Published in News

Kids go cold turkey away from the Net

by on29 April 2010

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Illness of our time

A team
of boffins found that kids displayed symptoms of going “cold turkey” when they were disconnected from their computers for less than 24 hours.

Conducted by the International Centre for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA), had students from the University of Maryland give up their phones, computers, TVs, iPods, even newspapers for 24 hours. However the researchers were surprised at the extent that kids were unable to cope.

ICMPA director Susan Moeller told CTV's Canada AM Wednesday from Washington she expected complaints. However the kids started to feel really isolated, frustrated and sort of anxious and all the physical manifestations. Students talked about being miserable, anxious -- and bored to distraction.

Organisers said that they were surprised to discover how addicted students were. They weren't just frustrated by being cut off from media, they reported they actually couldn't function and felt hopeless.
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