Email Addiction Runs Rampant

Rollie Hawk writes "Are you addicted to email? According to the Opinion Research Corporation, the odds are pretty good that you are. Their study of 4,012 adults in the twenty largest U.S. cities found that 41% of respondents start the day by checking their email. On the average, respondents admitted to checking their email five times a day. Respondents also mentioned email features they wish were available. Examples included the ability to retract unread messages (45%) and a way to track the forwarding of their own email (43%). Just how addicted are the email-dependent among us? So heavily that one quarter of respondents won't go more than two or three days without it. Of course, by those standards, most Americans must be addicted to work, sex, and TV as well."

Comments

Sooo....

[leonmergen]

... if reading my email every morning is an addiction, what's the difference between "addiction" and "daily routine" ?

Re:Sooo....

[porcupine8]

Should be, you would think. And it usually starts out as something you enjoy. But often, once the addiction takes hold it's less "something you enjoy" and more "something you require to function normally." You may or may not still enjoy it, but you do NOT enjoy being without it.

Oh c'mon!

[Spy der Mann]

That's just plain stupid. Just because e-mail has become a social necessity (like checking your answering machine) doesn't mean you're ADDICTED.

E-mail is a form of communication, I use it to talk with my e-friends. We live in a global society now.

(On the other hand, if you check your e-mail because you're feeling lonely, then you're not addicted to e-mail. You just need real-life friends)

Re:Oh c'mon!

[IPFreely]

Yup, that's about it.

E-mail is not the addiction. What people want and need is the social interaction. Different people use different means and technologies to get it, but the basics are the same.

Like this article is trying to make an issue out of a particular technology that is used. It's no worse than the old ladies that just have to go down to the beauty salon every day. They go for the chit-chat. The salon is just the place where it all happens.

E-Mail, forums, Blogs, Cell Phones, Text. They are all just communications mediums. Make fun of each others technology, but know that the underlying need of each is to stay in touch and communicate.

Right.

[Skye16]

I also check my voicemail every day when I get home from work, and at any other time that I think I may have a phone call.

I also check my physical mail box every day, just to see how much less money I'm going to have after I do bills.

I look in the fridge for something to eat at least 5-8 times a day.

I pee at least twice, often times around 3 times a day.

Until these people start going into withdrawal when they stop checking their email, don't call it addiction. I've gone weeks without checking my email, after having checked it about 8 times + a day for the year or two preceding that. I didn't even give it a second thought.

The real headline is that "The Opinion Research Corporation is staffed by a pack of retarded monkeys. The CEO expressed optimism that their next release will be more along the lines of Hamlet than a total pile of bullshit. High School students everywhere were known to ask 'What's the difference?'".

Addicted?

[interstellar_donkey]

Yeah. To paraphase.

Slashdot user: "Hi, I'm Pat. And I'm an email addict".

Group: "Email? Email's not an addiction. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck dick for email?"

Slashdot user: "Well" (blushes) "Now that I think about it... I suppose that yes... yes I have".

Re:it's been 21 days since i checked email...

[roche]

The thing is though, addiction is considered a disease. I will wait until someone from the medical field says that this addiction exists.

Call me crazy, but I do not trust a marketing company when it comes to identifying possibile addictions.

I like Cheerios

[vitaflo]

Looks like I'm also addicted to brushing my teeth and eating breakfast, based on that criteria.

Re:I can't check my email!

[Golias]

Their study of 4,012 adults in the twenty largest U.S. cities found that 41% of respondents start the day by checking their email. On the average, respondents admitted to checking their email five times a day.

I bet a survey in 1970 would show that well over 60% of people would have said that they started the day by reading the newspaper. Were they addicted to newspapers?

What a bullshit non-story. Sheesh.

Re:I can't check my email!

[flyingsquid]

If there's an "addiction" here, it's an addiction to calling things addictions, when they aren't. This is one of those rare instances when I have to agree with the right wing- "personal responsibility" just isn't fashionable anymore. It's not my fault that I'm out of shape: I'm addicted to TV, so it's the TV's fault. It's not my fault I'm fat, I'm addicted to food. And it's not my fault I never get any work done, I'm an email junkie (complete with track marks up and down my arms where I tried to plug in the ethernet cable). Etcetera.

Re:I can't check my email!

[Doc Ruby]

Left wing: I email too much. I talked with some people about it, they agreed, so I switched to the phone.

Right wing: You email too much. Switch to the phone.