Wednesday, October 9

Is this the future?

More than half of all Korean households have high-speed Internet connections � compared with fewer than 10 percent in the United States � and the exploding Web culture has driven economic growth and spawned civic movements that have powerfully affected everything from politics to consumer culture.

But more and more these days, people are emphasizing a darker side to this technological success story.

Broadband's killer application � the one activity that dwarfs all others � is online gaming, which 80 percent of South Koreans under 25 play, according to one recent study. Critics say the burgeoning industry is creating millions of zombified addicts who are turning on and tuning into computer games, and dropping out of school and traditional group activities, becoming uncommunicative and even violent because of the electronic games they play.


Or is this?
Toilet jet sprays, which sometimes confuse foreign visitors with disastrous results, are now in nearly half of Japanese homes, a rate higher than that of personal computers.

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