Japanese psychiatrist Rika Kayama recently wrote an essay about how personal handheld devices such as iPods and portable gaming systems are fostering digital connections while at the same time making us starved for real human contact.
The essay, published in Japan's “Mainichi Daily News,†notes that the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP are partially responsible for her patients' frequent complaints about feeing lonely. Here's an excerpt from Kayama's piece:
“Today’s youth immerse themselves in worlds of their own right before our eyes, where they can live secluded from the rest of us. Feeding into these one person worlds, personal devices such as mobile phones and handheld game systems like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS come on to the market one after another.
“The ‘make your own world anywhere’ idea has gone too far, to the point that even on the train one sees people shamelessly putting on makeup or eating cups of instant noodles as though the train carriage was their own room. …
“I feel that an increasing number of people are coming to my office saying, ‘Even when I’m in a crowd I’m lonely.’ Even when they are at a popular singer’s concert or when reading a best-selling novel, these patients can’t feel any solidarity for those next to them or those reading the same book.â€
The Nintendo DS in particular is meant to connect like-minded gamers with data exchanges between games like Pokemon and Nintendogs. But do you feel like portable games and other personal electronic devices are making you feel hollow and sad?
source
oh bother, this whole thing is BS.
The essay, published in Japan's “Mainichi Daily News,†notes that the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP are partially responsible for her patients' frequent complaints about feeing lonely. Here's an excerpt from Kayama's piece:
“Today’s youth immerse themselves in worlds of their own right before our eyes, where they can live secluded from the rest of us. Feeding into these one person worlds, personal devices such as mobile phones and handheld game systems like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS come on to the market one after another.
“The ‘make your own world anywhere’ idea has gone too far, to the point that even on the train one sees people shamelessly putting on makeup or eating cups of instant noodles as though the train carriage was their own room. …
“I feel that an increasing number of people are coming to my office saying, ‘Even when I’m in a crowd I’m lonely.’ Even when they are at a popular singer’s concert or when reading a best-selling novel, these patients can’t feel any solidarity for those next to them or those reading the same book.â€
The Nintendo DS in particular is meant to connect like-minded gamers with data exchanges between games like Pokemon and Nintendogs. But do you feel like portable games and other personal electronic devices are making you feel hollow and sad?
source
oh bother, this whole thing is BS.
