Status: Occurring
Prediction: The virtual world will be all-consuming
“It’s my vision of a future where the virtual world is all-consuming and far more relevant than the real one. Maybe I just don’t believe we’re strong enough to resist a world of endless possibilities, instant gratifications, and candid shots of Britney…Facebook, Twitter and other social networks are just embryonic examples of “opt-in” networks that are becoming mandatory through peer pressure. Sure, chat, photo sharing, and Chad Vader videos hardly seem like the tools of insurgency. But for kids, these networks are powerful means of validation. A modern-day clique, a friendship bracelet, or date with a cheerleader.”
What Happened
South Korea’s lost generation of gamers offer a preview of what’s to come
South Korea is bending under the weight of an epidemic. In the world’s most wired country, it’s not opioids or hallucinogens to blame, but the constant call of a connected society.
Estimates vary, but South Korea — home to 51 million people — now has about a million internet-addicted children and teens. About one in 10. Some call the estimate conservative, claiming the actual number is closer to 50 percent, or five million people aged 10 to 19. In an interview with Vice, Dr. Lee Jae-Won, a neuropsychiatrist at Gagnam Eulji Hospital in Seoul said that online gaming accounts for roughly 90 percent of these internet addiction cases.
Americans devote more than 10 hours a day to screen time, and growing, Jul 2016
A new Nielsen Company audience report reveals that adults in the United States devoted about 10 hours and 39 minutes each day to consuming media during the first quarter of this year.
The report, which was released Monday, included how much time we spend daily using our tablets, smartphones, personal computers, multimedia devices, video games, radios, DVDs, DVRs and TVs.
American kids’ daily mobile screen time is almost 10 times higher than it was in 2011, Oct 2017
Why Some Men Don’t Work: Video Games Have Gotten Really Good
“Mr. Hurst and his colleagues estimate that, since 2004, video games have been responsible for reducing the amount of work that young men do by 15 to 30 hours over the course of a year. “
“Between 2004 and 2015, young men’s leisure time grew by 2.3 hours a week. A majority of that increase — 60 percent — was spent playing video games, according to government time use surveys.”
Ex-Google employee calls tech addiction an ‘existential threat’ and calls for regulation, Feb 2018
‘We’re pointing the most powerful supercomputers in the world at our brains to suck the attention out of it,’ says ex-Googler Tristan Harris.Shaping people’s attention and thoughts leads to shaping society and culture, he says.A group of tech alum and experts are fighting for legislation and regulation of social media platforms such as Google and Twitter.
the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the governing body for more than 17,000 high school athletic programs across the country, has recommended its schools institute esports as an official athletic activity.
Airbus Patents a VR Helmet That’ll Make You Forget You’re On A Plane 2014
Why The Rise of Cosplay Is A Bad Sign For The U.S. Economy 2014
Facebook’s 10-Year Plan To Become The Matrix Mar 2015
In 10 years, Facebook would like anyone, anywhere, to be able to strap on a virtual reality headset and share moments with friends and family across the world. It’s the vision of a digital utopia that Facebook reps shared onstage during the annual F8 conference. Mark Zuckerberg himself pointed to a simple graph showing that we’re sharing more and more complex experiences. The natural endpoint is virtual and augmented reality.
They want to suck the real world inside Facebook’s virtual walls. They want you to live in the Facebook Matrix.
Michael Abrash, the chief scientist of Oculus VR (itself owned by Facebook) quoted the movie more than once, saying it gave him “a deep sense of what VR could be,”
AIs Won’t Command Us to Obey. They Will Seduce Us 2017
Why Teens Aren’t Partying Anymore 2017
“People stay in more often. My generation lost interest in socializing in person—they don’t have physical get-togethers, they just text together, and they can just stay at home.”
The number of teens who get together with their friends every day has been cut in half in just fifteen years, with especially steep declines recently.
What’s Next?