logo

Is Your Computer Slowly Killing You?

By Jesse Singal - Nov 20th, 2008 at 10:42 am

The MacArthur Foundation just released a study on teen Internet usage, reports The New York Times. Since it “describes new-media usage but does not measure its effects,” it doesn’t tell us much that we (well, “we” being folks under a certain age) didn’t know about young people and their damnable tube series.

The Internet has obviously been demonized a bit:

Ms. Ito, a research scientist in the department of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, said that some parental concern about the dangers of Internet socializing might result from a misperception.

“Those concerns about predators and stranger danger have been overblown,” she said. “There’s been some confusion about what kids are actually doing online. Mostly, they’re socializing with their friends, people they’ve met at school or camp or sports.”

But–and here’s where I enter “now he sounds as out of touch as Tom Brokaw” mode–I do wonder about the long-term effects of so much computer (with or without the Internet) usage. Is it that out of line to suggest that staring at an interactive screen for eight hours or more per day–something that, relative to the history of our species, we have only started doing in the past fraction of a second–might have negative effects on our bodies and brains that won’t manifest themselves until much later?

I’m not just talking about already-covered stuff like ergonomics; rather, isn’t there a chance that our brains just aren’t built to be engaged in this manner for extended lengths of time? Before you accuse me of paranoia or technophobia, keep in mind that we already have reason to believe that TV damages developing brains. So the fact that a technology has woven itself into our culture to the point of ubiquity doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t inherently harmful in certain contexts. And, since the first generation of people who spent larges chunks of their lives working with computers are only now getting up there in age (and, at that age group, there aren’t all that many of them), we may not have hard data on this for awhile.

Just some unpalatable food for thought. Back to the web I go!

Tags: health, Internet, tech