New Age Narcotics

These things are bad, real bad. How so?

They are seriously addictive. According to my informal survey, more than half of my friends' kids are addicts. Many of them stay up till three four o’clock in the morning indulging in their habits. Some of them are well into their twenties. But young people are not the only victims. Some parents are junkies too. 

Many addicts end up neglecting life. Some miss it altogether, stuck in fabricated reality. They hallucinate rather than participate. These things are extremely damaging to health. The senses and nervous system are dulled by constant over-stimulation. Some suffer from arthritis of the digital joints as well as ruined eyesight as a result. Long-term abusers probably develop funny tics.

You can spot serious fiends on the street, offices and campuses. They look pale, puffy, fat or scrawny, and phlegmatic; zombies with dark pouches under lifeless eyes. Overdosing can result in death. 

But worse than old-fashioned drugs, they are legal, and very readily available. Don’t even have to venture down to Seven Eleven for them. Instead of going to jail, manufacturers and pushers make huge profits and give speeches in conferences. 

I believe that computer games should not be banned because addiction is entirely voluntary. But isn’t that the case with most illicit drugs though? 

Before the revolution, my maternal grandparents wasted half their lives dreaming on opium beds because their Daddies could afford it; all their friends' grown up children were fashionably the same. Today's electronic junkies live in another century, a distant world from them, but share a similarly privileged nightmare.

Chinese Version：摩登鸦片

Guo-Du Blog  12/10/2012