Hooked On The Web 298
MT writes "The New York Times is running an interesting article entitled Hooked On The Web: Help is on the Way. It says that internet addiction is being taken more seriously by big business and mental health workers, and affects a large population (6%-10% of all users)." From the article: "Skeptics argue that even obsessive Internet use does not exact the same toll on health or family life as conventionally recognized addictions. But, mental health professionals who support the diagnosis of Internet addiction say, a majority of obsessive users are online to further addictions to gambling or pornography or have become much more dependent on those vices because of their prevalence on the Internet. But other users have a broader dependency and spend hours online each day, surfing the Web, trading stocks, instant messaging or blogging, and a fast-rising number are becoming addicted to Internet video games."
Is it just me... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't look at it as an addiction, really. There are those who have an honest drive for information. My life, my job and my hobbies revolve around information. I always think about the "it:" How does it work, where did it come from, why isn't it better, who else likes it?
With new forms of information available so quickly (wikipedia, google, etc) everywhere I go, I often have information in mere moments. I can turn on my PDA phone in about 2 seconds, touch tap (with my super thumb nail) any phrase into Google for PDA, and have a response in under a minute total. Does it mean I am addicted? Not when I am able to take so much of that "useless" information and transform it into a positive: profit or social fun or who knows what? The other day I was wondering what ever happened to those crazy "bubbles" of informational tidbits on TV shows and videos and was thinking how cool it would be to integrate a device with my TV that listens to content and offers instant pop-ups from the web.
People want information. 6-10% of the people thrive on knowing weird things. Does it mean we're hooked? I'm the same kid who loved the encyclopedia as well as odd old books that no one would read. The fact that I can now integrate with billions of others simultaneously adding/revising/editing/deleting the synopses of information that exist is mindblowing. Just 15 years ago I was running a BBS with a thousand or so users and I couldn't believe that one 16 year old kid could interact with so many people in such a large area (a hundred square miles). Now I look at the e-mails I receive from my blogs from people in South Africa and Australia and even Kansas. What is the end game for me? Information.
Insert obligatory "oh my God that guy played Ghandi" Sneakers quote here. I'll let you information addicts look it up.
Re:Web, a Distraction at Work (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm very sure that slashdot and other blogs make me more productive.
These are different activites (Score:5, Insightful)
How can you lump every activity that can be done online and somehow classify it as an addiction?
If I trade stocks over the phone, talk on the phone, and orde rpizza on the phone, does that mean I am addicted to the phone? How is it any different?
I think someone is just trying to drum up some business.
Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is it just me... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Web, a Distraction at Work (Score:1, Insightful)
This distraction effort splits the focus of the individual and causes a decrease in the finite amount of cognitive processing ability given to any one task
That is probably the biggest bullshit sentance i've ever read. This isn't your highschool lit class, there is no mimimum word requirement. Stop trying to sound smarter than you are, it aint workin.
Seriously though man, you probably shouldn't believe everything the D.A.R.E. program taught you in middle school. And no, marijuana does not fund terrorism either...
constructive and nonconstructive (Score:5, Insightful)
the only difference is the forum
so we need to focus on the behaviors on the internet, not the internet itself. i do not think a nonstop blogger is in the same league as a nonstop gambler. i think that the internet is still "new and different" so people are still talking about it like social activists talked about the "new phenomenon" of pool halls in the early 20th century: a dangerous and degenerate influence on young folks to drink and have sex
yes, pool halls were thought of as a grave social influence at one time. of course today, we know it's just a place to play pool. that a pool hall makes you have risky sex or take illicit drugs is just a silly idea. but when something is new, people have trouble separating the old-as-cave paintings-and-rock-carvings basic human vices, from just another new forum to engage in that
focus on the BEHAVIOR not the FORUM
one is as old as time and happens independently of any forum
the other has positive and negative behavior potential
News/Internet/RP Junkies (Score:2, Insightful)
How many of us have been addicted (yes, and we've used that word) to the beautiful, different world in a MUD or other online multiplayer game? You say you just like to play and/or to interact with the community, but when you shut out your loved ones to play a game or to chat online, it's a problem.
Yes, as the article mentioned, people with internet addictions usually have addictive personalities (and so have other addictions like gambling or sex or food) and/or have other mental problems (depression, anxiety, etc).
If you're the loved one of such a person, realize that they can't help themselves. Don't be overbearing or guilting, just try to get that person help, and to convince that person to consent to help. You may only notic the internet addiction, but there's likely far more to it. If that person felt well enough to get help, then s/he would have already. Help your loved one.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:1, Insightful)
But ask youself, is the Internet sometimes a distraction from getting things done? Are you sometimes tempted to put off work by browsing Slashdot? Maybe you're not, but I have, um, a friend who is. It's an issue that merits discussion, even if we reserve the word "addiction" for more serious cases.
The World in a Computer (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not that the Internet is becoming an escape from reality.
It's that the Internet is becoming reality.
Look around a house: There's a thing called a bookshelf. That's where all the books go. When you want to go read a book, you go to a physical space, that's entirely so that you can read.
In another corner, there's where the telephone is hooked to the wall. That's where you go to talk with people.
When you want to play games, you pull out the board game, or the Nintendo, or something.
"Oh, I feel like drawing." You pull out the pens, pencils, paper. Those too, are in a special location in the house.
For everything that you want to do, there's a place in the house.
But now, pretty much everything but the bathroom and the kitchen fits nicely, (and much more affordably,) within the computer.
So, if you hear about "Internet Addiction," just think to yourself: "World Addiction."
Does somebody have an "online gambling problem?" Just call it for what it is: a gambling problem.
Does somebody look at porn so much, that they can't get themselves to go to work? Call it a porn problem.
For whatever problem you have, and then attach the word "online" to it, just strip off that "online" word, and attack the problem.
Let's see... (Score:3, Insightful)
I use my computer for online banking.
I read/send email to friends, family, and colleagues.
I buy items online.
My job includes web development, so I am constantly looking up information and building web pages and CGIs.
I find activities and events in my area using local search services.
I catch up on all my sports via sports websites.
Well, that's it... I'm an addict!
How do they control for the fact that more and more people are getting Internet access every day and those that have it are using it in more new and varied ways? Do they even really know how much time a person spends in "addictive" web use? Sure, if a guy is spending 16 hours a day downloading pr0n, then perhaps he has a problem. Same with the dude spending 45 hours straight playing World of Warcraft.
Addicition though is a heavy-handed designation. It means you're sick somehow. And frankly I see the Internet as a facilitator of current addicitions, not as an addiction in itself. If you're a gambler with a computer, you'll probably gravitate toward online casions, if you like titty bars then you'll probably like pr0n sites, etc.
As usual, people are ready to jump to conclusions without careful study. One study does not make a case. A lot more research needs to be done before anyone can make such an all-encompassing claim.
Better than mobile phone addiction (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a dangerous and often overlooked "addiction" that is causing real harm to other productive non-addicted members of society.
In other news (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:These are different activites (Score:5, Insightful)
We've always had information junkies. Before they went online in huge numbers, they would be subscribed to every magazine about their favorite subjects, own lots of books, maybe have a stock ticker and a hotline to their investment manager, if that was their thing.
We've always had social junkies. Before they went online in huge numbers, they would spend hours a day on the phone, or hanging out with friends.
We've always had porn junkies. We've always had diary junkies. We've always had shopping junkies.
These days, just about every facet of life can be performed online. I think the "Internet addiction" thing is something of an artifact. To those who don't understand the Internet, it masks a wide variety of behaviors whose only commonality is the fact that the same tool is used to accomplish each of them.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:2, Insightful)
No, that's just your over simplified misunderstanding of the subject.
The idea here, and in most therapy related to the subject, is that certain biological functions change in such a way that aberrant behavior become more difficult to notice and treat.
You won't find a single therapist worth a damn who says what you claim is being said.
Pornography is a "vice"? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I would agree with this (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, you mention the evils of pornography as "desensitizations, misrepresentations of sexuality, corrosion of relationships, etc.", but I would argue that there are some issues with this representations. Desensitizing myself to sex and nudity was one of the best things that ever happened to me. As an amateur artist, I occasionally draw nudes, and I have been much happier since I stopped feeling guilty for merely drawing little nippley dots on cartoon breasts or feeling dirty when I caught a glimpse of another woman changing in a swimming pool changeroom. Yes, I was indeed a prude in my youth, and online depictions of nudity, both sexual and nonsexual, helped me get over it.
As for the misrepresentations of sexuality, that is very subjective: the "proper" representation of sexuality will depend on who you ask -- a conservative Christian might say that porn misrepresents sex as an act of carnal pleasure, not reproduction, a feminist might say that it misrepresents sex as a process of objectifying women, and there are so many other views on what sex and sexuality are or should be. Since the internet allows us to see so many conflicting views, for any piece of pornographic material, you can guarantee that somebody is going to view it as a "misrepresentation".
I will not deny that porn can corrode relationships, but it isn't always because porn is innately a bad influence -- if there is a pre-existing communication problem in a relationship, one partner may well be aghast upon discovering that the other partner looks at porn on occasion, and that might be enough to end the relationship, but it isn't because porn is some horrible horrible thing. If porn is, however, a true addiction (ie. the person cannot help him/herself, and the porn viewing takes up an excessive amount of time), then it may indeed put stress on even a healthy relationship, and it should be viewed as similar to any other harmful addiction.
Note that I'm not addicted to porn, nor am I even a particularly big fan of it, whether it's of the online or offline variety -- I'm just sick of being told over and over again that porn should offend me as a woman. As an artist, I'm sick of being told that a naked body is an awful, horrible thing, and that it gets even worse in certain poses. As a net geek, I'm sick of being told that the internet is enhancing "vices" purely because it allows a wider range of information than some people are comfortable with.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:2, Insightful)
Every failing that a person has is now some addiction or other problem that is beyond their control.
First, not every failing a person has is considered an addiction. An addiction is specificly defined as "uncontrolled, compulsive behavior despite harm." Second, no ethical psychologist or psychiatrist would ever say that an addiction is something beyond a person's control. The whole point of psychology is to treat mental health problems which cause harm so that the person no longer exhibits the negative behavior. To do this, the person being treated has to have active involvement with his/her treatment.
Psychologists (at least the good ones) do not use addiction as an excuse to absolve people of their wrongdoings. Rather, they diagnose patients with addiction in an attempt to find the best treatment options for making that person healthier mentally.
Every big trial now has competing "experts" that will take whatever position they are paid to take.
You think this is limited to psych experts? Trials routinely feature experts from nearly every profession. Doctors, medical examiners, civil engineers, auto experts, forensic pathologists, etc. How exactly did psychology cause this? If you were looking for someone to blame for this phenominon, I'd blame the lawyers.
Taft
Wrong Question. (Score:4, Insightful)
I remain skeptical about most of these stories. While I believe that there are some people who are obsessive-compulsive enough to be addicted to the internet, porn, gambling, etc, I doubt both the numbers being thrown around ("hudreds of thousands", "6-10%", "Millions") because most of them have been based upon bad science, or no science. In order to adequately grasp how widespread something is you have to sample randomly from the general population and see how many people are affected in a real way (I.E. according to some clinical, quantitative, and unabiguously-applied metric). Then you can start to talk about rates. All of the 'studies' that I have seen up to this point consist of interviews with self-identified 'victims' combined with some anecdotal estimates or outright assumptions about rates.
That having been said this story seems to be more upfront about it than most stating that there is little hard scientific evidence on the rates, amounts, etc. It also seems to shie away from letting any one "advocate" propose the sweeping issues that past articles have.
In my opinion, Even if the problem is 10% to 50% of the population I believe that 'national mandates' such as shunting porn to specific ports is not the solution. They have never worked in the past (e.g. Prohibition, the War on Drugs, banning prostitution, etc.) The solutuion as with any addiction is individual education and care. If your life has been ruined by addiction to anything then direct individual help (with recognition from your employer, friends, etc.) is what you need and I hope you get it. A law sending you to jail or installing a timer/filter on your computer is, in my opinion, not going to help.
One U.S. Supreme Court Justice once said (paraphrase) that the function of laws to protect children cannot be to make adults act like children or to treat them that way. In my opinion, laws that treat everyone like an addict do nothing to help real addicts, they only harm everyone else.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:4, Insightful)
What people don't like about these stories is the scare factor, used by all media to sell their stories. Yet another reason to overreact to the latest interests of your family or friends. Some people can get addicted to pretty much anything, and yes, they really are addicted. But stories like these smear everyone who does the activity to some extent. It isn't the fault of the psychologists, but of the sensationalistic media who know that fear sells.
"Moderation in all things--including moderation." Instead of trying to stamp out every single thing that someone might get addicted to, we have to understand why the hell some people just never know when enough is enough.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is it just me... (Score:3, Insightful)
As for saying the consequences were different, I didn't compare their severity, just that liver disease is a consequence that is probably harder to relate to an internet addiction than alcoholism.
Anyway, thanks for your post... severe addiction is not something I can empathize with, so it's good to hear about it from someone close to it.
Re:The World in a Computer (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry friend but the Internet has not superseded reality as of yet. It is nothing but text and images detached from the reality behind it. You leave your house, you have flowers, earth, sun, the wind and a whole plethora of sensations that the Internet can only mimick.
Then there is the world of human interaction, the touch of another's hand, a loved ones voice, their breath on your neck, their heartbeat against yours. Even just being amongst friends, the act of laughing, looking into another's eyes, being surrounded by others you care about and who care about you.
I'm sorry but reality is so much more vast and rich than the Internet. Just like television the internet detaches us and removes us from reality. It dulls the senses which blurs and distorts our perception. The Internet is great place to learn and share information but it is only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what really exists.