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Episode details

World Service,11 Dec 2018,26 mins

When You Tire of Tech

The Documentary

Available for over a year

Our lives are consumed more and more by the online world whether it be for entertainment or every day activities. For some people it becomes too much – and here, musician turned broadcaster Ana Matronic meets some young people whose online use has quite literally taken over their lives. She visits a centre in Seattle, Washington, near where she grew up, which has been set up to help people, mainly young men, who feel their relationship with the online and tech world has become too stifling. The Restart Centre is somewhere these young men can go and quite literally tune out of our all-consuming switched on world. They play board games, listen to and play musical instruments, talk to each other, enjoy the outdoors and the company of animals. Ana discovers a complex mix of emotional stories and hears how the centre looks to help these young people reintegrate back into the online world with confidence and a renewed sense of balance. Ana also hears experts building a new centre in the UK geared to help people who have become too consumed by social media and a constant need to react, respond and seek approval. Meanwhile tech entrepreneurs creating new smart phones aimed at people who want to keep their tech use to the basics tell Ana how it works. (Photo: A man falls asleep on his laptop. Credit: Getty Images)

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