Компьютерный синдром

Психиатры отмечают увеличение обращений родителей, которые обеспокоены болезненным пристрастием своих детей к компьютеру. У медиков даже появился специальный термин «компьютерный синдром». Они однозначно считают, что это болезнь, и она тяжело лечится.

Вначале болезнь развивается банально – ребенок проводит много времени у компьютера, играет, а в итоге это переходит в неуемную потребность проводить за компьютером все больше времени, сообщает РИА «Новости».

Так, один подросток просидел за компьютером в Интернет-клубе семь дней. Домой он вернулся, после того как его разыскали встревоженные родители. Во время беседы с психиатром мальчик сообщил, что, увлекшись компьютерными баталиями, потерял чувство реальности. Для него самого было неожиданностью, что он столько времени не был дома. По словам подростка, в клубе он ел булочки, запивал их фантой, после этого снова садился за компьютер. «Что было дальше, я не помню», – сказал мальчик.

Helpful vocabulary

Syndrome (синдром), disease (болезнь), to cure (лечить).

Text 2

Pre-reading task

1. Can you describe a time in your life when you were really hooked on a hobby?

2. Can you describe a time when you were overly enthusiastic about a new product coming on the market?

Reading

Read the article about different types of addicts and decide which person you think has the most serious problem.

Are You Hooked?

No one likes to admit they're an addict. They are sad creatures ruled by deadly substances such as tobacco or alcohol. But there are others less damaging to the health. Like it or not, large numbers of us are addicts. Addictions can be chemical (caffeine), emotional (shopping), physical (exercise) or downright strange ‑ such as picking your spots! You're the odd one out if you don't have at least one everyday addiction. What do you do when you feel under pressure, bored or depressed? Get lost in the world of TV? Go shopping? Eat one bar of chocolate after another?

Becci has been a chocoholic for ten years. 'I just get an urge for it ‑ a need,' says Becci. 'I really don't know why, it's just so delicious. People say that chocolate can make up for lost passion I don't know about that, but I love the way it melts in my mouth.' Every day, Becci gets through several bars of her favourite Cadbury's chocolate (the one with the soft caramel centre is the best). But it’s not only the bars she goes for – hot chocolate drinks and chocolate cakes are also essentials. Towards exam time, Becci feels she has to increase her intake to cope with all the work. 'If I get up late, I’ll have chocolate for breakfast, then more and more during the day. I am addicted. It's like smoking, I suppose, but I have no plans to give it up. If I like it so much, why should l?'

Addiction to exercise can ruin your life, Janine learnt to her cost. 'I was swimming at least fifty lengths a day, jogging to the gym and doing three aerobic classes a week. At home, I used an exercise bike and keep‑fit videos. My husband said that I didn't have time for him, and he was right. But I couldn't believe it when he left me. Finally, I came to my senses, I wanted to get fit but it all got out of hand and my addiction ruined my marriage. Now, I'm seeing a counsellor and gradually reducing the amount of exercise I do.'

Well‑known Member of Parliament Tony Benn, just can't live without his favourite drink. He has on average eighteen pints of tea a day and his addiction has raised concern about his health. When he collapsed recently, some people blamed his excessive tea drinking. Mr Benn has calculated that, over the years, he has drunk enough tea (around 300,000 gallons) to displace an ocean‑going liner. If he ever tried to stop, he would find it agonising.

Anne shopped for thirteen hours a day without leaving her living room she was addicted to TV shopping. When she got home from her job as a nightcare worker at 8.30 a.m., Anne would immediately tune into a satellite TV shopping channel and buy everything in sight. Her home was soon an Aladdin's cave of household goods and trendy clothes she didn't need. When her cash ran out, she stole money from the elderly patients in her care and was charged with theft. 'It seemed so easy,' she says. 'I didn't realise I'd become so addicted.’ Anne’s family have now removed her satellite receiver.

Task 1

Find words or phrases in the text with the following meanings:

1. the exception, the unusual person (para. 1);

2. a desire (para. 2);

3. to compensate (para. 2);

4. to change from solid to liquid (para. 2);

5. to destroy (para. 3);

6. to realise what is happening (para. 3);

7. to stop being under control (para. 3);

8. to make people worried (para. 4);

9. to fall down (para. 4);

10. too much (para. 4);

11. very difficult and painful (para. 4);

12. fashionable (para. 5);

13. to come to an end (para. 5).

Task 2

What advice would you give to the four addicts (and their families) in the article?

Task 3

Would you say you were addicted to anything?

Text 3

Pre-reading task

Read the statements and give pros and cons.

1. A person who sends 15 to 20 hours a day using a computer could be called an addict.

2. It's as easy to get addicted to the computer as it is to get addicted to nicotine.

3. Communicating with friends and family via a computer is cold and impersonal.

4. People become dependent on their computer to avoid work and social activities.

Reading

Read the text and answer the question:

Why is Internet addiction becoming more common?

Bill, a student at the University of Maryland, says, «I have been using the Internet for about a year. Now I spend most of the day on-line. I am trying to cut my hours, but I simply don' t have the strength to. I'm like an alcoholic who can' t control his habit." For years, people have been addicted to things like nicotine, gambling, or alcohol. However, now a new (1) high-tech addiction called Internet addiction is rapidly becoming the latest problem of the computer age.

College and university students, business people, and homemakers are just some of the people who are spending hours and hours in front of their computer screens. They are sending (2) e-mail, playing computer games, or entering (3) chat rooms where they can communicate with strangers all over the world on their computer.

At first, these individuals went on-line for work, study, or pleasure and spent one or two hours a day on their computer. However, the hours gradually increased. They began to (4) surt the Net for longer and longer periods of time.

Bill's (5) compulsiveness, his inability to stop thinking about his online activity, turned into a serious psychological problem. He gave up his friends, stopped playing basketball, and neglected his schoolwork. Instead he found (6) fulfillment by communication electronically with strangers.

Psychologists have become concerned about this growing problem. They feel that Internet addicts are avoiding the (7) intimacy that comes from live, non-electronic communication. Counselors worry that students will not go through the normal social (8) developmental (9) support groups, a special form of (10) therapy that is helping these students control their on-line habit.

Task 1

Find the word in the text that is similar in the meaning to the following and write the number in the blank.

__a. treatment of problems by talking about them

__b. technologically advanced

__c. periods of personal growth

__d. look for information on the Internet

__e. inability to control certain behavior

__f. an electronic way for individuals to send messages via the computer

__g. electronic discussion groups in which several people exchange written messages

__h. close personal relationships with others

__i. personal satisfaction

__j. people who meet to help each other with a problem they all share

Task 2

In what way can support groups be useful?

Task 3

Some psychologists have suggested that addictions begin as a habit, then move to a dependency, and finally end up as an addiction.

HABIT → DEPENDENCY → ADDICTION

1. Do you agree with this concept? Why or why not?

2. What factors may influence the change from habit to dependency and to addiction?

Final task

Organize your knowledge on the topic and present a report on one of the following points.

1. How does it happen that some of our attractions become addictions?

2. What are the most harmful addictions? Why?

3. The best way to win the war on drugs is to legalize them, isn’t it?

4. What helps people not to become addicted to anything?

5. What people are mostly subjected to drugs?