"The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box."Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Computer Slow? Optimize It With The Right Tools
Why does it seem like every time you get a new computer it operates at lightning fast speeds for only a few months before becoming slow and laborious over its tasks? Is this just something that we have to live with or can we do something to keep our ...
Getting Started In Information Technology Computer Consulting
One of the best things about being in the Information Technology industry is consulting. For purposes of this article I'm using the term consulting in reference to side jobs or moonlighting work. While full time Computer Consultants can also benefit ...
Self Employment In The Age Of The Computer
Self-Employment in the Age of the Computer, or: Using the computer to create your own income. I believe that there is a huge market that is not widely recognized but, available right now for people to create their own careers. I approached Human ...
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In this day and age, with hardcore chemicals being the scourge of civilized life, heroin, cocaine, vicodin, all the classes of drugs that are man-made and not naturally produced or even those that are natural, it seems silly to talk of addiction to a computer game. But it is neither silly nor trivial. Take heed!
The sheer popularity of these games, played on home computers, Xbox's, Playstations, Gamecubes and other consoles, shows that this addiction does not affect everyone equally. Some people can play a game for an hour, then go back to work, or watch TV and not give a second thought to the game. Others play it 8 hours a day or more, forgoing meals, family, work, and daily chores.
The corporations that produce these games do not help with the problem, in fact they stoke the fires into roaring blazes. Clearly, they understand that there are millions of people who will forgo simple things in life to pay $10 a month to play on a game for objects and things that are intangible. So they feed the addiction, releasing new objects obtainable only in the online world, or releasing new add-on upgrades and expansion sets for another $50. The bottom line is money of course, they are corporations who are responsible to their shareholders, and no-one wants to blame them for the ruinous addiction they are causing. With ever larger online worlds entering the gaming fray (World of Warcraft, Everquest 2 .), it seems that this is a problem that will only increase.
Psychologists have labelled this as Computer Addiction or Internet Addictive Disorder, a problem very similar to Pathological Gambling or Compulsive Shopping, and sadly it does not just affect one person, but seeps into family life affecting those around the addicted. This is a real disorder, not imagined, and those afflicted need to seek professional help and more significantly, need the love, comfort and support of friends and family. Perhaps a little tough love is in order too, regulate the computer time, turn off your child's playstation after they have played for an hour, get them involved in real world activities that have nothing to do with a computer.
This is not an American phenomena, or European, this is world-wide, and only getting worse. The Chinese have started camps for adolescents addicted to computers, in a land where nearly 15% of adolescents suffer from Internet Addiction Disorder according to the China Internet Information Center.
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