Unconventional Wisdom
Flash: Consortium of computing pundits warns, "Step away from your device."
The organizer of the Wisdom 2.0, an annual conference about the pursuit of balance in the digital age, warns, "log off once in a while."
They say that we are addicted to our computing devices. What? Don't ask my wife about that. I've been known to get up and go outside at least once a day. And yet I read the announcement that there will soon be five or six new Kindles offered from Amazon; Apple will make the iPad in more sizes to ‘compete’. I'm still waiting for the computing do-all jacket ensemble with matching packet routing shoes.
At the Wisdom 2.0 conference founders from Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Zynga and PayPal, and executives and managers from companies like Google, Microsoft, Cisco and others gathered to listen to conversations with experts in yoga and mindfulness. In at least one session, they debated whether technology firms had a responsibility to consider their collective power to lure consumers to games or activities that waste time or distract them.
Wow~!
Pinch me. Am I awake? They were thinking beyond run-away profits?
But the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", widely viewed as the authority on mental illnesses, plans next year to include “Internet use disorder” in its appendix. That's an indication that researchers think something is going on, perhaps requires further investigation preceding the declaration of an official condition.
Oh dear, I was just having a little fun with my hand held device and now this.
Some argue that online gaming, as an example, helps create dopamine, something that folks crave regardless of the Internet. Dopamine, a neurochemical that has been shown to be released by pleasurable activities, apparently is my friend, :- ) To quote: “The powerful lure of devices mostly reflects primitive human longings to connect and interact.” Whoa...yeah! I guess that's happening. If I did Facebook I'd have oodles of "friends". To continue the quote: “...but that those desires need to be managed so they don't overwhelm people’s lives.”
I'm going outside.
7/29/2012
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