Children on playground

By Alan Saldanha

This is an excerpt of a letter I received from one of my Korean readers. It is in response to my recent article, `` What an all embrassing obsession,” on our addiction to computers and the Internet in general. The text has been slightly paraphrased for the sake of convenience.

Dear Alan:

``When I was young, I played baseball and basketball with my friends and it was really fun and a good memory to me.

The play began in the morning and used to end at night. Today, things are different: My nephew tells me he goes to a private school after regular school and all his time is taken up with studies. He has no time to play.

How stupid is that !

Elementary school students study too much.

Do you think that it is desirable?

Children should be children.

Most of all, in Korea, the development of the computer has changed our way of life. The more the computer industry develops, the more people stay away from nature and are isolated from their friends. I am not sure this is a good change.

What do you think about it?

Like most other things a computer has its pros and cons. The good thing about using a computer is that it helps us to keep in touch with friends despite long distances. Company can trade very easily by exchanging useful information. It is an absolute fact that Internet is an asset. This invention and becomes a very essential part of our lives.

The bad thing about using it is that we tend to isolate ourselves from others. In other words, we tend to lose the ability to socialize. It seems like we can spend the whole day with a computer in a room and live without interacting with others. We can chat and play games on the computer. The computer has dominated every aspect of our lives: We cannot resist it.”

Kevin

I have given the writer a fictitious name to provide anonymity. Kevin and I now share a common cause. We want children of today to enjoy the carefree abandon of our respective childhoods ― devoid of computers and TV.

But my dear Kevin, we are a dying tribe. However much we put forward our cause, we are going to get drowned in a sea of opposition. In many cases the need to sparkle academically is a necessity for survival in today's competitive world. This is very much similar to the conditions that exist in India. By the seventh grade a student studies for six to seven hours per day. From that stage itself he is preparing for the exam that allows him entry into medical, engineering or business school.

Many of those students in India meet with success. But they mostly face a unique problem: They can text message their friends but they cannot say `` Hello" in person and carry out a normal conversation. The result is the mushrooming of `` finishing schools." Those schools teach students who have completed professional courses in simple manners to etiquette to polite conversation.

What a shame. That ought to have come naturally.

But things can change. With times changing so rapidly maybe the hot job for the future will be one that entails personal and interactive skills: Like a salesman's job, for instance.

I do hope The Korea Times gets a lot of responses for then they can publish them in ``Kevin's Playground."

Who knows? People like us can make a difference.