Pokemon Go impacting children s minds: UAE daily
Date
8/21/2016 1:03:01 AM
(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM))
ABU DHABI, 20th August, 2016 (WAM)--As technology continues to intersect with human life with increasing force, the frequency of challenges to mankind s ability to resist enslavement to its power is on the rise.
The Pokemon Go mania currently sweeping the world has brought in its wake concerns of the extent to which we wish to be subversive about reality.
"Experts in the UAE are, rightly, concerned about how this immersion in augmented reality is impacting children s minds as they increasingly opt to be distracted by perception rather than deal with reality," an editorial said.
"Pokemon Go belongs to the world of augmented reality, a technology that involves superimposition of artificial information on real-life responses, and herein lies the problem. From simple issues of physical safety that can be compromised as people distractedly chase their targets all over the city, to deeper issues of alienation from real-life interactions and the learning experiences born of them," commented English language local daily, Gulf News, in its editorial on Saturday.
Games such as Pokemon Go, say experts, are turning children into loners, as they get busy living in the ether little inclined to interact with people. It needs little imagination to see how this can negatively impact a child s psychological, emotional and social development and why parents are being urged to take charge of how much time their wards spend on such games.
"The consequences of childhood years spent minus proper stimuli and corralled by repetitive interactions with only technology are too well documented by now to bear overemphasis," the paper observed.
It concluded, "It is true that technology helps make our lives easier, and perhaps also provides us with more fun at times, but to not realise the abiding truth that real life is what gives technology its raison d etre is to miss the point of living entirely. Parents must ensure that their children grow up to be able to differentiate between the rewards of illusion and reality.
WAM/Majok WAM 0919 2016/08/20
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WAM/Majok
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