31 março 2005

.DE!

Falta de concentração?!?! Ou excesso da mesma?
Legend of Mir 3 Gamer Killed After Selling Virtual Sword: In a shocking example of virtual life crashing into real life, a Shanghai online game player stabbed his gaming pal in the chest multiple times after he learned that he had stolen approximately US$870 (£462/?671) from the sale of a powerful "dragon sabre", jointly owned by both players.
The "dragon sabre" sword didn't actually exist in real life - it was an artifact used in the popular online fantasy game, "Legend of Mir 3", featuring heroes and villains, sorcerers and warriors, many of whom wield enormous swords.
Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after learning that he had sold his "dragon sabre."

So much media, so little attention span: As U.S. children are exposed to 8½ hours of TV, video games, computers and other media a day ? often at once ? are they losing the ability to concentrate?
Are their developing brains becoming hard-wired to "multi-task lite" rather than learn the focused critical thinking needed for a democracy? [...]
Teachers and school psychologists notice that more kids than ever won't sit still. "I hear it all the time," says [David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family], who does more than 150 workshops on media a year for parents and educators. "It's become harder over the last 10 years to keep kids' attention. The expectation is to be constantly entertained and, if they're not entertained, they quickly lose interest."
The problem intensifies after third grade, when harder course work requires children to concentrate