Cooking Slowly – A Tale of Ever-Changing Times

There is an old adage that if you put a live frog in a pot of water and heated it gradually, that frog would just sit in the water and not jump away (even though it could) until the water boils and it is thoroughly cooked.  It may or may not be true (no one has really tried it since the late 1880s), but either way it is an excellent metaphor for certain things. Some authors have been concerned about the replacement of people with robots, automatic tellers, and other types of automation in the workplace because of the associated loss of jobs (1).  This is one concern, but I want to focus on another.  It is about humanity and interpersonal connection and how dealing with machines instead of people all day may be changing us and our culture.  Changes slowly creep into our lives unnoticed, and before we realize it, like the proverbial frog in a pot of slowly warming water, we become cooked (or otherwise harmed). Ten years ago, when I first occupied the office I am in now, I would drive to the parking garage and greet the guy in the booth who handed out tickets to…

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Addictive Internet Games

The Washington Post online had an interesting piece recently about teens addicted to online games and the havoc such an addiction or obsession can cause in a person’s life. There is, of course, a lot of research and concern about this issue.  The author, Caitlin Gibson, quotes psychologist Kimberly Young, founder of the Center for Internet Addiction. As saying the number of kids affected by such an addiction might (modestly) be estimated at “… 5 percent. But 5 percent of American kids is a lot.” The article points to some resources, such as the Center for Internet Addiction and a residential facility called reSTART.  reSTART, the article states is “…the nation’s first therapeutic retreat devoted specifically to Internet addiction.”   Last month reSTART :…launched a new adolescent program…after receiving a barrage of calls from parents desperate to separate their children from video games, consoles, computers and smartphones..” Here in Pasadena, CA a colleague, Dr. Joe Dilley has published a book entitled The Game Is Playing Your Kid:  How to Unplug and Reconnect in the Digital Age which is a book for parents giving them a three-step program to help prevent or handle this problem.  I can recommend this book as having…

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