Slashdot Mirror
Computer Addiction or Just Modern Life?
Ant writes to tell us that ABC News has an interesting look at computer addiction and what it might take to be considered addicted in today's society. From the article: "Video games and the Internet have been subject to suspicion since the computer became a household fixture. One complaint: People get sucked into spending enormous amounts of time on the computer, to the detriment of other parts of their life. But are they addicted? The answer depends on what you mean by 'addicted.' Most experts say computers are not addictive in the same sense that drugs are, but they could be on the same level as gambling."
Addiction is not necessarily bad.
How much time do you use your web browser/chat client/im app versus how much time you use other programs like graphics applications or word processors.
Well, I dont know about pathetic, but I use real life to escape from the internet... ;)
At least, that's how I feel sometimes.
I used the internet and games to stay away from drugs... damn hippies gotta love em. :) Worked awesome for a few years.. till I got burned out from my love of playing Tribes 24/7 practically...
Is this an addiction?... My computer is less than 2 feet away from my bed. I rolled out of bed to get on the computer.. before any coffee... I'd sometimes take days off from work just to play Tribes.... guess though making it into a #7 ranked team though was a nice enough reward for all my hard work and fun I had......
Oh yea it's Valentines day.... where my wife? In bed... Where am I? on the computer... Am I addicted??? Huh? Huh? Slap in the IV and Hook me up Baby!!!
Back at MSU I did research on IAD. Being a computer geek and psych geek I thought it was the perfect independant study. The problem I found, which turned into my thesis, was that the entire psychological community saw IAD as a chance to "exploit" clients. So they wrote the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria to mimic that of other addictions (gambling, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc). I thought that was a horrid idea since the internet - and computer - are merely tools to an end so my thesis went something like, "Internet addiction should not be deemed a disorder in itself but another disorder through a new medium."
You've got all the traditional fixes online - gambling, power, people, and so on. You can use the internet to get to your fix, it is not a fix on its own.
OK, Unca Hosie'll help you out. First, general refutation: if the sole criteria for deeming something an "addiction" is that you spend a lot of time doing it so much as to neglect other activities, then why not say *sleep* is addicting? We spend one third of our lives doing it, we're unable to stop (we may try to curtail our sleeping but the "withdrawal symptoms" set in), and we could be doing a lot of more valuable things with our time if we didn't have to spend so much of it sleeping.
Second, if we must categorize computer use as addicting, then it is a relatively benign addiction. Beyond the case of the occasional socially-handicapped geek (rarely reported these days), few detrimental effects are known to stem from excessive computer use. Carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive stress disorder may affect certain individuals in extreme cases (and may partly be blamed on poor interface design). Beyond that, it neither affects your physical health like drugs nor your financial health like gambling (which I don't classify as an addiction, but rather as a mental disease - based on the denial of the laws of mathematics in the face of an irrational faith in luck). Some psychological damage can be noted in the case of system administrators (read scary-devil-monastery lately?), but as these people encounter their hardships as a result of using computers in a professional capacity, even this evidence is negligible.
The woman's commentary is interesting. she doesn't consider her gaming an addiction because it's not destructive. While she spends less time going out, she feels that she has merely supplanted going out with going online. A transplanted social life.
The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle ground between the two extremes.
As a college student, instant messaging has become a vital form of communication amongst myself and my peers. To lose access to instant messaging would severely restrict my social access. It's a less attention consuming form of contact than a phone conversation and it allows me to converse with multiple friends at the same time rather than being tied down to one at a time. Often my buddies plan to head out somewhere over the ventrilo chat channel. If I'm not at a computer I'd miss out.
We play games together as a group, it's a social activity that has introduced me to the bulk of my hometown friends. It supplants gathering 'round for a football game since only a few of us are even interested in spots.
I didn't grow up immersed in sports, undiagnosed athsma kept me from excelling in sports for a long time and instead video games took its place as a recreational activity.
There was a time when video games seemed to be the sole niche of an underground geek culture. However, as time progressed, the video game industry has blossomed and television advertisements for games have become commonplace. Many geeks would come to wonder when jocks started playing games too. They had probably been playing all along, but since video games have become more prevalent, society has become more accepting of this hobby and more are admitting to the activity.
Humanity has experienced a diverse set of lifestyles. We've tilled fields to scratch out subsistence lives in the countryside and washed ourselves with buckets of water, we've moved into cities and have become accustomed to commuting to work over distances that would have taken a full day of travel, and we are now touching upon an age where computers will become a natural extension of our lives.
How much is too much? This is clearly a question of values. Notably physical health is questioned. Also, mental health may come into question when some choose to completely divorce themselves from reality in order to live out another life they find more comforting. Society will also come to consider how much "real" social contact can be replaced with virtual contact.
(Btw, at some point, we're going to have to figure out a system to properly convey a range of emotions through text if we are going to make virtual contact more like real contact. We might need to upgrade keyboards with emotion keys akin to Caps Lock and make the necessary software changes. The earlier slashdot article on misconstrued posts raises this question already)
Addiction implies the brain has been altered to reinforce the desire to continue use of the addictive stimulant. Powerful addictive substances alter the functioning of the brain and can (at least in some cases) be measured either via chemical imbalance or altered brain scans.
Addictive substances are addictive because they've evolved that way -- they exert some type of control over other creatures (like humans) by stimulating the pleasure centers of the host's brain. It's really a symbiotic (or in some cases, parasitic) relationship between two species. Computers don't fit into this picture.
Are people who read a lot of books addicted to books? What about people who play sports? Or pursue any other hobby for that matter? Just because some people choose to spend a lot of time at the keyboard doesn't mean their brains have been altered to *need* the experience.
You know, I'll post anonymously just to say (a) I've been a geek since the first Commodore 64, and (b) enjoyed an active sex life (with the usual ups and downs) almost from that same time, and (c) am currently married to a highly-sexed wife, who has a skill for finding better porn online than I do, and with whom it has been my pleasure to experience BDSM hedonism to the point of taking it to public social clubs (good call I post anonymously, huh?). OK? Becoming a geek doesn't automatically rob you of sex organs and make a pocket protector appear on your shirt. That stereotype came and went in the sixties. Today, women dig geeks whether or not they are one themselves. Geeks make more money, can fix everything, have greater imaginations in the erotic department, and are generally less inclined to fool around. Women are discovering that there's a difference between a hot date and somebody you'll be secure and happy spending your life with.
Print took potshots at TV when it was the star of the show. That was before the internet though. Now, the TV stations are loosing ratings. They're struggling to promote their own medium by slandering the new one. "Internet addiction, online predators, phishing schemes, oh my! Come back to TV where it's safe friend :-) We love you. We have Simpsons, Sopranos, and Shopping!! What more could you want?" Sadly, it seems the older generation really buys this "internet boogie man" business. If I even so much as mention eBay around Mom, she lectures me for half an hour about how I need to "be careful." If TV spent as much time on STDs as they do the "dangers of the internet" my Mom would probably buy me a crate of condoms if even breathed the word girlfriend.
Apathy.
I simply don't care enough to put forth the effort required to establish and maintain a relationship. The rewards do not out-weigh the cost in my mind. I'm indifferent.
I describe it as the path of least resistance. If my drive towards something is neutral, I'll make no effort to avoid it and no effort to obtain it. I'm not going to try and find a mate because I simply don't care one way or another.
I'm not wallowing in anything, and the fact that I am not only comfortable with my situation but happy with it seems to make other people uncomfortable.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
I'm a die-hard, every single day of my life computer and Internet power user. Computers for 22 years, Internet for 16 of those years, spanning quite a few different fields of interest through those years. I don't have a notebook, PDA, or even a cellphone, but every single day I'm immersed in computers. All day at work, and all evening when I get home, until I go to sleep. Not counting work, which is, well, work, what am I doing the rest of the time? Heck, you name it. See a long time ago it stopped being about "being into computers" for me, it's simply the way I get things done that are important to me; like writing, making music, exploring graphic arts, learning things... Basically, stimulating my brain with everything including the kitchen sink. Can I do this without computers? Yeah, most of it, and here's my point: Any given day, I can go on a vacation, have somewhere else to be other than home, maybe all day, maybe for a week in another city somewhere. As I mentioned, I have no portable devices. If I'm not at home, then I don't give a crap about what my computers do for me there. When I'm at home, I'm glued there, because that's the most entertaining and enriching place in the apartment, no big deal. If I'm going to be at home, it's that or watch TV, or read a book. Oh hey, I can do those things on the computer too. Take me out of my home and put me in the mountains somewhere, I'm happy as a clam. There, I'm not thinking about my daily computer existance at all; and on returning home, I'll sink right back into them just as joyfully as I stepped away.
It's just life at this point... I think that the breadth of what one can be into with computers negates the addiction factor. If I was doing just one thing on my computer all the time, like play Evercrack or sit and refresh the front page of Slashdot for hours, every day, that would be an addiction, like sitting in front of the same slot machine all day. An addiction to Evercrack is only involving one particular aspect of the usage of a very versatile tool. I don't think that makes the tool an addiction at all.
Back in the 60's newspapers were accusing television of being a "vast wasteland", and plenty of other harsh sentaments. Now TV has been losing traction to video games and the internet and periodically throws out puff-pieces about "internet addiction" and "the cult of the video game".
Without getting sidetracked on the sheer coolness of being around for the creation of 2 distinct forms of media in my lifetime (which I can go on about for say 20 pages), the fact remains that my cable bill is for internet only as my income and free time are now net-centric and the tv itself is regulated to being "just another monitor" for my movie and gamining pastimes for the couch position instead of the office chair positon.
This type of use of the TV scares the crap out of media companies far more than TV scared the crap out of hollywood and the publishing industries as seen by the scramble for downloadable content.
But the fact remains. Apart from my work and about 3 side projects involving art, animation and special-event decorating, I don't have time for TV as I did when I was in school - I'm too busy with other things now. Amusing that "tee-vee" might be screaming "addiction" for those who are tuning out and into other things. It's beyond irony - it's something approaching "media-pathos".
And for the record - this is probably the most insane use of quotation marks I've used in a post in weeks if not months.
the things don't make you addicted to them.
one will crave what others passes by.
the addiction comes out of the person,
not the thing.
j
Comment removed based on user account deletion
> Most experts say computers are not addictive in the same sense that drugs are, but they could be on the same level as gambling...
Or watching tv.
Now a lot of people spend a lot of time in front of their computer it sounds like a bad thing, when they were couch potatoes watching tv, no-one complained about it ???
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I used to play an Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) and I was, in hindsight, developing an addiction to it...
When I started playing, I was working in a Net Café so I played while I worked, interrupted only by customers (who needed only logging on and charging for usage) and customorons (who would swear on anything that a password was not needed to access their AOL Mail...EVER)
When I finished work, I'd go home and play some more
Eventually, I'd need sleep so I'd go to bed, thinking of the game while waiting for unconsciousness.
Once asleep, I would, no kidding, have dreams which took place in or were heavily influenced by the game.
In one obsessively driven period I stayed awake for 8 days (192 hours), sleeping a grand total of 14 hours (mostly at/on my keyboard)
I quit the game a couple of years ago (which included a very difficult period of withdrawal) and have avoided such intensive game addiction since....
Nowadays, I work late at night (start at 1900, finish at 0530) and even though I don't often play RPG's anymore, I still sit up, frittering away many an hour browsing and peregrinating around the Net, long after I should be sleeping (e.g. yesterday (Tuesday), I went to sleep around 1430).
Computer addiction and Gaming addiction, both grossly underestimated, have been a problem for years. The growth of easily-accesible, high-speed, affordable Net Access amplifies this problem.
If you don't believe me, just try and imagine how you would feel if Internet access was, involuntarily, unavailable for a week...or a month....
Or how about this....It's December 23rd and your computer is Fubarred...
Painful? Agonising? Torturous?
Internet Addiction is too often ignored or discredited. Surely, by now, it should be included in the DSM???
If no-one else, I reckon this guy would agree
You have moved your mouse. You must restart Windows for these changes to take effect.
in the 90's I was in college and had access to mainframe terminals all over campus. (VMS Vax) The internet was just getting off the ground. Mozilla was the only web browser and only on the macs, and Lynx was still more popular. The only online games were called "muds". (Multi User Dungens) These were text based multiuser games, a bit like Zork if you can remember that game.
I got involved in a popular mud of the day, and soon found I was spending hours a day playing the game. I'd made quite a few friends in the game and was well known among the major players. Muds penalized you for logging out because any inventory or money you had on your character when you logged out, you lost. This included equipment. (armor, weapons, etc) You'd spend the next hour when you logged back in getting decent equipment to continue your gaming. So it was to your advantage to play for the longest possible continuous sessions. There were people that appeared to spend their entire day, most every day, playing the mud, because you could login at almost any time of day and find certain people always there in game.
I didn't have the greatest motivation at the time to go to certain classes, and found myself skipping some class to play the muds when I didn't feel like going to class. One day I arrived in the lab at 8am and left the lab at 4pm, having skipped all my classes that day. Then it just hit me like a lightning strike.... this was not good for me. So I signed back on, said my good-byes, and logged out. I have not played a mud since that day. (I guess you could say I quit cold turkey?)
Many things have changed since then, but many things are still the same. The muti user online games can be very addictive and provide a tempting escape from reality for a few hours a day. Those that lack the willpower to self-regulate their activities will probably find themselves in the same situation I put myself in so many years ago.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Is it necessary for survival? Only if the environment forces you to it. The current environment is technologically-driven, so you need to stay connected to have a social life, student life, work life, etc.
Well yes. Without technology I'd be hard pressed to earn a living at my current tech support job and I'd doubt I could make it very far hunting animals with my bare hands.
I for one do not wish to live in a world where I only live to 25 and have no teeth and live in the woods covered in lice fearing the dark. Even with 1950's technology I'd be hard pressed to make a living as comfortable today.
This is why the best solution is for technology to always improve and better our lives. Sure people won't always adapt and sometimes technology will be abused, but its far better to keep on the path than to revert to not having or just stop working on technology.
I firmly believe technology will make all problems today become irrelevant and all problems in the future will be quite minor compared to the issues we face today (old age, death, crime, boredom, etc).
Of course being a Singularitan, I might be biased or too optimistic.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I'm sure for some people computers are an addiction in the sense that they really do get very nervous if they can't get on a computer for their daily fix, whether the fix be email, internet, games whatever.
But for vast majority of people the internet is just like TV, another form of passive entertainment. TV gives us many dumb sitcoms but it also gives us sports, news talk shows, educational shows. They're all entertainment for various audiences. And people will get more back out of some than others.
My complaint about computers, which happen to be my job by the way, is that they're still pretty much a passive form of entertainment just like TV. So I get more out of reading a book than watching a movie, building a table than watching Norm Abrams show me how to build one, or going out birdwatching rather than watching a PBS show on it. In my experience active entertainment is always more rewarding than passive entertainment.
Though there are times when I don't really have the energy for active entertainment and passive entertainment is just what I need. But the problem with passive entertainment, whether it's computers or tv, is that it's very easy to choose more of it rather than get up and get involved with active entertaiment. Sort of like "you can't eat just one of them" in an old snack commercial. That gets a bit close to "addiction."