Sunday, July 29, 2012

Assignment Environmental Science UST-GS: Computer Addiction Leads to Vices and Drug Use


Dr Abe V Rotor
Smoking and drinking go with computer addiction. Next are drugs.


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Write an essay of two or three pages about this topic. Enrich it with research and interview. You can supplement it with data and photographs.
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Did it ever occur in your mind that drug abuse is connected with computer addiction?


People, especially the young – children and adolescents - who sit before the computer hours and hours everyday – even before they start using drugs, are already potential drug users. This is a thesis which I shall present in this article.


These are premises of my contention.


Computerizing whether for school assignment or just entertainment consumes precious time and energy. Time for hobbies, rest, reflection, exercise, socialization, or for quiet and peace. In short we have disturbed regular time management – the way our predecessor in pre-computer time made use of 24-hour cycle – so with 30-day monthly cycle and longer. In short the computer has not only reset, but tinkered with, the biological clock.


What does this mean?


We do not follow our regular sleeping habit, because the computer demands no strict time limit or schedule. Imagine also that a favorite program on TV is on the computer, especially DVD programs. Computer addicts may become night owls. Others have developed cat napping which can compensate partly lost sleep. Not following regular sleeping habits may lead to insomnia. Many drugs today are for insomniacs. Abuse of sleeping pills is reminiscent of some prominent victims, among them  Marilyn Monroe who died of overdose. Overdose of medicine claimed the lives of popular personalities - Michael Jackson, Elvis Priestley, Keith Ledger.


The ever increasing features of the computer making today’s state-of-the art in computer shades the 1960 predecessor a hundred folds more proficient. Pretty soon we will be groping and grappling with artificial intelligence like dealing with a university professor, and a genius at that. Already chess games with the computer is like playing with Karpov or Kasparov. War games need the intelligence and skills of Napoleon Bonaparte on land, and Horatius Nelson at sea. The computer does not only trace the campaign of Alexander the Great who attempted to create the largest empire on earth, but continue to trace the campaign even after his death.


Entertaining, isn’t? Definitely yes, but at what price? Hear this. Hour-after-hour uninterrupted concentration. Irregular meal substituted with fast and junk, food. Strained eyes (and also ears). Sustained suspense leading to cold hands and feet, and increased pulse rate and heart beat, while the muscles contract – an antithesis of balanced exercise. Soon you need a drug to calm you down, such as valium and prosac. Headache and therefore you take analgesic. Hallucinations in your sleep which may lead to insomnia.


So what is the preoccupation of the young today? It appears to be a syndrome instead, a syndrome of five components, namely:


1. Decreased Mental Concentration
2. Social Detachment
3. Physiologic Imbalance
4. Time Waste
5. Indeterminate Purpose


Pose for a moment after reading this article and imagine yourself a victim of this modern day syndrome. ~
How many cups of coffee do you take a day - with the computer?

Healing with Nature, AVR; acknowledgment, Internet; Wikipedia

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