Stories of me and myself

Almost all, if not majority, of the kids in Singapore have used a computer once in their lives. And I bet they are more IT-savvy than me! Many of them are hooked onto the computer and the internet these days. Even myself! The first thing I do when I come home is to switch on my computer! Heh. How many of us can say that we dun use the computer and go online 'for fun' when we are at home? Heh. But I think it's fine as long as we are not obsessive, such as to the extent that we cancel all appointments to go out to play and our mind is preoccupied with the NET all the time.

Increasing numbers of our kids are entering this stage of addiction. Especially the addiction to computer games. You know how addictive some games can be rite? Even those boliao no-brainer games, where you just keep trying to beat your own high score. And even when you close your eyes, you can still see the image of the game and you can even continue playing it in your mind! Then you know you've reached 'diety' level. Haha! (Speaking from experience! Haha!)

But if this goes on out of proportion, what will become of our sociey? Where is the physical interaction involved here? We will be developing anti-social individuals who will have to work in society in the future! And to some, society means cyberspace. (And it gets worse in that as technology progresses, the games and visual graphics get more and more realistic.) Their real life is in cyberspace itself, while physically, their bodies are here on earth. Their friends are all in that one screen. You unplug it and that's it. Byebye. Too bad. They can't adapt to the REAL life.

There are real dangers involved as well. For example, kids who dun get enuff love and attention at home are especially vulnerable. They seek alternative havens in cyberspace. And those crooks out there prey on such souls, befriending them and ultimately carrying out their designs on them. Although annonymity online provides individuals with the freedom to be "hyperpersonal" (to really be themselves with no pretense cos no one knows their identity!), it's also a risk cos people resort to faking their identity while attempting to be funny (not the haha-hee-hoho funny). Heh.

Talking about trying to fake identities, we had to do this little activity today. (I love how we do little activities every lesson! Makes me look forward to the lesson every week! I shall endeavour to follow Tutor V's example. have I mentioned that I really wanna be like her? Hee) Anyway, we were supposed to fake our identities by creating our cyber nickname, gender, age, occupation, personal statement, favourite quote and interests. (I tried to fake a 29 year-old sporty guy who was a business consultant.) Afterward we were to randomly pick any person's identity and try to identify the real person in the class. What was shocking was, YP picked my identity and identified me IMMEDIATELY! She, for one, recognised my handwriting and the personal staement and quotes (which I had tried to tweak!) She even knew what I WOULD HAVE written if I was being myself! How FREAKY is that?? She can totally read me! Oh man...

Anyway, back to kids and the internet. The internet is a useful, efficient tool and a good source of entertainment. But we should always be wary of its dangers, cos we dunno which bad guy (so stereotypical hor? Donch care! Hmpf!) is lurking out there. We should encourage the kids to engage more in physical interaction and outings. Especially through CCA (even if it's computer club!) and informal gatherings. And advise parents to place the computer in a visible place, such as the hall, if possible, so that they can keep an eye on their kids. (Privacy? Hmmm... not until they win our trust?) Other methods include reasonable time limits on the computer. If the standards are too unreasonable, the kids might rebel, or 'gorge' themselves when they get the chance to. By then, reining them back would be tough, if not impossible, or too late, when the harm is done.

And I've been on the computer for too long! Talk about addiction to blogging! Hahaha!