Are You an 'Internet Addict'?

My apologies for a late post Dave, but all day today and yesterday evening, the internet was down in Frederick Park. I must admit I was irritated with the whole thing considering I had to get some work done and not having internet prevented that. My experience today is completely relevant to an article I came across on MSN.com about the treatment of *internet addicts* in China. The article was very interesting and aroused much thought about how we as a society are very dependent on the internet.

The Chinese government has started a campaign to stop virtual addiction or what they called a "grave social danger". According to statistics, nearly 14% of teens in China are susceptible to virtual addiction. The article was focused around what is being done to treat internet addiction. Teenagers are taken to a military hospital for treatment, are banned access to the virtual world, and are monitored by medical staff 24/7. For more info...

What's interesting about this article is the fact that everyone in general depends on the internet for everything; information, news, research, romance, etc. And everyone has access to it; people of all ages and nowadays with such a reliance on computer technology children are being trained to use the internet at such a young age. In the article, another point made was how detrimental the internet can be if started at a young age. Some problems mentioned were it prevented social interaction and was a distraction to much daily activities. I do agree the internet is addicting. I don't know how many times a day I check my myspace page. I also depend on it to handle my finances, shop, and communicate at no-cost with my family. There are endless possibilities to the uses of the internet. In many of my classes, many students bring their laptops to class to take notes, search for relevant materials on the internet for class discussion, and other things. This can be beneficial, but I can also see how it deters much of their attention away from class; checking emails, 'myspacing', researching for other classes, etc.

But I can see how this kind of "addiction" can be harmful. Sometimes when I'm writing papers, I tend to browse the web when taking my break. Rather than taking a walk or reading a book, I choose to spend free time on the internet. I do some online shopping, visit news sites, listen to music, and other things. What would the world be like without the internet? Computers alone have revolutionized worldwide communication and access to information, but have we gone too far? We depend on the internet for so many things, but in the process of trying to make life easier I think we've equally made it more complicated. The internet is a powerful tool in reaching mass numbers of people, but what happens to those who do not have access to the internet? Any thoughts?.....

"GANGSTA" themed parties

As I was looking through online news articles on MSN.com I came across an article of interest. I thought it would be appealing to our class considering its main focus is on the freedom of expression. Across the country there have been an increased popularity of "gangsta" theme parties on many college campuses. This has raised attention to many African American and white students who are offended by these events particularly thrown by students. African American students argued that these parties are insulting and perpetuate stereotypes. What adds insult to injury is the fact that many of these parties are held around the time of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and a holiday to honor slain civil rights leaders.

Experts say that those who do portray these stereotypes are not consciously aware of how their actions affect others considering much of this behavior is shown on TV through hip-hop music videos (BET, MTV) and some movies. Some of the behaviors people found offensive included a white male student wearing blackface and a white female student who put padding in her pants to make her rear-end appear bigger.
Link to article for further details.

The striking thing about this article is here is an example of how social injustice issues of race is still prevalent today. Once again the influence of the media (MTV) provided a negative portrayal of African Americans. Particularly the examples of young women who added padded articles to their rear-ends and men wearing machine guns as part of their attire is not what hip-hop is all about let alone African American culture. I agree with the experts opinions that people don't realize that their actions affect other people. We live in a generation where kids and adults think it's okay to act this way because it's showed on television, but what we don't realize is the fact that though it's harmless fun to us understand that the U.S. past history includes the ridicule and approval to kill African Americans (Civil Rights era).

But there is another side to this also. What makes this issue a double-edged sword is that some influential African Americans, particularly rappers, continue to play out these stereotypes. In many of rap songs the constant repetition of derogatory phrases to describe women and the portrayal of "bling" is referred to to exemplify success. However since the time of the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans stay in the political realm to fight for their rights and to gain respect from others and refrained from detrimental behavior. And we've come to an understanding that in order to make more money in the industry people have to do some shady things even if it means damaging your integrity. Don't get me wrong, I'm most definitely not insisting people shouldn't listen to hip-hop and have a good time, but people who deliberately act out certain stereotypes lose the idea, think its funny, and believe they're not hurting anyone.