Sunday, October 13, 2024

In Search of Happiness. Have you heard of Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index?

 In Search of Happiness.  Have you heard of Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index?

Laugh, and the world laughs with you,
      Weep, and you weep alone;
For the brave old earth must borrow its mirth,
      But has trouble enough of its own.
Ella Wilcox, The Way of the World

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog

Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index has recently gained a place in measuring the level of development of a country by inputing an elusive parameter which is happiness.  GNH Index can be downsized for local application, individually or by group or community that is closely knit.

  Relationship is the Number One source of happiness

However, the standard development index remains: Gross National Product (GNP) Index, the annual total value of goods and services generated by a country within and outside its shores, as differentiated from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total value generated within the country only.

This was modified to include Human Development (HD) Index, in order to determine how a country's wealth and earnings are used for the  welfare of its citizens in terms of health, education, housing, and the like.

Parameters of Happiness of GNH Index:

1. Psychological Well-Being
2. Health
3. Time Use
4. Education
5. Cultural Diversity
6. Good Governance
7. Community Vitality
8. Ecological Diversity and Resilience
9. Living Standards
10. Family
11. Spirituality
12. Sense of Achievement

 Preserving native language and culture

Upon reading Time's feature story on The Pursuit of Happiness (October 22, 2012 issue), what came to my mind was to rank the nine parameters, and add three to the list, namely, Family, Spirituality and Sense of Accomplishment or Achievement.  

Individual perception of course, varies, so that it is suggested that a kind of self-evaluation be conducted using the Likert Scale: 1 Very Poor, 2 Poor, 3 Fair, 4 Good, and 5 Very Good. 

Compute the average by adding the values of all the parameter, and divide it sum with 12.  This is the general perception of happiness of the person concerned. What is equally - if not more important - is in being able to find out the main source of happiness, at the same time, the least. This exercise therefore, is aimed at re-affirming our sense of values in the pursuit of happiness. So does a community or country.
Family outing to Patapat, I Norte  

We say we are happy, or a little happy. Or unhappy. Or sad. But how can we quantify happiness like in a grading system?

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) found a good reference. It came from the works of the founding father of happiness research, Dr Happiness himself - Dr Edward Diener of the University of Illinois.* He calls this technique The Satisfaction with Life Scale.

In the radio program Ka Melly and I used this technique to impart a lesson about Happiness. We find that Dr Diener's test can be used in the classroom, in meetings and conferences, or just for the sake of bonding with friends and associates.  Reference: The New Science of Happiness, Claudia Wallis, Time February 28, 2005

Get a piece of paper and rate yourself in each of the following items. Use a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is not true at all, 4 is moderately true and 7 absolutely true. The scale allows you to approximate closer to your self-judgment.

Here are the criteria:

1. In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
2. The conditions of my life are excellent.
3. I am satisfied with my life.
4. So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
5. If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.

Compute for the total score by adding all values from the five questions.     

Here is the interpretation of your score.
· If you got 31 to 35, you are extremely satisfied with your life. Kudos!
If you got 26 to 30, you are very satisfied with your life. I got 27.
· If you scored 21 to 25, you are slightly satisfied. Two participants got scores on this level.
Those who scored 15 to 19 (slightly dissatisfied) will have to perk up and unload some reasons. Get to the neutral point which is 20, and thence move up the happiness ladder.

It's not hopeless if you got low. The idea of this exercise is to create awareness that there are avenues of happiness, and that there are basic levels of happiness that one can cling to, and say, "Oh well, that's life." And still manage to laugh. And the world laughs with you.

Here is Wilcox's masterpiece which projected her to world fame as author and poetess.     
The Way of the World
Laugh, and the world laughs with you,
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the brave old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing and the hills will answer,
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes rebound to a joyful sound
And shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you,
Grieve, and they turn to go;
They want full measure of your pleasure,
But they do not want your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many,
Be sad, and you lose them all;
There is none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded,
Fast, and the world goes by.
Forget and forgive – it helps you to live,
But no man can help you to die;

There’s room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one, we must all march on
Through the narrow isle of pain.
Psalm of Life is the perhaps the most important poem written by America's darling poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The poem is among the world's most quoted and recited pieces of literature; in fact, it is a prayer by and in itself. It speaks of universal values, feelings and compassion, of valor and sacrifice, and of victory over ones own battle.

Longfellow himself, a victim of a family tragedy, rose to further fame and dignity. After the death of his wife in an accidental fire he went on raising his young children, and teaching in the university, experimenting with new forms and styles of poetry, producing Hiawatha and Evangeline that revolutionized poetry.

I found a very old publication, Longfellow's Evangeline (copyright 1883)with the author's biographical sketch. In describing Longfellow's trial in life, allow me to quote, "More than a score of years remained with the poet, and he had the love of his children and the comfort of his work, but the grief was so deep and lasting that he could not trust himself to speak the beloved name of his wife."

From sorrow rises a great triumph, and this is the testimony to greatness - to share not how the world should end, but how it must begin again. Not how one closes himself in, but opens himself to others. Not to "Go Gentle into the Night", but stand sentry to the "Light of Dawn".

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Psalm of Life is dedicated to victims of calamities - force majeure and man-induced, circumstances beyond control, and all those who find life difficult to bear. May they find comfort, hope, and new meaning of life in Psalm of Life. ~

Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us further than today.

Art is long, and time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle,
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, how'ver pleasant!
Let the dead past bury its dead!
Act - act in the living present!
Heart within, and Good o'erhead.

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait. ~

                             “Yes, I have a successful married life.”

 - On getting married and your friends are around, and you tell to the whole world, “Here is the person I will always love.”

- On having your first child and see the image of both of you and your spouse? (“Look he got my eyes, and chin of his dad.”)

- On having a third child and the economy has not recovered? (“I haven’t any increase in pay since last year.”)


Author and wife visit a museum

- On driving the kids to school, then attend to chores you say, “It’s like a storm had left all the things out of their places.”

- On having your in-laws around and other relatives coming for weekends, then you realize you have an extended family.

- On having a home of your own, and say, “What I paid for rent, I now pay for amortization.” And it is investment.

- On having family disagreements now and then and you say, “Well, if everything is yes, you are sure only one is thinking.”

- On leaving your present job (or his) and start anew, even when you start again at square one, and say, “Tighten your belts.” Even so, you think you are happier now, so with my family.

- On winning an award, and say, “I owe this thing to all of you, especially to my family.”

- On going to other places and call up, “I’ll be home on Christmas.” It is only spring though.

- On experiencing a tragedy in the family, and find a strong shoulder to cry on, “He was meant to be with us only for sometime. He is our angel now.”

- On discovering a life threatening illness and you realize how each day passes with greater meaning and resolve. (“Each day is a bonus - my life is not mine anymore.”)

- On surviving and your hair is now gray, and the children have learned to adapt to life, the way you wish them to be.

- On receiving an award your children earned, and this time a sweet voice says, “This is you.” A drop of tear rolls on your wrinkled face. Words are not enough.

- On being alone; the children had left home and your spouse (bless his soul) had left something for you to live the rest of your life.

- On having grandchildren. “You naughty one you got my nose, and your chin is your grandfather’s.”

Success in married life - yes, it is the greatest success a man or woman can achieve. It is success that makes the world go round. It is the very foundation of a family and therefore of human society.

- It is a kind of success no one is denied to aspire for, irrespective of race, creed, education, or culture. Yet it is one many people failed to achieve in spite of their wealth and power.

- Success in family life is primordial. Between career and family, many people have chosen the latter, and say with a sigh, “Well, you cannot have the best of two worlds.” And they chose family.

- Success is not always equated with money or power. But it is always associated with happiness. A philosopher once said, “Happiness is the only commodity, which if you divide it, will multiply.” Try this formula, and it will tell us, “A happy family is successful.”
- Family life to be successful does not depend on one formula though. It thrives on new frontiers. There are always new things to discover. It is the discovery itself that is important, that makes it original and unique. And it must be always mutual. Joy to one is joy to the other.

- Success cannot be kept in a treasure box and locked. They say, “You cannot rest on your laurels.” Trophies are symbols; they are not an end. In Greek mythology Jason, after his adventure with Hercules in search of the Golden Fleece, spent the rest of his life beside his ship, the Argon, which fell into pieces with age killing the great warrior.

- Success in married life is neither abstract, nor merely spiritual. It is real. It is to be shared. It must be contagious. Let it be expressed with the children. It must be felt and celebrated in one way or the other minus the pomposity of the Romans. It must be exemplified. It must strive to be a model.  It should be able to pass as a paradigm of not only what life really is – but what it should be. “Life,” according to Reader’s Digest, “is the most difficult art, yet it is the finest.”

- Asked what the great British Prime Minister and hero, Winston Churchill wanted if he were born again. He said with twinkle in his eyes looking at Mrs. Churchill. “I’d like to be Mrs. Churchill’s next husband.” Success in married life has an imprimatur. It leaves a mark. That mark even glows on the dead man’s face, and on the shine of his epitaph, and flowers that grace it.

- Trials are not enough to weather success. Yes, to a courageous person, who when asked, “Were you not afraid?” He simply said, “I was afraid, but I did the brave thing.” He picked up the pieces together and his family is once more solid and whole.

When I was invited to talk on this topic before faculty members and students, I said to myself. “Gush, I should know I am successful in my married life.” For whatever I have done so far – through thick and thin - I know my family has always been with me – on the stage, on camping trips, painting exhibits, on visitation of the tombs of our departed, in the church, on my sickbed, lectures, at the mall, workshop, at the farm, on rosary hour. Seldom do I encounter the four “Ws” and one “H” – the very things that make our life complex and uncertain – without my family helping me answer these questions. Life is truly worth living for.

As we switch on the vigil light and retire in the night, we are one happy family looking forward for the next day. For indeed, success must be lived with day after day, season after season, year after year.
At the end, we come to submit our credentials to the One who made us all, who gave us that star that guides our life, who welcomes us at His throne when we shall then have reached it. ~
Children's Art Workshop at author's residence in San Vicente Ilocos Sur 2017
“The greatest gift that we can give to our children and children’s children is Happiness. Happiness is one commodity, which when you divide it, will multiply."

Friday, October 11, 2024

10 Verses to Live By Every Day

 10 Verses to Live By Every Day

Dr Abe V Rotor


          
Banaoang Pass, Santa, Ilocos Sur, wall mural by the author 

1. Walk, don't run, to see better and to know
the countryside, Mother Nature and Thou.~

2. We do not have the time, indeed an alibi
to indolence and loafing, letting time pass by.


Sun on a hazy day

3. As we undervalue ourselves, so do others
undervalue us. Lo, to us all little brothers.

4. Self-doubt at the start is often necessary
to seek perfection of the trade we carry.

5. What is more mean than envy or indolence
but the two themselves riding on insolence.

6. The worst kind of persecution occurs in the mind,
that of the body we can often undermine.

7. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors
the way we weigh ourselves with the same favors?

8. Friendship that we share to others multiplies
our compassion and love where happiness lies.


    Morning rainbow, Bamban, Tarlac 


9. Evil is evil indeed - so with its mirror,
while goodness builds on goodness in store.


10. That others may learn and soon trust you,

show them you're trustworthy, kind and true. ~

10 NATURE Paintings with Verses

  10 NATURE Paintings with Verses

              Ode to the Grass:
 "In summer you turn golden, and bow,
   and die sweetly to feed the world." - avr


Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

GRASS
Painting in acrylic (18" x 21")



Sway with the breeze, dance with the wind;
Greet the sun with dewdrops clinging;
In summer turn golden, and bow,
And die sweetly to feed the world.

A LOVELY PAIR IN A BOWER
Painting in acrylic (11.5" X 16")



Let the world go by in their bower,
lovers blind to the busy world,
away from the maddening crowd;
fleeting moment is forever,
to this pair in their lair.

Wonder in our midst who we are,
blind to each other, but the world,
strange this crowd we are in;
where's this lovely pair,
where's their bower?


SYMBIOSIS
Pisces and Echinoderms
Painting in acrylic (8" X 10")



Distant in phylogeny, yet live they together
in one community we call ecology,
ever since the beginning of our living world,
millions of years ago before man was born
to rule, to reign supreme over all creation;
wonder what Homo sapiens means
to true peace and harmony
beyond his rationality.

TOO SOON THE BUD OPENS
Painting in acrylic (12" x 17")



You come in springtime and autumn,
too eager a bud ahead of your time;
what promise of life awaits tomorrow
from where you've broken through?

Whichever path you take from now,
you'll miss the adventure of youth
in summer, and stillness of winter,
Oh, how could you live to the full?

"For having lost but once your prime,
you'll always tarry," so says a poet;
"It's now or never," so sings a bard,
and I, I've neither a poem nor a song.

SEA URCHIN
Painting in acrylic ( 11" x 13.5")



You're all made of spikes,
I can't see the real you;
in your invincible armor
in any view.

Wonder how many of us
live like the urchin
in silent, unknown ways
and never seen.

SECRET OF THE HEART
Painting in Acrylic (13.5" x 13.5")


Hidden, the heart throbs
in deep silence;
two nails embedded,
unseen in pretense
of living, loving, caring,
the highest art,
filling the five chambers
of the heart.


INNOCENCE IN NATURE
Painting in acrylic (17.5" x 21.75")



Abstract over realism can you paint innocence,
move over classics, you are too pure
to be true, and impressionism too assuming,
with apologies to Monet's azure sky.

Oh! abstract indeed is a child's innocence,
buds in early spring, grains ripening;
heart of a true friend, pledge of real love,
growing in the passing of time.

Colors are mere symbols, wanting to behold,
the magnificence of mind and heart,
triumph of the human spirit over our frailty,
the most challenging of all art.~

ART OF THE CATERPILLAR
Painting in acrylic (11” x 14”)



Caterpillar, when you are gone
two things come to mind:
the butterfly you have become,
and the damage you have done
and left behind.

Art, art, whatever way defined,
the subject on the wall,
or dripping on the floor,
art, art you aren't hard to find
after all. ~

WEANING
Painting in acrylic (8” x 10”)



A trio in adventure weaned out
of their nest too soon;
to explore the world beyond,
like the Prodigal Son.

What lies in the deep and dark
cavern with many eyes,
but monsters real or imagined
lurking for a prize.

It’s inevitable stage of life,
all creatures undergo;
weaning - crossing the bridge
and cutting it, too.


FISH SWARMING
Painting in acrylic (9” x 17”)



I’ve seen jellyfish swarming,
plankton in coral reefs glowing;
a myriad fireflies mingling
with the stars, linking us all
to a Supreme Being. ~

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

6 Stories of Childhood, a Personal Experience

 6 Stories of Childhood, a Personal Experience

1. Paper wasps on the run! Or was it the other way around?
2. Watching war planes in dogfight.
3. The Case of the Empty Chicken Eggs
4. The caleza I was riding ran over a boy.
5. Eugene and I nearly drowned in a river.
6. Trapping edible frogs

                     Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Paper wasps on the run! Or was it the other way around?

This happened to me, rather what I did, when I was five or six - perhaps younger, because I don’t know why I attack a colony of putakti or alimpipinig (Ilk). It was raw courage called bravado when you put on courage on something without weighing the consequences. It was hatred dominating reason, motivated by revenge.

I was sweeping the yard near a chico tree when I suddenly felt pain above my eye. No one had ever warned me of paper wasps, and I hadn’t been stung before. I retreated, instinctively got a bikal bamboo and attacked their papery nest, but every time I got close to it I got stung. I don’t know how many times I attacked the enemy, each time with more fury, and more stings, until dad saw me. I struggled under his strong arms sobbing. I was lucky, kids my size can’t take many stings. There are cases bee poison can cause the heart to stop.

2. Watching war planes in dogfight.

It was the last year of WWII, 1945. I was going four at that time and the images of planes fighting are still vivid today. Toward the east is the Cordillera range that looked blue in the distance. The view was clear from our house, and hideout. Even if the old San Vicente church partly got across our view, we saw now and then warplanes passing above. It was also the first and only time I saw a double body aircraft flying. There was at least one occasion warplanes fought somewhere above Vigan, and a plane simply bursts in flame and dark smoke. My dad prodded us to go back to our underground hideout.

When I was in high school I had a teacher in literature, Mrs. Socorro Villamor. She was the widow of war hero, Col. Jesus Villamor, one of the greatest Filipino pilots in WWII. After downing several Japanese planes, his own plane was hit and he died in the crash. Camp Villamor was named in his honor. My classmate and I wondered why Mrs. Villamor was often wearing black. At one time she recited for us Flow Gently Sweet Afton. She even sang it, and then came to a halt sobbing. We were all very quiet and let her recover. I could only imagine that up there fighting the Japanese is the great Colonel Villamor, whom my teacher was still mourning ten years after.

I believe that the pain she was then carrying made her the best literature teacher I have ever met. Today I still can recite a dozen selected passages from great American and English poets, and my favorite comes from Flow Gently Sweet Afton. Now and then in my lonely moments I hum its plaintive melody.

3. The Case of the Empty Chicken Eggs

Soon as I was big enough to climb the baqui (brooding nest) hanging under the house and trees. I found out that if I leave as decoy one or two eggs in the basket, the more eggs you gather in the afternoon. Then a new idea came. With a needle, I punctured the egg and sucked the content dry. It tasted good and I made some to substitute the natural eggs for decoy.

Dad, a balikbayan after finishing BS in Commercial Science at De Paul University in Chicago, called us on the table one evening. "First thing tomorrow morning we will find that hen that lays empty eggs.”

It was a family tradition that every Sunday we had tinola - chicken cooked with papaya and pepper (sili) leaves. Dad would point at a cull (the unproductive and least promising member of the flock) and I would set the trap, a baqui with a trap door and some corn for bait. My brother Eugene would slash the neck of the helpless fowl while my sister Veny and I would be holding it. The blood is mixed with glutinous rice (diket), which is cooked ahead of the vegetables.

That evening I could not sleep. What if dad’s choice is one of our pet chicken? We even call our chickens by name. The empty eggs were the cause of it all, so I thought.

In the morning after the mass I told dad my secret. He laughed and laughed. I didn't know why. I laughed, too. I was relieved with a tinge of victorious feeling. Thus the case of the empty eggs was laid to rest. It was my first “successful” experiment.

In the years to come I realized you just can’t fool anybody. And by the way, there are times we ask ourselves, “Who is fooling who?”

4. The caleza I was riding ran over a boy.
Basang, my auntie yaya and I were going home from Vigan on a caleza, a horse carriage. I was around five or six years old, the age children love to tag along wherever there is to go. It was midday and the cochero chose to take the shorter gravelly road to San Vicente by way of the second dike road that passes Bantay town. Since there was no traffic our cochero nonchalantly took the smoother left lane fronting a cluster of houses near Bantay. Suddenly our caleza tilted on one side as if it had gone over a boulder. To my astonishment I saw a boy around my age curled up under the wheel. The caleza came to a stop and the boy just remained still and quiet, dust covered his body. I thought he was dead. Residents started coming out. I heard shouts, some men angrily confronting the cochero. Bantay is noted for notoriety of certain residents. Instinct must have prodded Basang to take me in her arms and quickly walked away from the maddening crowd. No one ever noticed us I supposed.

5. Eugene and I nearly drowned in a river.

There was a friendly man who would come around and dad allowed him to play with us. People were talking he was a strange fellow. We simply did not mind. He was a young man perhaps in his twenties when Eugene and I were kids in the early grades in San Vicente. One day this guy (I forgot his name) took us to Busiing river, a kilometer walk or so from the poblacion. The water was inviting, what would kids like best to do? We swam and frolicked and fished, but then the water was steadily rising so we had to hold on the bamboo poles staked in the water to avoid being swept down by the current. I held on tightly, and I saw Eugene doing the same on a nearby bamboo pole. The guy just continued fishing with his bare hands, and apparently had forgotten us. Just then dad came running and saved us. We heard him castigate the fellow who, we found out that he mentally retarded that he didn’t even realized the extreme danger he put us in.

6. Trapping edible frogs

It was fun to trap frogs when I was a kid. I would dig holes in the field, around one and one-half feet deep, at harvest time. Here the frogs seek shelter in these holes because frogs need water and a cool place. Insects that fall in to the hole also attract them. Early in the morning I would do my rounds, harvesting the trapped frogs. Frogs are a favorite dish among Ilocanos especially before the age of pesticides. The frog is skinned, its entrails removed, and cooked with tomato, onion and achuete (Bixa orellana) to make the menu deliciously bright yellow orange.

Acknowledgement: Internet photos

Monday, October 7, 2024

Smartphone Pandemic - Digital Addiction

                              Smartphone Pandemic 

"People who spend countless hours on their smartphones or tablet computers could be addicted without even knowing it."

 
Soon there will be as many cellphones as the world's population, increasing  at an alarming proportion as a pandemic.   
----------------
Smartphone technology has significant applications in our lives today.  Its evolution into the fifth generation cellular network expansion, faces a global challenge to play a greater role in education, media, medicine, commerce and industry, in fact all sectors of society.
-----------------
Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

"The Joneses." The smarter, the most dynamic, the signature, the most expensive.  Cellphone as status symbol. 

 Cellphone, cellphone everywhere and not a time to blink. 
 
Three coins in a fountain formerly a song, now a watering 
hole of cellphone addicts.

                         Always calling - in their casual shorts. Cellphones are cool.  

Selfie - new vocabulary, most common command, 
And say, "I was there with the Queen, see?"    
---------------------------
Doctors warn nothing smart about cellphone addiction amid calls to label it a disorder
By Li Lin Source: Global Times Published: 2014-7-1 18:58:01


Do you experience anxiety when your smartphone or tablet computer is nearly out of power or out of WiFi range? If so, you could be suffering digital addiction. Photo: IC 

 It is an epidemic sweeping the nation that affects men and women, adults and children, migrant and white-collar workers. At any given time of the day you can see addicts reaching into their pockets to get a hit, ignoring people around them as they slip into a zombie-like state of swiping and texting. As the world's largest smartphone market, China is experiencing digital addiction on an epidemic scale.

A team of psychiatrists in Singapore recently called on medical authorities to recognize digital addiction, characterized by excessive use of smartphones and the Internet, as a mental disorder. Their warning follows the release of a 2013 report by media monitoring firm Nielsen that found the Asia-Pacific region has some of the world's highest smartphone penetration rates, which are blamed for causing physical and mental harm to users' health. In China, there are more than 24 million digital addicts whose average age is progressively falling, the survey found.  

Taking over lives

Digital addiction has become a growing problem in China, where there are an estimated 300 centers to treat the problem, according to a report in February by China Central Television. 

Deng Weiwei, 21, describes herself and many of her friends as "heavily addicted" to their smartphones. "I will unconditionally accept it if one day smartphone addiction is classified as a mental disorder," said Deng, who said she is transfixed on her smartphone when she is "not working or sleeping." "Sometimes I find myself suffering great anxiety when my smartphone is out of battery or I can't access WiFi. It's like an obsessive-compulsive disorder that controls me."

Tao Ran, director of the addiction center at the People's Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing, said people who spend countless hours on their smartphones or tablet computers could be addicted without even knowing it. 

"All Internet addicts are hooked on their smartphones. More accurately, they are digital gadget addicts," said Tao, who runs a digital addiction boot camp based in Daxing district that currently has 80 addicts. 

Tao, who previously specialized in treating narcotics abusers, has dealt with digital addicts as young as 9 and as old as 56, but most people who seek help are aged in their teens or 20s.

"The concept of digital addiction has been around for about 20 years. My first patients were three boys who came to me in 2003. They were addicted to online gaming and refused to go to school," recalled Tao. "Now, nearly all children have smartphones. If they are banned from computers they can still play online games with their smartphone." 

Violence is one reason why few parents dare confiscate their children's smartphones or restrict their Internet access, said Tao, who estimates around three-fifths of children attack parents who enforce such measures.
China, the world's largest smartphone market, has an estimated 24 million digital addicts, according to a 2013 study. Psychiatrists are divided over whether gadget addiction should be diagnosed and treated as a mental disorder. Photo: CFP

Diagnosis of addiction

Tao has treated 164 patients using nuclear magnetic resonance, which allows observation of specific quantum mechanical magnetic properties of the atomic nucleus. Results show that the oxygen metabolism of addicts' frontal lobes, which play a role in behavior and personality, and parietal lobes, which process sensory information such as touch, temperature and pain, are weaker than people who aren't addicted to digital gadgets. 

The part of the brain responsible for experiencing pleasure among addicts is 20 percent more active than non-addicts, said Tao.

Addictive behavior can be physical and psychological. Physical dependence involves addiction to substances, such as alcohol or other drugs, while psychological dependence involves addictive behavior, such as with digital gadgets, gambling, sex and so on. 

"The pathogenesis of gambling and physical dependence of substances, such as alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, are the same," said Yang Kebing, director of the alcohol dependence department at Huilongguan Hospital, Changping district. 

"If the neural circuit is too frequently stimulated, it can manifest into a mental disorder. If stimulation stops, a series of physical and mental symptoms can appear."

However, Yang said it was too early to classify digital addiction as a mental disorder based on current pathological data. "Since the trend of smartphone addiction is increasing, I don't exclude the possibility of it being labeled a disorder [in future]," added Yang.

Seeing the harm caused

Aside from mental woes, digital addiction can also wreak physical harm to smartphone junkies. The Xinhua News Agency reported on June 10 that a woman in Wuhan, Hubei Province, suffered floaters, or small mass particles inside the eye that affect the field of vision, triggered by excessive smartphone use. A doctor who treated the woman said the disease was not too serious, advising rest and avoidance of digital gadgets the simple remedy. 

A more serious case occurred earlier this year when a woman in Zhejiang Province suffered a detached retina after spending two to three hours daily looking at her smartphone in the dark. The woman, surnamed Liu, saw an ophthalmologist after she noticed vision in one of her eyes had become cloudy and distorted, Xinhua reported on February 23. 

Zhao Bingkun, the ophthalmologist who treated Liu, said in the report that long hours staring at a bright screen in the dark can cause the ciliary muscle, which changes the shape of the lens within the eye, to over-contract when viewing objects at varying distances.

The report said ophthalmologists are seeing a growing number of patients suffering from the condition caused by users staring at screens of computers and smartphones for too long without a break.

Children at risk

Flurry, a mobile analytics company headquartered in San Francisco, estimated that the number of smartphone addicts worldwide increased by 123 percent in the year leading up to April 2014 to hit 176 million. 

Flurry's study was based on feedback from more than half a million apps used by 1.3 billion smartphone users globally. Addicts were identified as anyone launching apps more than 60 times per day.

Another report of Flurry showed China has surpassed the US to become the largest market for smartphones. From January 2012 to January 2013, the smartphone market in China grew 209 percent. During this time, 150 million new phones or tablet computers were purchased in China, compared to 55 million in the US.

A survey by Tao of 11 residential communities in Beijing in April found that most parents who have toddlers use smartphones or tablet computers as "electric nannies" to amuse their children. 

Even when eating or bathing, many parents surveyed by Tao admitting using digital gadgets to keep their children settled.

"Some young parents themselves are digital addicts, and they are just passing on their addiction to the next generation through gadgets some consider useful to early education," said Tao. 

"Parents only know that digital gadgets settle their children down. Little do they know they are actually grooming them as digital addicts."

Harm or hype?

Despite the fears and dangers surrounding digital addiction, some psychiatrists insist there is no need to panic about current levels of smartphone use among most people. Yang described the condition as "just a bad habit rather than a disease." 

Chen Fuxiang, marketing director of domestic smartphone maker Xiaomi, said much of the hype surrounding digital addiction would pass with time, noting popular devices and pastimes among youths are often chastised by society. 

"When I was a student, there were no computers, and our society worried about youngsters getting carried away by their addiction to kung fu novels. After computers came along, society worried about Internet addiction. Now we have smartphones, and naturally there is worry about smartphone addiction," said Chen, conceding that more can be done by smartphone makers by offering users advice and guidelines related to safe use of their devices. 

"In future, we will still have other addictions to worry about." ~
Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) Dr Abe Rotor and Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday, winner of Gawad Oscar Florendo for Developmental Journalism

Sunday, October 6, 2024

The Lighter Side of Human Nature Respite with Nature in Painting

                                   The Lighter Side of Human Nature

Respite with Nature in Painting
Dr Abe V Rotor

Respite with Nature in acrylic (24" x 48") by AV Rotor 2015

When city living becomes prosaic and dull in the midst of so-called progress measured by affluence; when the good life doesn't bring genuine freedom and happiness - have a respite with Nature;

When you have reached the peak of your career, but you're not in good health and cheerful disposition in life; when in the midst of company you feel all alone and a stranger;  have a respite with Nature;

When you are overtaken by grief and loneliness, stranded on the low ebb of life, rise up and continue on living, and when you shall have coped up with the pace of change, slow down, look back and  have a respite with Nature;

When responsibility and accountability demand your decision and action, and the consequences are the potential hallmark of your career and person, take it as a precious challenge, but first, have a respite with Nature;

When your prayers are getting fewer, so with the answers you expected, or prayers you cry out in times of distress; when hopelessness dims your faith not only towards your Creator but your fellowmen - have a respite with Nature;

When warned of the consequences of environmental degradation, like global warming and pollution, you look up to global policies and programs,  then ask what an individual like yourself can do - have a respite with Nature;

When you don't see fireflies anymore, when neon lights subdue the stars, sunset comes early and fades away unnoticed; when you don't hear birds that accompany spring, see kites in the summer sky - have a respite with Nature;

When you can hardly differentiate natural from cosmetic beauty, function from aesthetics, work from play, ethics from morals, rich from wealthy, humor from wit, important from urgent, it's time for a retreat with Nature;

When you can find love and care in the wilderness, unity in the diversity of creation, music and poetry by a living stream, science in a dewdrop, miracle in a blade of grass - rejoice and thank Nature;

When you aim to "catch the biggest fish" in your lifetime, you are blest and ageless like in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea ; and having caught one but receiving no trophy, found the biggest fish of all - Peace of Mind with Nature. 
 
 
                                                     Details of Painting
  

Fishing as a pastime; a cottage in the forest.

A pair of parrots; and a pair of hornbills (kalaw