Breaking News English

Digital devices are [increased / increasingly] dominating our lives these days. Many, if not most of us are [addicted / addiction] to them. New studies emerge with alarming [frequently / frequency] about the dangers to our physical and mental health of being [glued / adhesive] to our small screens. Children are not exercising; people are worrying about their [bodily / body] image because of online pressure from "perfect body" sites; and people are being bullied (or worse) [by / of] cyber-criminals. In a study [at / of] 1,000 adults in Japan, researchers discovered that [nearly / near] 50 per cent of the participants were addicted [to / on] their smartphones, but were unaware of their smartphone dependency. The study is one of many [collect / clarion] calls for "digital detox" to become part of our lives.

The practice of digital detox involves switching [on / off] from the Internet to enjoy something called "real life". This involves the [going / bygone] custom of [conversing / conserving] with people face to face and "doing everyday stuff". The organisation Digital Detox Japan said: "We want detox to be a [catalyst / catalytic] for people to rethink their distance from their devices...to set [beside / aside] time to get ample rest." People need to [rely / belie] less on devices to avoid the new [phenomena / phenomenon] of "nomophobia" - NO MObile PHOBIA. Psychologist Dr Kia-Rai Prewitt warned of the dangers of being too [sorbet / absorbed] in smartphones. She wrote: "If you [ignore / gnaw] responsibilities at home or work because of the amount of time you spend online, then [consider / considerable] a digital detox."