What culture do you embrace? Do you only embrace one or a mixture of various cultures?
I have been watching a documentary programme, ‘Culture X’, broadcasted on arts central every Thursday at 10p.m. This documentary enabled me to see the various, unique and specific cultures in the world. Countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, India and many others are casted based on the theme for that particular episode.
Based on the recent episode, I think that it is closely link to what I have learnt last week. The theme of this particular episode is society and technology. Technology has lessened our workload. Most importantly, we are able to enjoy more due to the advancement of technology. Gaming is a culture that many youngsters embrace. China is the subject on this episode. This is because, although they used the internet later than the westerners, a major problem has developed in china. Addiction to games (MMORPG) has become a problem in China.
China is trying to put a stop to this addiction as the lives of the youngsters have changed abruptly due to gaming for long hours. They had as little as 2 hours of sleep a day. This was a very serious problem due to the effect it has on the child not only in terms of health but also psychologically. As they play their games for long hours they may not be able to differentiate between the reality and the virtual world. This would affect their decision making. They could also be using games to escape from reality because in games identity is a secret and it makes them feel superior.
A clinic has been set up to lead them back to their normal lives through healthy activities such as exercising. It has also been said that it is not an easy task to keep them from the temptation that they had on the internet. It is due to the fact that they had been addicted to the games for a long period of time and it is hard to change.
It is quite ironic as clinics which have been set up to treat genuinely sick patients have now converted to treat patients which have a totally different kind of illness. It is quite shocking that this problem is so bad in China as they used to be quite backwards in terms of technology before they open up and welcome western influences. It had advanced so rapidly over the years such that this kind of problem had surfaced.
There is a high risk that this problem can also surfaced in Singapore. This is because we are a techno savvy country where most of us know how to operate a computer. Furthermore most of us own one and if not a gaming-lan shop is readily available round the corner. However I feel that it had not become as bad as in China because of the hectic lifestyle of a Singapore student. They are too busy with schoolwork and as such could not spend long hours on the computer. However I can’t deny that there are some addicts in Singapore which need professional help. This problem is not that so bad that it requires a clinic to be set-up to help them as in the case of China. With the different culture Singapore has embraced in, we solve our internal problems differently.
So what cultures do you think we embrace?
*If you have missed the previous episodes of Culture X, visit the website http://artscentral.mediacorptv.sg/Coming%20soon/culture-x/index.htm :)*
1 comment:
Technology, like most things in life, is a double edged sword. We alienate ourselves from the world when we choose to lead an online life. We are isolated by the distractions found on the internet. For instance, one may spend hours on YouTube entertained by random videos. One chooses to stay indoors while the sun shines and the world beckons to be physically explored. Yes, taking information from the Internet is like taking a glass of water from Niagara Falls, but if we were meant to absorb knowledge from a screen we would have evolved with 2 brains and no legs. For example, one chooses a solitary lifestyle when he opts to play poker online, compared with an actual game at a friend’s place. Slowly, we become withdrawn and unresponsive to the people around us.
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