FIRST READING

In Japan, where mobiles have been common among the young for some time and offer
sophisticated services, sociologists see an alarming trend. Keitai culture, as the use of
mobiles in Japan is known, is huge.
In Tokyo, for example, a third of all four to 15-year-olds have a mobile phone. Over half of
Japans high-school students own one and many of them are Internet-enabled. Half the
children polled recently said their lifestyle required them to have a mobile phone and
many said their parents forced them to have one. My parents say if I go out, I have to
take my phone so they can get in touch with me, wherever I am, says 14-year-old Aya
Oguri. I dont have to phone them all the time but I mustnt turn it off. I dont really mind as
it makes me feel safe.
An informal survey conducted on the Tokyo streets by Japan Today magazine, however,
suggests that the nations teens have other reasons for keeping hold of their best electric
friend. I need to keep in touch all the time. If I cant find my phone I feel really isolated
from my friends, says 16-year-old Asuka Maezawa. Emi Inoue, 17, agrees, adding, I can
talk to my friends about gossip I dont want my parents to hear. Another survey also
revealed that about 22 percent said they talked at least ten times per day, while 45 percent
said they used their mobile to send ten or more text messages each day.
Such a density of mobile ownership, especially among the young, has led to a new type of
neurosis, say sociologists. Japanese teens, in particular, have become fanatical about being
always available and not wanting to lose touch, even for a day. Teenagers take advantage
of every spare minute to touch base with their friends. It is not the content of the
communication but the act of staying in touch that matters. Indeed, many become
extremely uneasy if they cant be in touch with their peers countless times each day,
fearing they are becoming socially isolated, writes sociologist Hisao Ishii, author of The
Superficial Social Life of Japans Mobile Phone Addicts .
15-year-old Miki Nakamura backs this up when she says, I must have my phone with me all
the time. Im completely out of touch with the world without my phone and I go into a total
panic.
If this trend continues, adds Hisao Ishii, two things will probably happen. One is mobile
phone addiction, where a person doesnt have the necessary skills to form and maintain
relationships without the help of mobiles. The second: superficial communication may drive
out genuine conversation. The act of contacting one another may become all that matters,
leading to a deterioration in the quality of relationships. Indeed, the very fabric of society
may be threatened.
The sociologist Maiko Seki has also suggested that, children read books less and less as
they are too busy playing with their technological tools. As well as this, it may be that
academic performance is being affected: 68 percent of children who responded to a
DoCoMo survey who owned a mobile phone said they got poor grades at school. In addition
to this, a recent UK government report has highlighted the increased health risks to children
under 16 using mobile handsets. A leaflet sent to schools suggests that children below this
age shouldnt have unlimited access to mobile phones and that they should be used only in
emergencies.

SECOND READING
New evidence shows that heavy users suffer isolation, fatigue and withdrawal symptoms
Tense? Angry? Cant get online? Internet addiction is now a serious public health issue that
should be officially recognised as a clinical disorder, according to a leading psychiatrist.
Excessive gaming, viewing online pornography, emailing and text messaging have been
identified as causes of the disorder by Dr Jerald Block, in the respected American Journal of
Psychiatry. Block argues that the disorder is now so common that it should be included in
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. He says
Internet addiction has four main components:
Excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives;
Withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension and/or depression when the
computeris inaccessible;
The need for better computers, more software, or more hours of use;
Negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation
and fatigue.
A case study is South Korea, which has the greatest use of broadband in the world. Block
points out that 10 people died from blood clots from remaining seated for long periods in
Internet cafes and another was murdered because of an online game. Their country now
considers Internet addiction as one of its most serious public health issues. The government
estimates that around 210,000 South Korean children are affected and in need of
treatment. 80 per cent of them might need drugs targeting the brain and nearly a quarter
could need to go to hospital. Since the average high school pupil there spends about 23
hours per week gaming, another 1.2 million are believed to be at risk of addiction and
require basic counselling. There has been alarm over a rising number of addicts dropping
out of school or quitting their jobs to spend more time on computers. In China it has been
reported that 13.7 per cent of adolescent Internet users, about 10 million, could be
considered addicts.
Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, writes that
the extent of the disorder it is more difficult to estimate in America because people tend to
surf at home instead of in Internet cafes. But he believes there are similar cases and says:
Unfortunately Internet addiction is resistant to treatment and has high relapse rates. He
told The Observer that he did not believe specific websites were responsible. The
relationship is with the computer, he said. First, it becomes a significant other to them.
Second, they exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the
computer, through any number of mechanisms: emailing, gaming, porn. Third, computer
use occupies a tremendous amount of time in their life.
Then if you simply try to remove the computer, theyve lost their best friend. That can take
the form of depression or rage.
Harry Husted, a single 51-year-old from New York, spends 16 hours a day on the Internet.
He insists that he is not addicted, but admits that he used to be. I used to work with
computers for eight hours, then get home and go online for seven hours. I would stay up
until two or three in the morning or until I got so sleepy I had to go to bed. I wouldnt go out
to get the groceries and I couldnt have cared less about friends, TV, anything. After a while

I realized what was happening and did something about it. Now if I use MySpace its only to
advertise my business.
Internet addiction clinics have sprung up around the world in an attempt to wean people off
their need for a fix. Many people have turned, apparently without irony, to web discussion
boards with names such as Internet Addicts Anonymous. The Centre for Internet Addiction
Recovery in Bradford, Pennsylvania, says Internet addiction has become a growing legal
issue in criminal, divorce and employment cases.

THIRD READING
Old media enter into an uneasy alliance with new media tonight to grill the Democratic
candidates in the United States 2008 presidential race. CNN and YouTube, the videosharing website, are holding a joint debate in which the public have sent in video-recorded
questions for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the other candidates.
Hours before last nights deadline, more than 2,300 videos recorded on webcameras and
mobile phones had been submitted. Among them is a 30-second clip from a cancer survivor
who removes her wig and says her chances of survival are not as good as they would have
been if she had had health insurance. What would you, as president, do to make low-cost
or free preventative medicine available for everyone in this country? she asks.
The event is being hailed by the organizers as a breakthrough for the new media,
comparable to the impact of television on politics when Richard Nixon debated with John
Kennedy in 1960. But some bloggers, who see the Internet as a democratic free-for-all,
have expressed unhappiness about the involvement of CNN. The candidates will meet in a
military college in Charleston, South Carolina and watch the questions being displayed on a
7.6 metre by 5.5 metre screen. Allowing CNN to select the 25-30 questions has upset many
bloggers.
Questions submitted so far cover climate change, immigration, gay rights, welfare and
foreign policy. The ratio of questions about Iraq is low in comparison with the extensive
daily coverage it gets in US papers and on television. Although CNN is filtering the
questions, there is the potential for quirky or emotional questions that might unsettle a
candidate.
Steve Grove, head of YouTubes news and politics section, told the Washington Post: These
YouTube questions a lot of them, anyway are intimate, emotional, personal. That person
is in his/her own surroundings, and that person is bringing you into their world, their reality.
That makes it a very powerful experience.
Some of the videos do not ask questions at all: in one, a man plays guitar and sings a song
about potential vice-presidents; another includes a talking duck; one man, making a point
about the impact of petrol on the environment, is shown driving a 1987 Chevy convertible.
Phil Noble, founder of PoliticsOnline, told Reuters YouTubes increasing coverage of politics
was significant. In the past, the campaigns sort of stuck their toe into technology and
innovation it was a small detail of what was going on. The difference in this election is that
technology has become fundamental. Every campaign has figured out ways to use YouTube
all the time.
The Internet played a small but short-lived role in the 2004 presidential election, with online
donations funding the sudden rise of the Democrat Howard Dean. Online Democratic

bloggers played a bigger part in last years Congressional elections. But the Internet is
shifting into a central position in this campaign in terms of disseminating ideas, fundraising
and mobilizing support, particularly among the young.
YouTube, which did not exist during the last presidential campaign, has already had an
impact on this one. More than 2.5 million people have viewed the video Ive Got A Crush ...
On Obama since it was posted last month and a follow-up about women fighting over Mr
Obama and Rudy Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner, has been watched more than
500,000 times since it appeared last week. A Hillary Clinton campaign spoof on the final
episode of the Sopranos was also popular.
YouTube effectively knocked the former Republican senator George Allen out of the race. A
video of him last summer referring to a dark-skinned Virginian as macaca cost him reelection to the senate and a tilt at the presidency. CNN and YouTube are to join forces again
on September 17 for a Republican debate