Title: Is technology bad for us? | Internet | The Guardian
Headings: Is technology bad for us?
The Eva Wiseman column Internet
Is technology bad for us?
Eva Wiseman

Content: And this is where our problems start. Here, at this green belt of on/off switches, at this impossible border. Because the longer we insist on distinguishing between online and real life, the worse things get. Director Beeban Kidron 's new documentary In Real Life is about the effects of the internet on young people. As the opening credits rolled, I feared more news of the news I hate; she asks: " What exactly is the internet and what is it doing to our children?", a question that reeks of reactionary apocalypse. But in walking through the internet narratives we're almost immune to – the problem with boys and porn, gay teenagers finding love, the devastating suicide of a bullied child – and by interviewing the people (including Julian Assange and Jimmy Wales) who build and comment on it, she comes to some bleak but nuanced conclusions, ones that lead to more questions – about freedom, addiction, anonymity, cash. And it made me think about our options, aside from just turning our screens black.