Computer Addiction May Be Fatal!!!

[muman613]

This story exhibits just the kind of horror which the double-edged sword of technology can be. While I am a proud Software engineer who has contributed to Computer Science for over 20 years I have always felt that we are moving way too fast and society may not be prepared for the changes which are coming. At first I was fully supportive of computer video games, even working in the video game field for 6 years... But I realized that computer games could have negative effects on certain individuals.

Read this story and see if you agree with me:


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,588005,00.html

Couple's Baby Dies While They Raise Virtual Daughter Online
Thursday , March 04, 2010

A Korean couple addicted to computer games let their real-life baby starve to death while raising a virtual daughter online, police said Thursday.

The couple spent up to12 hours a day at Internet cafes, leaving their 3-month-old daughter home alone at their apartment in Suwon, South Korea.

Police said the couple became obsessed with living online and neglected their real lives.

They raised an avatar baby through their Second Life profiles, while their real daughter was given just one bottle of milk a day.

Father Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and mom Choi Mi-sun, 25, called emergency services when they returned from one online session in September last year and found their daughter dead.

"We found she had passed away when we woke up in the morning," they said.

But cops became suspicious about how severely dehydrated the baby was.

"She appears to have starved to death because she was not fed for such a long period of time," said a spokesman for the National Scientific Criminal and Investigation Laboratory, which carried out an autopsy on the girl.

Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and Fox News contributor, said humans are at a critical moment in society — "when our fascination with online activities is beginning to eclipse our attention to reality."

"I believe that sites like Second Life can cleave vulnerable people from their genuine relationships and emotions and turn them into "pretenders" who live a fake, if not delusional, existence," Ablow said.

"Millions of us are turning into the stars of what amounts to the reality show version of our lives. This is a massive loss of emotional grounding and invites depression, anxiety, drug use and violence."

The girl was initially well cared for by her grandmother, but her health deteriorated after she moved back in with her parents.

Police tried to arrest the parents, but they disappeared after the baby's funeral.

Authorities caught up with them Tuesday and charged them with child abuse and neglect.

The couple told police of their guilt after their arrests.

"Due to our sense of guilt, we have not been to a PC gaming room over these five months," they said.

Online games are massively popular in South Korea.

A 28-year-old man dropped dead recently after playing his favorite game Starcraft for 50 hours nonstop without eating or drinking.

[White Israelite]

My brothers pretty addicted to video games, he spends entire days just sitting in his room playing games. I used to be addicted but I spend a lot more time outside nowadays.

[New Yorker]

Sick and stupid people! 

Believe me, that poor child dying because it's deranged "parents" were on the computer is incidental, if there were no computer, that dizzy idiotic couple would have found something else to obsess with, and that child would still have been neglected to death. 

[JTFenthusiast2]

This article raises an important point.  It is so easy to be connected through the internet in this time, that people do not establish real connections with people in the world.  It's a tragedy really.  Most of us are old enough to remember social life before internet addiction and 'texting.'  My life may have had more problems, but it was also filled with more people.

[Rubystars]

I think there's a trade-off here. Maybe the computer keeps dangerous people sitting at their computers playing games instead of going out and killing real people.

I also think there has to be something seriously wrong with these people in the first place.

A sane (but neglectful) person might be a few minutes late in feeding their baby while they finish something on a game, but it takes pure insanity or total criminal apathy or malice to starve a baby to death!

Something was definitely wrong with these people's empathy centers.

[GoIsraelGo!]

Muman, what a horrific story!
My heart goes out to the poor baby who suffered and died at the hands of her cruel parents.
May HaShem comfort her now.


By the way (off topic) you post some very important stories, and most of your posts are educational
and informative. You're a pretty good Teacher Muman.

I for one appreciate what you do for our Forum.



                                               Shalom - Dox

[muman613]

Shalom Dox,

Thank you very much for your kind words... I try to find stories which I think that my fellow JTF members would find interesting...

muman613