driver who was texting at 65 mph on the highway and I had to tell him to stop.  It is illegal to text while driving in NJ, and also illegal to talk on the cell phone without a hands-free set.  But people talk on their cell phones while driving too, but at least you have your eyes on the road.  I do to, sometimes, because it is convenient... and that is the point of today's life - everything should be convenient, instant, fast, and over the top.

I know I might sound like a curmudgeon, but I think this is a dangerous trend of addiction to instant digital rewards.  The internet and its digital devices can be good and can also be misused. Many times I think they take the power from us, instead of us having the power over them.  People say all the time: "Oh, I just have to check e-mail."  Well, do you?  We are addicted to feel needed, important...  but are not needed any longer so much by real people, but by an e-mail program.

I went to a lecture about this a few months ago and I will blog about it later, but it largely was about taking control of your Inbox and not letting it control you.  I know that for many of the readers of this blog this is not a problem, but I feel the burden of sometimes hundreds of e-mails a day and a to-do-list that just grows and grows. E-mail, texting and online social web sites - aren't they just time suckers?

Merlin Mann says: Joining a Facebook group about creative writing is like buying a chair about jogging.  (right!)

I like the internet, because you can find information on historical train accident maps, new knitting patterns, and cool Latin species names - things that otherwise would have been unknown to you.  So, how to find a balance and how to direct your internet focus to you don't get trapped in the information swamp? More on focus and attention in the news later, now it is time for real work and not blogging.

I'll end my ponderings today with a quote from a UTNE article by Brad Zellar:

"Am I the only one who generally finds the internet a lonely vacuum, a vortex, a votive candle in the men’s room of the noisiest shopping mall on the planet? Am I the only one who feels like I’m wasting way too much time nosing around in nonsense, having what’s left of my brains beaten in by jackhammers, and trying to “make friends” when I should be doing a better job of actually being friends?"

OK Snapshot: Only Pacman can save the streets

Street art, and with Swedish text: "Bara Pacman kan rädda gatorna", probably
seen in Stockholm. I remember Pacman, it was one of the best computer games
ever, when personal computers were in their infancy. We were one of the
families with the first computer in the neighborhood, old class ZX81 that
you hooked up to the TV. I bet OK still has that computer somewhere in a
box. The memory of it was incredibly tiny, and once the TV burned up, and
we blamed that on the ZX81, but I doubt it was its fault. Oh memories...
Snapshot caught by OK.

Samorost- a point and click game with fantastic miniature world

I haven´t been blogging for some time, but I´m still here.

I want to spread the fantastic art and fantasy game Samorost. It´s a free point and click Flash player game where you have to solve small problems to get to the next picture and problem. Try it, you won´t regret it. There is also a Samorost 2 if you get caught.

Have fun!

Flock of seagulls

Test if you can count how many birds that fly by in this Finnish game.

Movie review: The Matrix

I feel old. It is not that I am actually not understanding the movie The Matrix, it is just that I think it is irrelevant, weird, and too futuristic. My teenage kids loved it, however. So, what is so special about this movie? I don't get it, please enlighten me.

Horsing around on the computer (title provided by LS)

Yeah! We opened presents yesterday (the Scandinavian way)! And I got one of the presents that I really wanted! It's called Lucinda Green's Equestrian Challenge. It is indeed a horse game, and of course it's not as good as the real thing, but it is quite fun!

Here is a review:

Considered one of the world's greatest riders, Lucinda Green is an eventing legend. At 19, Lucinda won her first Badminton Horse Trails, going on to win that prestigious event a record six times on six different horses. She represented Great Britain in three Olympic Games, winning team silver at the l984 Olympics. Lucinda now spends much of her time teaching Cross Country skills for the new generation of riders.

Your goal is to work your way through two-star and three-star competitions until you're ready to take on the world's top eventing riders at the four-star level. Create the perfect horse to be your partner in play, practice and competition. You'll form strong bonds with your horse as you feed, groom and train to perfect your skill. The more you train with your horse, the better he will perform as you win your way to prestigious international events comprising Show Jumping, Dressage and Cross Country. There are multiple levels of difficulty for players of all ages.

Info about Lucinda Green:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucinda_Green

Space invaders

"All your base are belong to us..."

Space invaders, that is actually us since our planet earth now invades the space containing the dusty debris in the tail of the comet Swift-Tuttle, causing meteor showers called the Perseids that will peak on August 12th. Although already visible, the big show starts when the constellation of Perseus rises in the northeast at 21.00 (9 pm) local time on the 12th, and continues to escalate to its maximum before the dawn of august 13th. According to New Scientist one has a better chance to see earth grazers, meteors that sweep across the whole sky, in the beginning of the night.

Where? Here! From Newscientist.com

Enjoy it while it lasts, the comet Swift-Tuttle itself is very likely to hit either the earth or the moon in the (hopefully very distant) future. ;)

For those of you who never experienced computer games without 3d-graphics and earthquake-like sound effects, you can read about and play space invaders online.

/O.K.
(Listening to while posting: Björk - Earth Intruders. Had to play it to get a suitable soundtrack :] )

Large scale tetris

All the things you can do to avoid studying... Russsian students playing large scale tetris. :)

From englishrussia.com

EVE: Online

Recently, I found this game called EVE online which is a futuristic ship based MMORPG(Massivly Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Where you choose between 4 playable races and interact in a vast, nearly infinite universe. The official site can be found here. There is also a 14-day trial that you can do, and that can be found here. If you feel satisfied during that 14-day trial, you can upgrade it to a paying acount and engage in mass combat with thousands of players at once.

See you in space!

Tri-achnid

recently i found a cool game were you play as an endangered species on an alien planet. here is the link. *tip* if you make webs on each level in certain areas, you may be able to chase something into your web and eat it.

AOM

AOM

Who here likes Age of Mythology(AOM)? If you have not heard of it, look at this video