The CBN feature I got presents an interesting, albeit saddening phenomena -- boredom boom. With the proliferation of gadgets and technological what-nots, it seems we'll have our fill of things to entertain ourselves with. Plasma and flat TV's. Internet surfing and gaming. Gameboys, Xboxes, PS2's. i-Pod, mp3 players. Digital video and stills. PDA's. Cellphones. The list gets longer by the day. I myself can get really caught up in the gadgets craze and have some more in the wish list (a digital cam for my photography bug, for example; plus an i-Pod to archive my music collection).
But overall, in this surfeit of technological gizmos, we're not apparently getting closer or better. I've seen how texting divides our barkada when we get together. Or how I can just sit infront of the TV and watch DVD's all day long instead of doing something more productive.
Must be the reason why a lot of people are getting overweight or worse, obese. Oh, it would be so easy to sit on our asses and watch, surf, text, listen all-day, all-night long. And add eating junk food to those activities and you've got an ingredient for disaster.
It would be easy to ignore this phenomena if it weren't happening here in our country. But we're highly-westernized to begin with. Right down to our food consumption patterns and portions. But I digress.
I quote "boredom may come from over stimulation. There is a sense that you need more and more excitement, more stimulation to keep you interested," so says Dr. Richard Winter, a psychologist and professor at Covenant Theological Seminary in Missouri. The concession is that according to Reader's Digest "boredom is the disease of our time."
The solution is straightforward and simple: go back to basics. Try to turn off the TV and read, exercise, or play a real game, not a virtual one. Easier said than done in our highly-tech times. But really worth trying. I'm looking forward to reading again after a long spell. Not an e-book, but a real, old-fashioned book. Seems to me that we ought to look back to the old-fashioned things at times and live simpler.
