Distraction

Many posts are due. NSS camp 2009 had been another great experience. Shall come back with that. Today I found the following article in TOI which is worth noting. The resolve of these school students of age 16 and 17 to 'resist the lure of the log in' may be the beginning of a backlash....or it may be too early to say that. That it is an issue getting noted among the youth is a good sign. Rest is in the article.
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Teens ‘defriend’ to deal with online obsession

Katie Hafner

Facebook, the popular networking site, has 350 million members worldwide who, collectively, spend 10 billion minutes there every day, checking in with friends, writing on people’s electronic walls, clicking through photos and generally keeping pace with the drift of their social world.
Make that 9.9 billion and change. Recently, Halley Lamberson, 17, and Monica Reed, 16, juniors at San Francisco University High School, made a pact to help each other resist the lure of the login. Their status might as well now read, “I can’t be bothered.”
“We decided we spent way too much time obsessing over Facebook and it would be better if we took a break from it,” Halley said. By mutual agreement, the two friends now allow themselves to log on to Facebook on the first Saturday of every month — and only on that day.
The two are among the many teenagers, especially girls, who are recognizing the huge distraction Facebook presents — the hours it consumes every day, to say nothing of the toll it takes during finals and college applications,
according to parents, teachers and the students themselves.
Some teenagers, like Monica and Halley, form a support group to enforce their Facebook hiatus. Others deactivate their accounts. Still others ask someone they trust to change their password and keep control of it until they feel ready to have it back.
Facebook will not reveal how many users have deactivated service, but Kimberly Young, a psychologist who is the director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery in Bradford, Pennsylvania, said she had spoken with dozens of teenagers trying to break the Facebook habit. “It’s like any other addiction,” Young said. “It’s hard to wean yourself.” NYT NEWS SERVICE