As I type, the guy in the room directly behind mine with whom I share a ventilator, is skirmishing with terrorists in Counter Strike. His headphones stopped functioning a week ago and now the ventilator ensures that I don’t miss a single second of action.
I’m guessing he plays Counter Strike for about 2-3 hours daily. And then in the same day, 2-3 hours of watching 24 or HIMYM or Heroes. Then at least one movie. Then you can’t forget the time spent on music. Thats a lot of time to spend on the PC doing what the PC was originally not made for. And he’s not alone, lots of people have a similar time-table, though my backie is well-known for his busy schedule.
Gaming is a decent way to spend time once in a while, stress relieving effects of gunning people down are undeniable. But its a scourge when you spend nearly every waking hour doing so. Its quite sad actually, you interact with your buddies more frequently in the virtual world than you do offline. Sports rivalries are being replaced by clan rivalries.
TV is back with a vengeance, this time on your PC. TV series get distributed on the lan in seasons. So half a dozen episodes get watched in a row. No advertisements and no waiting for a week to know what happens next. Internet TV and video sharing sites only add to the problem. People with no life offline get pretty much hooked checking out videos.
Then there are instant messengers which further make it easier to be alienated out of real life. Not to forget ‘news sites’ like Digg or Reddit. Majority of their top links are always a funny picture or a funny video. People obviously like funnier stuff more than actual news relevant to the world. You could spend hours surfing and reading all the crap that gets top rated.
The difference between couch potatoes and PC users is that , PC guys get their fingers exercised more ;). But other than that, they pretty much kill you brain cells the same way.
a rather interesting work buddy.you have addressed the problem really well but what sets me thinking is,how many people actually use the computer in the manner that you have described so lucidly.earnestly speaking i am sure you would agree with me if i said that,though quite a good number use the computer the way you have mentioned the majority still use it productively.
i feel you have generalized your article.it should have been more focused on youngsters because believe me buddy no software nerd who arduously works for 16 -18 hrs on a daily basis would blow his head of to someone calling a computer an idiot box.
but your humor timing is impeccable looks like the wave of time has not made you rusty when it comes to that.
yeah thats true, tons of people actually use the computer constructively. I mostly was talking about the youngsters and teens.