Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Bad news from the internet home page...

Every now and then its fun to get locked up in a conversation with someone who knew the way of the world before the internet took over. Employees congregated in lobbies, next to the steaming hot coffee pot, had lunch in dumps and dives and talked openly about getting together over the weekend for boat rides or backyard BBQ’s.


A few say the internet has improved their daily destinations while a couple more might confess that our self driven hourly expectations aren’t any easier because it’s just one more thing to do in an already overcrowded life and style.


Al Gore claims to have invented the internet and I still believe it was higher ranking government decision makers searching for newer ways to weaken the spirit of a nation so strong by creating sites and sounds that challenge husbands and wives who teach children that it’s ok to divorce three weeks after saying, “I do.” Who has time to protest new laws, taxes and far away wars when you’re entire day is spent protecting what little is left of family, friends and Twitter companions?

On-line banking didn’t mess up the financial system; it was the invention of the drive up ATM—whip out the piece of plastic that looks, smells and feels like a credit card and swipe it…within minutes you have nothing…so you’re forced to borrow more and more; banks get taller and your personal worth gets smaller. Can’t fight the odds of winning because you’re still combating with the other half of your life about something that suddenly showed up on the computer screen and oh heck yes you’re guilty by assumption. f


Don’t get me wrong…I’m a huge fan of the internet. I wouldn’t have a weekly radio show in Brazil without it. My scripts are sent via the web, the sound is shot back to a corner of the world I’ve never been…but my voice is there. Two of my books are featured on Amazon.com and how about my art on canvas featured in the world’s greatest art gallery…um, ok…its nothing more than a personal web page but hey, ten years ago that wasn’t possible!


Face Book, My Space, Walmart.com, anybody, everybody, Social Networking is bigger than the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Clay Aiken and the latest news on the Lindsey Lohan’s quick fix and repair…and I’ve yet to see the T-shirts, coffee mugs, wall posters and other swag honoring the geeks and freaks that sit behind the scenes making all this happen.


Well guess what? There are giant letters in the headlines, huge coverage on morning radio and television, the unveiling of the news nobody wants to admit but might have feared once maybe twice during this light speed trip through a millennium called 2000: The internet increases depression.


A new study reveals that Pathological web use causes mental health problems.


1,000 teens…on the web over and over again; within a nine month period their mind sets and moods connected to depression nearly doubled. Although the study kept it’s eye off career chasing adults with 2.7 kids, four cats and a dog named Charlie, you can’t help but wonder what extended stays on the internet are doing to those beyond high school, Justin Bieber and puppy love.


The Lawrence Lam School of Medicine in Sydney, Australia suggests that young people whose lives are free from mental health issue but find themselves on the internet for longer than usual periods of time can be described as being pathological therefore face bouts with flights through the low lands of a valley floor kissing the edges of a emptiness with no knowledge of learning how to pull the correct cords that’ll regain enough strength to lift their ship toward the passing sun; which is a poet’s way of describing what it’s like to be down and nearly out.


Are you addicted to the internet? Take the test netaddiction.com


In my first book One Man’s 1021 Thoughts I wrote: Depression isn’t anger against yourself or others—its God’s way of saying, “Here’s a gift, you shall be un-numb.”



This will depress you…that quote was written before the introduction of the internet. The unspoken tongue of what grabs you by the back of the head and slams your earlobes into a vat of fresh Montana mud isn’t for you to decide and or privately cure…get help.


The Center for Internet Addiction is real. Just as real as those unexplained fighting words that come from nowhere and you’re left picking up the pieces of a 100,000 piece puzzle with no box available to put them in so your only decision is to throw it all away.


Reason.com is another valuable tool.


The internet isn’t an evil one eyed monster that sleeps under your bed and only comes out during the third quarter stage of the moon that keeps all children awake at night. It’s made the world smaller which has helped millions of people locate their soul mate and you can’t wipe the sweat of a recently released bad study on something that resembles a freshly blossomed rose with dew sleeping in the corners of each wing.


The internet is no different than beer, a vibrant red wine, extremely strong power drink and melted chocolate poured on a man size bowl of vanilla ice cream…there’s a 99.9 percent chance you’re going to become addicted.


One quick look at where the internet is found: laptops, cell phones, PC towers, IPads, libraries, offices, hotels, hospitals and blah blah blah and you can’t help but make it a part of your travels. Mom up in Montana still doesn’t have a computer. She’s extremely happy. Not even my Father’s recent heart surgery could take her down. She came from an extremely strong family that spent countless cold winters trying to keep a ranch in Wyoming alive and moving forward.


How strong are we today? Remember the movie Short Circuit? Have we become the cute little machine that constantly says, “Input need more input?” Remember, it’s not what you know, its what you can do with what you know. Anyone can be a black belt in martial arts but it means nothing if you don’t live the life of what you’ve been taught…to walk in peace.


arroecollins@clearchannel.com

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