A cone collar similar to Elizabethan collar or E-collar was next shown onscreen. With the guard worn around the necks, men and women were prevented from reading or viewing their electronic devices. Compelled to redirect their attention to the people around them, they made eye contact.
That was a video created by Coca-Cola for humor. In a sense, a cone collar guard might be a good way to help solve the problem of social media addiction and get people back to social interaction in the real world. However, for practical reasons, we wouldn’t wear such a guard just to disconnect to connect, unplug, and detox to avoid addiction or obsession. What we need is a solution that helps us break free from our dependency and regain control.
Too often, we have been guilty of spending too much time staying digitally connected, listening, reading, viewing, writing or updating our various social network accounts. We woo people to like, follow, and join our social media pages, blogs and sites, and to add us as friends. We post videos, pictures and text to attract attention and to draw the crowd.
Spending time online is nothing wrong, but spending too much of our time online is. If we are neglecting or missing out the more important things in life because of time spent online, we need help. Whether we are using a computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone or another device to connect to the Internet, we need to stamp down addiction or obsession. A good practice and alternative solution to the collar guard is to regularly take time off to eschew digital activity and use that time for more meaningful social interaction with our loved ones, friends and others.
Are we finding ourselves hooked for extended hours online? Are we oblivious to our surroundings at times when connected to the digital world? Do we feel restless without our smartphone or digital device in hand? If our answer to these questions is affirmative, it means it is time for us to go on a digital detox.
I was seated next to a boy of about twelve years old on the train a few days ago. He appeared totally caught up with whatever he was playing on his electronic device.
At first I thought it was just another gaming device, so I did not bother to find out what he was playing, but being always curious to find out the latest gadgets in the market, I took a glimpse at the gadget he was using. What I saw was a device with a relatively larger screen than most gaming gadgets, apparently, a PVP or Portable Video Player as I found out later. On the screen of the device, an animated video movie was being played.
The video played by the boy appears to be just another of those Japanese animated movies telling of teenage girls in classrooms and about their daily lives, something like a family story, so I did not bother much and decided to rest my eyes to sleep. When I opened my eyes later, I could feel from the gestures of the boy that he has become intensely excited, almost oblivious to all his surroundings, engrossed, stiffen, and possibly intoxicated, so I simply had to take a peek at what he was doing.
What I saw on the video was not a family type of movie of a harmless school girl story, but a 'Hentai' type of pornographic anime showing a scene of the school girl tied up and being raped by the professor with her wailing in tears! That really shocked me!
Students these days have too many gadgets to play around, and many of these are unnecessary and sometimes even harmful. To think of underage boys and girls watching videos of such materials on a mobile gadget makes me think what has become of the new age generation today.
Parents these days are too ready to sponsor their children to buy such devices, but few are responsible enough to bother about finding out the harm such gadgets may bring. That is as much as we can say about parental guidance.
