We all know that certain person who spends way too much time on Facebook. In photography class, they sit on the computer playing mind numbing games and you wonder how they're ever going to pass that class. At lunch, they're the first ones in the computer lab. Ignoring their friends, they addictively sit in front of the computer. At home, their whole social world is online. We all know that this is unhealthy behavior.
But what about those of us who just play a game every once in awhile? Could that be dangerous at all?
Facebook games distract us way too much from real life.
In Colorado, a 34 year old woman left her 13 month old child unattended in the bath tub while she played a facebook game in the other room. Distracted by the game, she did not think to check on her baby until it was too late. She walked into the bathroom after a few minutes and found her infant lying sideways with his face in the water. He was dead. She now faces up to 48 years in prison.
Some might say that this is a rare, isolated case in which an unfit mother was neglecting her child. However, I think that this is an extreme example of the addiction we have with the internet. Do you think that this woman was just a neglectful mother or was it just an innocent mistake?? Do you think that our societie's addiction with Facebook had anything to do with this??
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9 comments:
I think there are many people who just cannot get away from the internet and facebook but this is a new type of addiction we are encountering. Yes the mother was wrong to leave her child unattended and she obviously cannot control herself when she goes online/facebook. I think it is going to take some time before any study and any aid for internet addiction is available since it is a fairly new addiction. Also, the fact that the internet is readily available virtually anywhere is also a problem. We can connect to the internet through computers and phones so we can access sites like facebook anytime and anywhere. I feel that this problem will continue to grow as a big problem.
The story of the mother is an extreme that I don't think happens all too often. However, spending too much time playing games on the internet is not good at all. Games are addicting because you want to beat all of the levels or whatnot which ends up sucking you in. Playing them once in a while isn't bad, but who only plays games once in a while? Naturally, people want to beat a game and feel the satisfaction of beating it.
The woman who left her child unattended was foolish to do so. She is at fault for allowing this to happen and not have enough self control. I believe her sentence should be along the lines of 20 years or so. It was her fault that her child died, but it maybe possible to say that there are other factors that led to her child's death. Perhaps she could blame the creator of the game or something like that.
All in all, playing games in moderation is not bad, but if it is impossible to go a day without playing, there may be a problem.
Though it sounds like this mother was just plain irresponsible, I'd like to address the problem of addiction to facebook and games.
When we think of addictions, a lot of us probably first think of alcohol or drug addicts or obese people addicted to food. All of these kinds of addictions destroy our health, important relationships with other people, and the "normal" course of our lives. In this way, an addiction to facebook/online games/the internet is just as destructive, as it consumes large amounts of time from other productive activities (as well as time for sleep or eating, if it's extreme). Like Ayaka said, because this sort of addiction is a relatively new phenomenon, we probably won't start developing good solutions to these problems until our entire generation, which has been hooked on technology, grows up into adults and encounters behavioral or physical health problems. Hopefully these stories are sickening enough that they serve as a warning to the rest of us.
I think that women is a moron, if she was going to play games, at least have her baby next to her and then shower him when she is done, even if it might take a while for her to do so, i am pretty sure that her husband will be home. Anyways, I think that people in our society are getting way to addicted to video games, but i feel that more people should have self control. I feel that there is not anything that we can do about. I think that people will have to develope self control by them selves.
Let's not just pin the blame on Facebook, even though it is a major player in the internet timesink. The internet holds a disproportionate amount of free, addictive games. The problem, remember, lies not within the games themselves because their express purpose is to entertain (therefore being made to be as addictive as possible), and people know this. If people are unable to handle it, the problems that arise are their own fault. I remember a story where a man died playing an MMORPG for days on end- this is not the games fault, but the man's fault. In the OP's case, the fault lies with the woman.
But how should we rectify this? My answer: we cannot. We can only rely on the individual's self control. The government cannot violate more of our right to privacy, anyway, or the public will balk.
Wow, I never new facebook games were this distracting, especially in this horrific case. I mean first of all, the woman was stupid enough to leave her child unattended in a bathtub and second, i don't think facebook games are addicting at all. All in all, the whole point of facebook is for people to socialize and connect over the internet with friends; it's not a gaming website.
I've always been against computer and video games - they just suck time and remove people from reality. So many times, I've seen people go from social and sweet to mute and rude when playing one of these addicting games. Although I agree that this specific case is an extreme example, I still believe that something should be done to limit technological game-playing in general.
First of all the mother was very wrong to leave the child unattended.That is something people should consider- especially if the baby was in the bath tub. To me 48 years seems extreme, even with this horrible case, it should be cut in half , at least.
Second of all, I've never played the games because I didn't want to get caught up in them, or they didn't look very good.Games should be kept separate at least from the internet and left to video game consoles.
Perhaps if people were less tempted to explore the internet, then perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. How about a cost to play the game for a certain amount of time, that way it allows less play time and a addictive persona.
All we can do is cut our gaming time down. I am not allowed to play video games during the weekdays , only weekend, and surprisingly enough, lately I haven't played games in over a month.
Wow...that's awful. I'm definitely guilty of playing Facebook games once in a while, but these games are just here to pass time when we're bored, not something we live and breathe through. Hearing that story about the Colorado woman forgetting her child was taking a bath is just really sad news. I'm sure she didn't intentionally neglect her child, but it's still a shock to hear the reason why her child died was because she was distracted by a FACEBOOK GAME. I think this is just a rare case of forgetfulness, because I don't think there have been any other such extreme cases about Facebook being guilty of I guess you could say "killing" people. However, this is probably a sign that our generation's addiction to computer technology is getting out of hand.
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