THE development of Hong Kong students' interpersonal relationships and language skills was being severely impaired by the overwhelming influence of modern technology and the absence of healthy, spiritual living, a former principal of Queen's College warned.
Speaking at the school's annual speech day, Mr Kong Shiu-chung delivered a mild warning to the younger generation that total reliance on modern technology would drag one's thinking behind, rather than advance it.
'If we consider the games that today's children play, it is not hard to find that they don't even have to interact with other people when playing. Electronic games such as Nintendo, Sega and Gameboy do not really stimulate children to think and only require motor skills.
'What worries us most is that parents are glad to trust their children in the hands of these 'electronic babysitters'. Gradually children will fail to function as caring and interdependent individuals.' Modern technology had also deprived students of the chance to practise language. Mr Kong expressed concern that students of today hardly wrote letters and that the advances in telecommunications such as TV and movies had led to the widespread use of 'tautological language'.
His solution for the worsening phenomenon was 'to provide better family education, with close family relationships, a harmonious study atmosphere and a fostering of arts, music and sports'.
But some students believe that the extent of the side effects of modern technology depends on whether one has enough determination to overcome them.
