Slashdot Mirror
Could You Be Addicted to the Internet?
Billosaur writes "Over at The Register, Dr Stephen Juan has this interesting article on Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD). Apparently this has been around since at least 1995 and there are those lobbying for it to be included in the DSM-IV. While some people use the Internet a lot for work or to keep in touch with family & friends as well as banking and bill-paying, it's interesting to thing that some people actually become addicted. There's still a lot of controversy over the diagnosis, whether this is true addiction or not. There is more detailed information available in this paper from Viriginia Tech."
What is this Internet you speak of?
Thats like asking does water flow down hill. . The answer is yes.
Absolutely.
Of course not. (Sixth post!)
The answer is so obviously "yes" in this audience. Was there any doubt? Why even ask?
Constitutionally Correct
I can quit anytime I want.
Apparently it's been around since at least 1995... It's like saying Car Wrecks have been happening since the early 20th century. Duh! That's about when it started!
Funnypics
Hey, this is Slashdot... none of us is addicted to the internet!
Please ban me from Slashdot.
I'm also addicted to my car. Darned if a day goes by that I don't use it to get somewhere too far to walk.
Just because you use something often doesn't mean it's an addiction.
It's sad when choosing an installation directory on your own qualifies you as an "advanced user."
I'm sure this article will receive a positive reception from /.
scene kids on myspace.
:P
nuff said.
ironic that the "check that you arnt a bot" image-word is "makeup"
Isn't that last one just teh stupid? It's cribbed word-for-word from a typical symptom of alcholism, as are the rest.
Even if there are still ISPs in the world that charge by the MB, it just doesn't fly. Now, if they were talking about "unexpected" credit card charges, maybe... but pr0n addiction
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Wait 'till we see what kind of drug they make for it. Whatever it is, I bet it'll make Duke Nuke 'Em Forever look awesome...
I think they have something there!!!
Maybe I'm addicted to the Internet, maybe not. But it sure has eliminated my TV and newspaper habit...
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
What kind of stupid question is that?
Of course I am addicted!
I think there's also an as yet undiscussed "Fetal Internet Syndrome"...
My friends new Windows box is addicted, and it was never exposed, new from the store... computers with this syndrome have serious mental lapses if they can't get on the Internet to chat with Microsoft in the first thiry days after being turned on, and on a regular basis after that.
-- Terry
If you refresh your Slashdot user page every 30 seconds to see if you have received any replies, you might be addicted to the internet.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
I'm addicted to talking to people. I do it every freaking day, no matter how hard I try to give up! If I go a whole day without talking to someone, I feel bad about life. It's crippling my ability to get anything done. ...
On the other hand, where there's a problem there's money to be made prolonging the solution.
Dr R.D. MD, BA, MIEEE
Internet Councilor
Book now, only $932,377 per session!
Beep beep.
People are way more dependent on breathing air than they are on having Internet access. We should be classifying air addiction as a disease!
Isn't telling us to read this story on the internet alot like saying there is going to be a meeting about WoW addicts in Ironforge in WoW?
I'm not a medical person so perhaps there is some criteria I'm not familiar with, but isn't addictive behavior pretty much the same regardless of what someone is addicted to? Is the question whether the "addiction" is chemically based vs. simply being socially based? (For example, if a nerd likes playing Quake for 16 hours a day instead of interacting normally with the human race, does that constitute addiction or just different mental software?)
;-) The rest of us would probably take issue with that, but really what objective criteria would be used to have the argument?
I mean really, if addiction is defined as depending on the chemicals that are generated when we feel "good" wouldn't an excess of ANYTHING that makes us feel "good" be a candidate for a cause? And wouldn't it be expected that potential causes of addiction depend on the individual? Some are obvious and would impact virtually anyone (chemical manipulation) but other behaviors which don't directly alter mood via chemical means I would intuitively expect to be more subtle.
Heh, maybe anti-social people (not the angry, dangerous wackos but those who are just indifferent to and/or dislike social situations) would argue that the rest of us are addicted to social interaction.
Anybody with a medical degree around here that can point to some definitive definition of the word "addiction" and what it means, medically?
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
I can quit any time I want to. Really.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
If by "Internet" they mean pr0n, then...well...plenty of people of addicted.
A need for an ever increasing amount of time on the internet to achieve satisfaction or a dissatisfaction with the continued use of the same amount of time on the internet.
As my work gets more and more complicated, and my programs longer and longer, I end up only achieving satisfaction when I've spent more than the usual amount of time in front of the computer.
Two or more withdrawal symptoms developing within days, weeks, or up to a month after a reduction or cessation of internet use. These include distress or impairment of social, personal, or occupational functioning such that there is psychological or psychomotor agitation such as anxiety, restlessness, irritability, trembling, tremors, voluntary or involuntary typing movements of the fingers, obsessive thinking, fantasies, or dreams about the internet.
Holy heck I'm not going to make my deadline! + Coffee, + 0 Sleep + Stress => Symptoms of addiction to the internet?
Internet engagement to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms
Covered above.
Internet often accessed more often or for longer periods of time than was intended.
I've misjudged the amount of time it would take me to do even non-tech related stuff... Especially non-tech related stuff... For some of those out there who may rely on the internet as a tool for work, and not as the foundation of their work, they might end up doing the same thing.
* A significant amount of time is spent in activities related to internet use (for example, internet surfing).
* Important social, occupational, or recreational activities eliminated or reduced due to internet use.
One word: work
Now, I'm not going to be going to my shrink complaining about my addiction to the internet, and I'll look down on those who do. If you're wasting your time chatting online, instant messaging, etc., then you've got only your own lack of motivation to blame, not some clinical problem. Give it a break. Your life is the way it is because you made it the way it is, not because something beyond your control led you to where you are now...
** end rant
What the hell's a "gewie?"
I'm in the process of moving to a new house out in the boondocks. The amazing thing is that broadband is available there, in the form of DSL. The annoying thing is that the bandwidth is badly restricted, 512Kbps downstream max. I'll become so annoyed with performance there that I come back to my place in the city and do my multimedia surfing there.
I think part of the addictive effect the article describes is simply because of the volume and quantity of information available, as well as the interactivity permitted (400 channels and nothing good on!) and this drives me back to my cable broadband connection.
I'm probably going to wind up switching to WildBlue; they have higher bandwidth options, and latency doesn't bother me since I don't game.
I'm all for this becoming a medically classified disease, especially if the treatment is WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED
Obviously, there's research grant money floating around and somebody had an idea. And an empty refrigerator.
Syncerus
"Man is nothing without the works of man" -- Helvetius
How many people spend all their spare time glued to TV? Internet and even MMORG addicts lead comparatively more productive lives by staying in touch with friends, creating new content and reading/watching stuff way more meaningful than TV programming. Unless one actually gets out of all manmade stuff and takes a walk in the woods, is living in virtual reality really any worse than how most people spend time?
What are the word 'could' and the question mark doing in that headline? Without them, and if this were posted on Talk Like a Pirate Day, it would have been perfectly correct.
I can stop if I want to.
:-)
I just dont want to, and you arent going to convince me to stop.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
and the reason is, internet provides me with the limitless possibility of socialization without the burden of spending too much time seeking out who to socialize with, and also prevents the danger of getting into dangerous places while socializing. AND without barring, hampering my daily life.
If this is an addiction, we need more addiction in this world.
Read radical news here
Does anyone know where I can download a 12meg program to help me cure it?
Inane Comments are Generously Disregarded
All this time I thought seeing "iad" in server host names meant it was physically located in Washington DC / Northern VA...
Drugs - addictive. People will rob other people for money to buy drugs. People will prostitute themselves for money to buy drugs. People will even kill at times for money to buy drugs.
The Internet - Guys (since most of you are), how long would you have to go without email before you'd have sex with another guy for $5 so you could use an Internet Cafe? (That's if you wouldn't do it for free, anyway.)
Okay, so the Internet is NOT addictive the same way as drugs are.
Cigarettes. Those are addictive. Now, apply the same behavioural process. What would you do for money to buy cigarettes that you would not do for money to buy a CD?
Would you do the same thing(s) for 30 minutes of Internet access?
Okay, so the Internet is NOT addictive the same way cigarettes are.
And so on and so forth. Until you get to the point where the Internet is no more "addictive" than telephones or television or radio.
Wonderful. Is there any recent drug patent for treating Internet addiction?
I mean, now there are drugs for treating "social anxiety disorder" -- apparantly now being shy or introverted is a disorder in ther DSM-IV, right? And that disorder requires treatment by expensive prescription drugs (the R&D of which was probably paid for by your tax dollars to boot). That and other so-called "disorders" which suddenly become so prevalent in TV advertising make me wonder if there isn't a pharmaceutical company just around the corner who will be claiming to have the magic pill to cure "internet addiction."
Shy? No big deal. Life would suck if everyone were an extroverted loudmouth.
Depressed? Get over it. Stop sitting around inside in a dark room all day. Go hiking! Skiing! Swimming! Skydiving! Work out!
Addicted to the Internet? Put down the cheetos and mountain dew, go outside! Get out there and Live! Smell the air! Sniff a dog! (and yes, I shamelessly ripped off Kevin Smith's Mallrats on that last part)
Sorry, maybe I'm just cynical.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
using the internet to read articles about internet addiction
The entire point of the millenium is about supercharged information flows. These were the people who were previously trapped listening to Mrs. Z's story of her bad purchase at the corner store, and are now much happier on the net. Too bad for Mrs. Z. In the Survival of the Fittest Story, the Pumpkin Faire loses out.
Of COURSE everyone was "social" on the tumbleweed farms of Kansas in 1930. The only entertainment was playing checkers.
This pseudo-article is close to *the* most dangerous pseudo-psych I have ever seen. Who gets to arbitrate "treatment"? Mrs. Z?
-- This post has nothing to do with all the lovely Mrs. Z's out there. --
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Can you really be addicted to something as diverse as the internet? I assume you could get addicted to porn, games, or what not, but the internet as a whole? What this sounds like is someone noticed that some people spend a lot of time on computers, figured that this abnormal behavior must be the result of an addiction and worked backwards from there. As for withdrawl, I'd say almost anyone would experience similar symptoms if you took away their primary method of socialization, research, and entertainment. For some people, this happens to be the internet. For others you'd have to remove TV, telephone, newspapers, and probably transportation.
addict:"Hi, I'm {name}, and I'm a netoholic"
/. meeting
group:"Hiiiiiiiii, {name}"
hmm...sounds like a good idea for an IRL
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
That's my take on this report. Every time the psychology industry feels under-employed, they try to turn a common every-day behavior into an "illness" that needs to be cured. What else can they do? They don't have Madison Avenue drumming up business for them.
Though the 16 hours I spent surfing yesterday where even more boring than the 14 I spent the day before.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Dear Slashdot,
I'm addicted to calling everything and anything that people enjoy doing an addiction. I get wads of cash for treating these so-called addictions, and I have a powerful co-enabler called the pharmaceutical industry telling me it's all okay and I should keep doing it. What should I do?
Signed,
I'll take 'The Rapists' for $500, Alex.
(Please, if there are any psychologists or psychiatrists who read Slashdot, don't have me committed. It's a joke, m'kay?)
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
So, since I work for an e-commerce company... so does that mean I'm a dealer? Or just an enabler? :p
I've found that nurturing one's Zen nature is vital to dealing with technology. Violence is pretty damn useful too.
I could so see Bob Saget in a crowd at an IADA meeting... "INTERNET!?!?!? Man, I used to suck dick for coke! You ever suck dick for Internet?!?!? I didn't think so."
I totally am addicted to it.....
I am getting really sick of all these addiction stories. Is WoW addictive? Are video games addictive? Yes. Any activity that brings someone pleasure (or provides some other incentive) can be potentially addictive. This is just pointing out the obvious.
I'm addicted to Oxygen: Is that bad?
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy.
"America is addicted to oil". maybe porn too.
How the hell can they miss spell "slashdot"? I-n-t-e-r-n-e-t isn't even close!
/..
And yess, I am addicted to
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
except the internet.
If this absurd concept of "addiction" about the internet can be taken as true, then we have to label normal types of office work as "poison", since they do make you money, you dont get addicted to it and you do them unwillingly.
Read radical news here
/sarcasm/"Yeah- and They say almost word for word the same for Crack addiction as they do alchoholism! I knew rock couldn't be so bad!!!"/sarcasm/
;)
You may have a point that its sloppy research. Maybe these guys can't do really good research because they stay away from the internet!!!
But, internet fees can be quite substantial for someone who is already in debt. We may be talking about people who really do live in their mothers' basements, and are spending way beyond what low paying jobs can support. (people who never recovered from the dot-com boom for example.)
I'm sure people who have 'internet addiction' have more serious underlying problems, and its a lousy diagnosis, but I'm also sure there are people who spend way too much for internet access.
...there's no such thing as an addiction to the internet. At least no more than you would call our dependency on oxygen to be an addiction.
/* No Comment */
People are asking "Why not television addiction disorder?
Seastead this.
IAD is a sham. The original test instruments 'developed' by young inclided items lifted right from similar instruments for gambling and substance abuse, with such gems as (paraphrase, I don't have the original measure handy) 'do you often use the internet by yourself?' and more than 10 hours a week as unhealthy. The criteria listed here http://www.psycom.net/iadcriteria.html are similarly laughable: "(e) voluntary or involuntary typing movements of the fingers".
And, perhaps the crux: "(VII) Internet use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical, family, social, occupational, or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by Internet use (e.g., sleep deprivation, marital difficulties, lateness for early morning appointments, neglect of occupational duties, or feelings of abandonment in significant others)"
I'm not saying there aren't people out there with problems, but you don't create a new disorder for every new communication/information tool. Do we have telephone addiction disorder? fax machine addiction disorder? television addiction disorder? Hey, I know, lets make a myspace addiction disorder and a friendster addiction disorder and a slash-- er wait.
sleep dep, maritial difficulties and the like are signs of other disorders, like depression. (or just a general state of distress).
The 'article' linked by the submitter is fluff, there is nothing empirical in it. It is also missing nearly 9 years of critiques of IAD. Why did this submission happen?
semantics are everything!
Did you go on vacation for a few days this summer? Did you have withdrawal symptoms? (Did you even *wish* to get on the net)
If not, it's not "addiction" - one of the latest buzzwords for people addicted to worrying and meddling in other people's lives.
"You must try to forget all you have learned. You must begin to dream." -- Sherwood Anderson
I can stop anytime I want.
Wait.
What's that you say? Open-Source Prosthetics? Sweet I am so there.
Just another pseudoscientific moral panic to classify a new type of "undesirable" in society for everyone else to finger-point and say "OMG SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH YOU".
A life without the Internet would be like solitary confinement ...
TCAP-Abort
A lot of people are addicted to television.
I think we all have addictions, but some are dangerous. That line is crossed when it starts affecting other areas of your life in negative ways, like your work suffers, you ignore other pressing needs to feed the addiction, such as socializing, or paying rent.
That said I think I'm mildly addicted to the web, however, I have gone cold turkey from even email during vacations and didn't get the shakes. The big problem however is that I rely on the net for my job, so giving up the web completely would be a problem.
--------
Webomatica
Anything can be addictive if you have the right ( or would that be wrong? ) personality.
As long as they dont start calling this a crisis or something its plausible
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Oh noes! This is the USA, we wouldn't want anyone *thinking*!!!1111111111111111111
L2English. Srsly.
No, I'm not addicted to the internet, I can quit any time I want. Ya rly.
most definately, but mostly just because i use it to get my fix for my porn addiction
The Internet is not a substance, does not induce physiological dependence, does not have a characteristic withdrawal syndrome, does not produce intoxication, does not induce tolerance requiring increasing dosages, and in general does not meet any of the criteria for what used to be the standard definition of the word "addiction."
To talk about addiction to the Internet, or to sex, or to chocolate, or to breathing, is nonsense. If these things are to be called "addictions" then we are using the same word to describe utterly different things. Internet addiction is not the same thing as heroin or nicotine addiction.
I'm not sure why the word is continually being redefined downward so that more and more trivial things can be labelled "addictions" or whom this redefinition benefits.
It seems that we become tolerant to "addictions" and have an controllable craving to label more and more things as "addictions"
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
This is not just old news, but it's pretty much the same case of addiction since day one.
Anything can be addictive, as long as there is some sort of chemical reaction that your brain has become used to. This can be caused by internal or external factors. Internet addiction is the same as a gambling addiction. The brain basically trains itself that a particular action will release endorphins (the happy chemical) so it will repeat this action over and over again. Drug addictions are slightly different because they can actually affect the way that endorphins are released, but the general concept is the same: you take the drug and your brain releases the happy fun time chemical.
The same concept that makes a human addicted is actually the building block for animal training. At first you give the seal a fish every time it does the action you want. Then you slowly stop giving fish...but not totally. Eventually, you will only give fish once every great while, but the seal will continue to do the action because of the chance of you giving it fish. This is particularly effective if you give a mass quantity of fish every once in a while. I like to call it the "jackpot effect."
In the end, it takes outside assistance to break an addiction. I won't go into details because 1. I am not a doctor and 2. It doesn't really matter. I just find it annoying that doctors feel like they have to announce every possible addiction despite the fact that if a human can interact with it, chances are somebody, somewhere, will become addicted to it.
Rush is a music group from canada, and they ahve produced some excellent music over the year. I highly recommend checking them out. A notable song is 'Tom Sawyer'. I like it, but I don't think it's there best work.
Or were you pulling my chain? That sdosesn't sound like anything Rush L. would say.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop taking amphetamines.
Dear Will, the plums were poisoned. -- Cheese Club
I think it's quite a shady list to tag something as "addiction":
- QUICK! Americans watch over 3 hours of TV a day! And want more "time for themselves" to watch more and more! They even drop good eatinghabits to gain time, they stop spending time and attention to their kids in favour for tv-time!
- If you communicate mainly by means of the internet (my entire family is on my contactlist, other then email of chatting once in a while I don't communicate too often with them; we live too far apart) and feeling uneasy because of the isolation is causes (all your buddies online and noone to read what you ate last night or to comment on your video blog). The obessive thinking is just a result of repressed thoughts because of the massive amounts of input into your brain on the internet. It's not a bad thing to think once in a while.
- Yeah, what's wrong about getting distracted trying to get off some other addiction? Give those guys a break, they deserve some entertainment as well.
- How is it any different they buying more then intended? The internet always has this vast amount of information, you never know what's behind the next link. It's interactive, hence it's harder to stop it once you've found something capturing your interest. Selcontrol is key here: the internet wont be gone tomorrow. Watch the next link in the morning, most likely it'll seem less interesting by then as well.
- Or socializing over the internet, using the internet for work, using it for relaxation instead of staring for +3 hours a day to a tv, what about shopping and paying your bills online? Or just reading some article? Are their bookaddicts as well that have a DSM-IV entry?
- Many people who exagurate their internet use are actually VERY social online and have found an outlet and compensation with lack of social skills and/or even locate a community online to bound with. This actually could boost someones selfesteem and alter their concept of social behaviour into a more positive daylight (as it not being so impossibly hard to be) which could stimulate to engage in real contact (LAN-parties, computing conferences, or some sortof "online club meeting").
- Don't play WoW and don't masturbate to a girl on a cam when your gf is sleeping. Porn wont help you through college, watching porn on the job will get you fired in most cases.
- Isn't an outlet and a refuge from one's problem to forget about problems for a second actually helpfull to regain new energy to solve those problems? I can't see why someone should feel constantly depressed when one has a depression; "oh no, don't go online. It might make you feel NOT depressed. You're suffering depression man, you should endulge... you CANNOT ESCAPE IT!". Look at those emo
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Because normal, adjusted people do not prostitute themselves so they can watch TV.
Yes, they do.
But you're confusing the material being addictive with a person having an obsessive disorder.
And obsessive person will become "addicted" to anything.
The question is whether a non-obsessive person can become "addicted" to that material.
And the answer is "No".
Before there was Internet addiction (IAD), there was Darpanet-Addiction (DAD) and electronic-Gopher-Addiction (eGAD)
That's like saying you can be addicted to water. You need it to survive and it makes up 60% of your body. well, sorta.
Okay, mybe I am addicted. Is there a patch I can down- DANGIT!
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
blah blah -1 Off-Topic blah
it is very bad and can cause damage.
Now mix it with other chemicals and craete air, thats not so bad...unless you're a fish.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Today I am celebrating my first day of sobriety after 11 years of Internet addiction. And I celebrate by reading the news on /.
I learned it from watching you! :(
1995? Ignorant punks. I was in *recovery* before then. I was spared IM/web/mud addiction because netnews 'innoculated' me.
Though it *was* pretty cool to be able to keep up with ALL of it. Now only Kibo is capable of that.
I can quit anytime. I really don't need this at all.
Jacques Cousteau, Steve Irwin (RIP), etc.
Somebody's watching it. Otherwise, they're wasting the cable!!!
Man, you really need that seminar!
Adding it to the DSM, yes - IV is just a volume number (III-R, IV, IV-TR). Most likely they're trying to add it to the DSM-V, which is due out in a few years.
- Jack
The one and ONLY sign of being addicted to the internet is if you spend Friday night reading articles about how to find out if you are addicted to the internet, on the internet.
...to making up addictions to justify my shortcomings.
"'Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue."
I can't tell if I'm addicted to the Internet or to porn.
I wish people would bother to learn what addiction is, and what types there are befor spouting opinions on addiction.
Gah, you people should know better.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I was severely addicted to the Internet, back when I first started University. Prior to that I was addicted to BBS's. I once spent three days awake replying to everything on one of my favourite forums of the time. Thanks to that I got the flu and was bedridden for two weeks.
This is a classic sign of addiction. I have since grown to be a more responsible user of the Internet, but the addiction is still there. I certainly wouldn't call it an addiction akin to drug addiction, but it is a mild addiction that can affect Social behaviour and even be detrimental to your health.
Cheers, Chris
This time let's learn from Slashdot's history and let's avoid arguing about the same things over again when it comes to addictions.
Maybe we are addicted to the Internet, but it doesn't matter because it's not because we are addicted that it's nocive (example : sex). Also, when people think we are too much into something, they say we're addicted. If we went to the hypothetical barefoot-hippie-land we'd be told that we're addicted to our shoes.
Now thank me for avoiding you to argue about this over again and give me my damn Insightful mod points.
You just got troll'd!
It's the RIAA in disguise trying to make a new group against us: IAA (Internet Adicts Anonymous). It's a conspiracy! Take my house, my car, my family, but please don't take away my tubes!
I am NOT addicted to the Internet...
...but I may be addicted to /.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
I remember Slashdot posting a story like this a few months back.
Oh shit.
I think that might mean I'm addicted to the Internet.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
Does constantly refreshing Bloglines count? It's time to regulate the Refresh button. Only one refresh per hour, any more and You are over the legal limit. Just Say No to Refresh. (tm) Tongue FIRMLY planted in cheek.
I think you've got the question backwards. The question is, how do doctors make money off of coming up with new diagnoses?
That's partly an ingredient, but you shouldn't think this is all there is to it. The common professional practices for defining and diagnosing "mental disorders" respond to a number of things. For example, the functioning of various health care-related bureaucracies; something as basic as trying to account on what things health care money was/should be spent (and what not). When the guys at the health insurance company review a claim, it better have a specific diagnosis there, that diagnosis better be on their list of things that they approve disbursing money for, and if they actually dig it, the doctor better produce some evidence that they actually checked that the patient met the official, well-defined conditions under which that diagnosis was made.
In general, health care works like that because it is not a "pure" search for knowledge about the human body (like a "pure" science would be); it's about providing actual care to actual people, which means that there are actual policy and resource allocation problems. In the case of mental health, which is way fuzzier than physical health, this only gets compounded.
So yeah, classifing "Internet addiction" as a "mental disorder" is really a policy question ("should we allocate more resources for providing assistance to these people?") disguising as a scientific one. That's a common strategy for trying to pass such policy decisions, because essentially, you're trying to co-opt the prestige of science.
Are you adequate?
I *freely* admit it. If I don't have my net and radios I get antsy...I mean start to jones _bad_. Some guys, rodders, pilots as in the movie, got that need for speed, I got that need to know....stuff..as near to real time as possible. It doesn't matter, just stuff, got to have that stuff. Is it harmful, can it make you neglect other important issues? Can't say it has, I still get a ton of other things done, but even one day without since I have been on full time??? ...no way, I dreamed of something like the net back when I was a kid, it's my personal flying car that came true, to be able to instantly access all knowledge, contact people all over the planet instantly and cheaply, to be able to give back, publish, etc, it's all good.
so i am adicted to porn, sex, watching porn while having sex, dr pepper, and now the internet DAMN when is it all going to end.. are they going to add watching porn on the internet while having sex... damn all i need next is to be drinking a dr pepper while its all happening and i am screwed
(yes i know i suck at spelling fell free to correct my grammar and/or spellin i dont care, im still not going to change
Nothing against Jennifer Ferris, the author of the Virginia Tech "article," but she was an undergraduate student in an honors seminar. Note the URL. Hardly a credible source. Several years ago I e-mailed her professor to try to get in touch with her, but never got a response.
l ) does a very good job tracing the origin of the term "Internet Addition Disorder," which explains the term originated with a joke post (http://web.urz.uni-heidelberg.de/Netzdienste/anle itung/wwwtips/8/addict.html) by psychologist Ivan Goldberg, who was trying to point out that it's too easy to call anthing an addiction. According to the Nurseweek article: "I don't think Internet addiction disorder exists any more than tennis addictive disorder, bingo addictive disorder, and TV addictive disorder exist. People can overdo anything. To call it a disorder is an error," Goldberg said.
~ ksy/ )
This 1997 Nurseweek/Healthweek article (http://www.nurseweek.com/features/97-8/iadct.htm
One of the earliest proponents of Internet Addiction Disorder is Dr. Kimberly Young, whose website, netaddiction.com, will be happy to sell you books and tapes to cure you of this malady. Until recently, her academic home page at http://www.pitt.edu/~ksy/ used to forward people directly to netaddiction.com. (Now it gives an error message, but you can see for yourself what the Wayback Machine has in its archives. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.pitt.edu/
Now, just becuase Dr. Goldberg made a joke about Internet Addiction Disorder doesn't mean that such a thing doesn't exist, and just because Dr. Young wants to sell books and tapes about the malady she discovered doesn't mean she's doing anything wrong, but if Ms. Ferriss's undergraduate honors paper (published on the chemistry department's website) is the best resource a Slashdot post can come up with to support an alleged psychological problem, then this issue is more than controversial.
It seems to me that some of the people who're writing about this issue probably haven't spent enough time on the internet yet.
Literacy Weblog http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog
If your need of XYZ is so strong that it means you're losing your freedom, then you're addicted to XYZ.
In the early days of Minitel, they found some people in the logs who were actively chatting for 120 hours a week. That's cutting into sleep, hygiene and exercise time.
"The Plug-in Drug"
The internet is not a an addiction. I used to suck dick for television. Now that's an addiction, man. You ever suck some dick for internet?
It's good for dating!
... now that a Dr. has said it, it's official.
So now I'm wondering what miracle pills we'll see on the market to treat internet addiction in the coming years.
I personally would like to see partisanship declared a mental disorder so we can get those poor souls on treatment programs ASAP. Not only do they care about their politics to the point of alienating family and friends, but they also drag all of society down with them.
... to coming up with new "conditions", such as these bullshit addictions...
... to sensationalism, because as mentioned in this comment, there's a fine line between this and real addictions ...
... to superiorism, because they seem to feel that being in their particular field enables them to randomly generate new conditions without a proper process nor criterium ...
... to genericism, because by the criterium given, you could fit it to pretty much anything, but hardly compares to others (again see this comment) ... ... to cash, because as with so-called "video game addiction" the next step is to setup counselling centres and clinics to "treat" people. It's easier to make a buck in the cure (or better, 'treatment') if you made the disease ...
... to themselves, because if this continues then self-belief is going to constitute about 99% of the intelligent communities faith in these quacks ...
The internet is a growing phenomenoa. It is not a specific entity, but rather is composed of many entitities. It is a tool, much more advanced but in theory no more different from a loudspeaker, phone, radio, or other scientific advancements. It encases vast amounts of the human world, as websites dedicate themselves to business, pleasure, vice, and many others. It is a network, in many ways like a plant with roots and seeds that reach into many gardens of human society, merging with existing entities to create new ones.
In many ways it is a representation of human society, in others it is a shaper of it, for the network that is the internet has had an almost unprecedented influence in the way we communicate, learn, and advance. It allows disparate cultures to share knowledge and values that would otherwise be not only unavailable, but not even considered.
But in the end, the internet, the network, is made up of people. People who generate content, ideas, and all the components that make it work. Saying it is an addiction is in itself akin to saying one is addicted to communication, or to knowledge. Yes, using it may become habitual. Oftimes, using it is a necessity, or at the least the most convenient (and some might argue intelligent) method of information transfer.
No, I don't believe one can truely be addicted to the internet, because the internet itself is too broad a topic to define as thus. Perhaps you have some personal compulsion, some addiction, to various facets of the internet. But the internet as a whole is so vast that it is pretty much impossible to be addicted to it in its entirety.
Interesting to thing? Why, of course.
I'ld like to declare humanity addicted to oxygen. Take your average human and deprive him or her from oxygen even for a little while and you'll start seeing syptoms far beyond any other type of withdrawel.
Since in psychology there's no need whatsoever do adhere to strict standards of scientific proof like you need in exact sciences, I feel confident to state that I have proven this disorder to be real beyond a doubt and I therefor demand 5$ a day for therapeutic purposes from every single human being on the planet that can't go without oxygen for a day. yes, I'm already charging myself for it.
Seriously, can't they simply call it addiction and stick to a non-retarded list of symptons. That whole getting into financial troubles due to the cost associated with being online dates back to the dial-in ages. It's bloody time people start questioning that whole psychology scene cause in the end it not much more then pharma-sponsered pseudo science at the moment.
To sit around and get stoned. some users are less honest.
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
Internet Anonymous ?
...., 30yrs old and I am having an active Internet addiction?
Kick-off-centers ?
Hello, I'm
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Show me ANY pleasurable activity that someone somewhere hasn't become addicted to.
What other addictions should be in the DSM-IV, if the requirement for inclusion is "financial or social harm"? Book reading addiction (I would be reading books if the Internet didnt exist)? Bad joke addiction? Bad hygiene addiction? Extreme sport addiction? Marriage addiction (which harms you financially AND socially)? Public service addiction? Scientific research addiction? Religious teaching addiction (though some financial profit)? Geek hobbies addiction? Military enlistment addiction? The standard for something being called an addiction should not be "causes financial or social harm". It should be "causes physical withdrawal symptoms because the addicts body adapts to requiring the activity to function at a normal level". I have taken (legal) drugs that cause withdrawal symptoms, yet aren't medically classed as addictive because your body doesn't adapt to needing them.
========
CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
There's no such thing as an 'internet addiction'. I've searched on the Wikipedia, Google, seriouspathology.gov, addiction.net and kinkymovies.com for ten hours straight - non of them have ever heard of it.
I joined an internet addiction mailing list in 1994. Actually, it might even have been a support group for people addicted to listservs. There were quite a few people on that list. Eventually I unsubscribed because it took too much time away from my other list activities.
I hate these studies. Why? Because it is going to end up that, quote, Internet Addiction, unquote, will be used by people who want to blame their problems on something else out of their control. So they can just sit in some cozy little psychologists office dreaming up whatever they want to say while the lawyers on the case can use it to explain away some crime.
And the cycle repeats. It's just so sickening.
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Whatever happened to people owning up to their own actions? Sure people make mistakes, it's called being human. It's also how humans grow. There maybe are are some peopled that are addicted to the Internet, in all the classical ways an addiction manifests themselves. But this so called addiction is so very different from nearly anything else. Can people be addicted to acquiring information? What about Lisa Nova or Numa Numa on You Tube? There are a few people that have natural tendancies to become over-absorbed by fantasy. I submit those proplems can be explained without this so called Internet Addiction.
You know what? For the people that realy do think they have a problem, this study is just another way of saying, "Come in, we know how addictive the Internet can be. We understand." and it will help a few genuine souls out there.
For the rest of the shit that will eventually happen because people love 'gaming' the system, they should be forced to live outside for a year. No house, no family visits, no supplies, just dump them out in some biome somewhere with a book on how best to survive. If they make it for that year, great. Now come back to society because you now know how to be useful. If they don't, inform the parents to their kid was too stupid to live. If they decide to have another, do better next time.
And that's another thing, it should be manadatory that parents take re-occuring classes on how to raise their kids given a geographical region. Just the basic shit. Like how to take care of them and teach them right from wrong according to the law of the day.
Ok. My bad, rant over.
I still hate these types of studies though.
It's less addiction and more of a case of there being nothing better to do. Boozing and smoking weed seem to be the 2 major things to do around here, both of which I don't. So every weekend I hang out with my buddies and we sit around watching DVDs and playing videogames and whatnot. During the week, most of us 'internet addicts' are too busy holding jobs, doing housework, and anything else that needs to be done that we're too devoid of energy to do much else besides chilling out around the house. And the internet happens to be there in your house...it's the biggest social platform out there, and in conjunction with your computer it's become the main source of entertainment whether it's your music, movies, gaming, social networking, news, or learning. You show me something that can entertain this much with as little cost and effort, and I dunno what I'll show you but I doubt it'll be anywhere near as amazing.
sup
It's not the Internet that's addictive. It's the pr0n.
Friends don't let friends line-dance.
I'm an information addict, not an internet addict. I don't compulsively check my email or IM and I don't chat (well, realtime chat) at all. I've taken an IAD test and got ranked "normal" mostly because, well, I only use the browser in a compulsive fashion, none of the other programs.
Oh and I feel relieved when I'm prevented from connecting to the internet and reading Slashdot. Go figure.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I once spent a large amount of time in the Library, using Gopher just a little, then came mosaic...No turning back.
...you are clearly addicted to moderation.
Most IAD addicts share simmilar symptoms:
1. They confuse the words "think" and "thing", as for example in "it's interesting to thing that some people actually become addicted".
2. They deny that they are addicted, but they deny it on the internet of course.
3. They ask for help on the internet to other IAD addicts, who provide encouraging help like "at least I have a social life on the internet" and "It cured my TV addiction".
4. They read "To confirm you're not a script" and do not think that that phrase is awkward.
:3
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON