Slashdot Mirror
Internet Addicts As Ill As Alcoholics?
suntac writes to mention an article on New Scientist, reporting on a Stanford study of internet addiction. The study finds that the U.S. is 'rife' with internet addicts, who may be as addicted as alcoholics to their sweet sweet net connection. From the article: "Nearly 14% of respondents said they found it difficult to stay away from the internet for several days and 12% admitted that they often remain online longer than expected. More than 8% of those surveyed said they hid internet use from family, friends and employers, and the same percentage confessed to going online to flee from real-world problems. Approximately 6% also said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive internet usage. 'Potential markers of problematic internet use are present in a sizeable portion of the population,' the researchers note." While obviously allowing relationships to suffer so you can surf eBay is a problem, where is the line between relying on the internet for news and information and addiction?
i sure hope i'm first post!
Somewhere a few miles behind me, I'd wager.
The psychiatric community could be rife with "excuse addicts" who are as clinically ill as alcoholics, according to psychiatrists involved in a nationwide study.
The study, carried out by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, US, indicates that more than one in eight US shrinks show signs of "problematic blame shifting".
The Stanford researchers interviewed X shrinks in a nationwide survey. Because excuse addiction is not a clinically defined medical condition, the questions used were based on analysis of other blame-oriented disorders.
Most disturbing, according to the study's lead author Elmo Thorkmorton, is the discovery that some shrinks hide their blame-gaming, or go online to cure foul moods - behaviour that mirrors the way alcoholics behave.
"In a sense, they're using the blame to self-medicate," Thorkmorton says. "And, obviously, something is wrong when people go out of their way to hide their blamesmanship."
only 6% said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive internet usage? I am surprised it is not much, MUCH higher. I know it certainly is in my circle of friends and people I know.
I don't think I've ever hit a light pole after surfing the web for 4 hours straight.
BTW, if you're running a fever or have a very bad head-cold, you're about as impaired as if you had a few good belts in you.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
While obviously allowing relationships to suffer so you can surf eBay is a problem, where is the line between relying on the internet for news and information and addiction?
My grandfather attributes his 60 year long marriage to spending all evening when he got home from work (and in his retirement, all day) hiding behind a newspaper smoking a pipe.
At least these days your wife can IM you to grab your attention when it's time for dinner.... oh, hang on, it's time for dinner. Catch you all later!
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
You don't put an "internet addict"'s life in danger by making him quit cold turkey.
I'm barely able to step away from the tubing for up to 12 or 14 hours a day. Somebody get me a doctor.
Internet Addicts As 3 As Alcoholics?
Methinks I need a new font.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
So what if you're an alcoholic and internet addicted? Does that mean you have like 12% less freinds? I'm not asking for myself personally, but I have this friend...
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
were Hypocondriacs? 14% and Delusional? 12% and Paranoid? 8%
Stupid effing poll drumming up stupid numbers.
And how many were addicted to over eating? 14% and drinking too much some times? 14% and blah blah blah.....
Statistically people are addicts to anything. Smoking, eating, coffee, soda, sugar. Why the hell is this news?
I am pretty sure within 10 years all those jokes about lawyers will be retrofitted to the media.
What do you call 10,000 attention whore media people at the bottom of the ocean?
dimes
NEWSFLASH TO STORY SUBMITTERS AND EDITORS:
There is no such thing as addicted to the internet, or a video game, or anything except for a chemically addictive substance. There are only addicts. These people have an addictive personality and will be addicted to anything to pass the time. There are no addictions, just addicts. Unless it has something to do with a chemically addictive substance, please stop posting these inane flame bait articles.
I have an idea for a Slashdot post: Slashdot Submitters & Editors Addicted to Posting Pseudo Addiction Stories
Man, you must really be jonesing about now, then.
That would mean that I might be addicted to showers, sleep, and my morning commute (when I have to drive). Not to mention that finding it difficult to avoid the internet for more than a few days is kind of silly when so many of us have to use it at work. Not that I don't think it's possible to be addicted to the internet- but some of what they're apparently basing it on seems kind of silly.
This concept was brought up in the WoW addiction discussion, but my belief is that anyone can be addicted to anything they find enjoyable. Same holds true for the internet. Addiction is marked by it's damage-causing nature. Sure, if your girlfriend breaks up with you because of your internet use, you could be considered an adict. If you control your usage of the internet and it does't interfere with the rest of your life then it isn't an issue. Addiction isn't an object, it's a state of being.
Nearly 14% of respondents said they found it difficult to stay away from food for several days and 12% admitted that they often eat more than expected. More than 8% of those surveyed said they hid snacks from family, friends and employers, and the same percentage confessed to eating to forget real-world problems. Approximately 6% also said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive weight gain. 'Potential markers of problematic eating are present in a sizeable portion of the population,' the researchers note.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
looks like your going to have to rehab, because you only achived 2nd.. FAIL
Please type in the word in this image: boners (why is slashdot making me type boners?)
Come on guys, just pick whether you want your toddler to be addicted to booze OR the internet, you don't want him to peak too soon.
Internet Archive: Live Music Archive
Burp.
You got the first post, now don't you wish you posted something more profound? :-)
I think the problem with my internet addiction is due to the fact that I'm drunk when I'm on the internet and can't stop buying things like 'the blessed virgin mary toast' or other object that I must have while drunk. Mmmmm sweet internet and beer.
Wonderful. Now I can't claim I have no addictions anymore. Next, they'll try to force me to learn how to live without it.
On another note, I have to protest to their use of "non-essential computer use". How many things now-a-days are actually, truly essential? I bet they are only mentioning this because, as Elias Aboujaoude said in the article: "The issue is starting to be recognised as a legitimate object of clinical attention, as well as an economic problem, given that a great deal of non-essential internet use takes place at work". (Emphasis mine)
So where are the reports for people who can't do without the Tee Vee?
Oh wait, right here.
Could it be that people are addicted to inactivity itself? I dunno, just a thought. Are there book addicts? If so, is it regarded as a problem?
crazy dynamite monkey
20% read slashdot
Why do people pay attention to these "studies". Usualy the science is very lose and when something sounds stupid it usualy is. Kids shouldnt play Tag, Stupid. Kids are to fat now and we cant figure out why, see stupid assumption #1. Remember: There are liars, damn liars and staticians...
Am I the only one who read the world "ill" in the article's title as "III"? What's with word capitalization? If the title is a sentence, it should use sentence capitalization (i.e., "Internet addicts as ill as alcoholics?"). Word capitalization is great for slogans, but doesn't really make sense in this context.
Being an internet addict is definitely tha illest.
Since this information could lead to slashdotters realising they have a problem, getting help, and not patronising this site as much, he's decrasing shareholder value through loss of pageviews with this article!
Zonk, we care, you can get better!
You can't take the sky from me...
I would argue that Internet abuse will happen, as much as it happens to alcohol/gambling/name-your-addiction.
I wonder why the same behaviors are rarely, if ever, studied for television viewing?
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
I always want to get more time on the internet, I always get suckered away from my family and friends. I have to tell them its me time and we needs the porn. I wish I wasn't joking.
People who read or study to take a little bit of stress out of their lives aren't considered addicted or obsessive. Why should those who do the same thing on the Internet be considered ill? There's a similar perceived divide between people who spend a lot of time socializing and those who do the same over the 'Net or by phone. I don't know what people don't do because they feel they have to or to self medicate. People often do things to change their mental states--After all, who doesn't like to have fun? While I'm sure there are people that use the Internet in a way that negatively effects their social life, I think just as many and more use it to enhance their lives in a positive way. People are just making a big deal out the way technology changes their lives.
I'm sure a large number of people use the internet primarly as a tool to generate income and wealth... If the length of time one spends on the internet is equal to the amount of money that one makes, it makes sense for these money-oriented people to spend as much time as they can on the internet, working. I wouldn't call that an addiction to the internet, I would call it an addiction to money. Is being addicted to making money a psychological disorder? Maybe to the "money isnt everything" crowd, but not me.
Wow did it take me a while realize that the title says
"Internet addicts as ill [as in sick] as alcoholics?"
and not
"Internet addict as iii [as in 3] as alcoholics?"
Someone close to me is an alcoholic, and now that their sober, probably spends as much time on the web as they did drinking.
Substitute the Internet for alcohol? Probably.
Internet as damaging as alcohol? Are the effin nuts?
There's addiction, and then there's addiction. The medical establishment trying to make all addictions equally bad is a ploy to scare up more patients.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
My goal is to spend as much time as possible doing non-essential things. It's called relaxing, and is a fine alternative to working.
Everyone's busy looking for an excuse instead of just sucking it up and accepting the responsiblity of their own failures.
The other 92% have already been caught with pr0n.
What the hell does the headline mean?
Is this some sort of allusion to the DSM III? It's been replaced by the DSM IV for years now . . .
Is it an addiction, or is it where people want to be?
Alcohol has a similar case. Some people are addicted, in that a lack of alcohol, and the body wants more and more of it. Other people simple enjoy the stupor and dullness to the pains of life. While both cases may have a physical addiction, addressing these cases are different. The first is more physical, the second psycological.
Internet addiction can also be broken up similarly. Some addiction are activities that the Internet allow for. Buying things, purient interests, gambling, or rather, actions that can be done in the real world--and indeed are--but the Internet makes it easier. These people are not addicted to the Internet. They are addicted to activities, and the Internet just made it easier, convenient, or maybe just plain possible.
However, there is a second form of Internet addiction. That is gaming (as in WoW), socializing, garnering information, blogging, etc.. The main point here is not always the activities, rather it is created a second world, perhaps even a form of Avoidance Behavior. (This can be broken down further as to whether Internet usage is the cause or the affect.)
Even then, Extraverts who spend their time on the Internet probably have a problem. Introvets, not as much. They like being alone, and grow by being alone. Excessive Internet usage may be one-sidedness, not an addiction.
Overall, usage of the Internet is not an indicator of addiction. Personality and intent are. And even then, i would wonder what the real dangers were.
Have you read my journal today?
The real question is simple and not answered. Is the addiction detrimental to ones life, health, etc.
:)
You can easily get addicted to anything that you enjoy, from Pot to Sex it is all addicting. There is no real story here.
Just don't let your addictions rule your life and you will be fine
"where is the line between relying on the internet for news and information and addiction?" For me, it's waaaay back there
http://kitties.b-log.ca
Stay...Offline...Days at a time? I think I feel a facial tic coming on.
In the 80s, when 900 numbers were at their peak, and you regulary heard and saw reports of people being addicted to paying for phone sex, they never called it "telephone addiction".
I find it really hard to believe that "More than 8% of those surveyed said they hid internet use from family, friends and employers" actually applies to using the internet, but is much more likely that they are hiding what they are using the internet for (porn, video games, downloading music, etc.)
It is this fundamental misunderstanding of the internet as being content rather than the means by which content is conveyed that seems to be the main source of all this mislead reporting and "research".
Worse, it is causing a lot of misdiagnosis of people with real and obvious problems, which is in turn preventing them from getting proper help.
-Tommy
"I got a half gallon of Jack, and 2 dozen Ant Traps. I'm about to get wild." -me
There isn't a fine line - there's a 10 foot high wall, clearly marked with Day-Glo orange stripes and strobe lights.
Here's a different scenario. Over 90% of the adult population is addicted to work. Why? They do it every day. They have to do it every day. If they don't do it every day, it becomes a problem. Questions are asked, finances are in jeopardy, relationships are endangered.
Kinda fucked up, isn't it? Why isn't work an "addiction"? It keeps the bank account in the black and the population as a whole in a constrained environment with significantly limited freedoms (by narrowly defining what you can do and requiring you to invest most of your time and energy in it). But you just watch people come unglued if they unplug from work. Yep.
There's your line.
you miss the point.
You're typical first post addict is so concerned with getting there that all they have time for is the short 'first post' sentance, or even just 'fp' before the need for a cigarette and a kleenex kicks in....
At least the Internet doesn't give you cirrhosis.
Share and Enjoy: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
1. Move the fridge next to the computer.
2. Stock frige with ample liquidy goodness.
3. Play WoW drunk for days.
Three addictions, no waiting! What problem?
Advanced hint: Keep a couple of empty bottles around for the inevitable!
Never play chicken with a passive aggressive.
The problems of addiction is always with the addict rather than with the substance. Addictive personalities can obsess with the wierdest things. It's what happens in their brains which makes them want to repeat behaviours to their own detriment. Yeah, because the web is otherwise immediate and gratifying you will have addicted personalities become addicted to it to a point where it becomes a problem.
If you are merely using it to stay on top of your job or your interests and know when to put it aside, then you probably are not addicted to it and shouldn't have to worry. If you are an addictive personality (and you know who you are) see your doctor or a psych counselor about it; there are drugs that maybe can dampen the obsessive urges.
Using the best knowledge of today to create the problems of tomorrow.
only 6% said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive internet usage?
So if internet-related tasks are part of your job, what's the difference between being an "internet addict" and a workaholic?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I get tired of every bad habit or vice being called an addiction. If you've ever experienced a true addiction involving a chemical with a biological component you understand the difference between an addiction and a bad habit.
You might feel uncomfortable when you try to change a bad habit. You might even fail to change it, deciding instead it's easier to indulge your vice than to change.
An addiction is a totally different animal. When you kick heroin or cocaine or alcohol you become physically sick. Not just emotionally uncomfortable, but physically ill: sweats, vomiting, dizziness, blood pressure fluctuations, etc, etc. When you are addicted you are physically compelled to seek out your chemical. Every waking moment is dedicated to procuring your next fix. You look for it like you look for your next breath. It's hard to convey, but try to imagine giving up breathing.
All your willpower to quit and all your effort to clean up can be at your disposal, you tell yourself, "No, not ever again," even as you reach for the needle. You weep as you consciously choose a chemical over family, job, home, self-respect, everything.
Yeah, if I try to give up coffee I might be uncomfortable for a few days. If I stop playing video games I might miss it for a while. But I won't throw up and have cold sweats for three days. Video games and internet and such can't be addictions, not without some serious pre-existing personality disorder.
Are you...Are you some kind of genius?
No, ma'am, I'm just a regular Slashdot reader.
"Nearly 14% of respondents said they found it difficult to stay away from the internet for several days"
... not clicking refresh every 5 minutes on the CNN homepage (although I'm sure those people exist too). I don't feel like the internet itself is an addiction, but rather a easy medium for addicts to gain access to their vice.
Based on this same logic, we'd almost all be addicted to: driving, eating, refrigerators, using the toilet, showering, sleeping, and drinking. Sounds like we have a national epidemic brewing. If we can't figure out a way to get the 95% of the people who can't use the toilet for more than a few days outside doing something more productive, we may fall behind the rest of the industrialized world in technological and sociological accomplishments.
OK, on a more serious note, I think the article fails to drill down to the heart of the addiction - porn and games. The 6% of respondants who said the internet ruins their relationships are likely staring at photoshop enhanced boobies or playing WOW for 16 hours a day
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
That internet is an evil place!
Ten bucks says these people that are hiding the internet use from friends, family, and co-workers are also porn addicts. It isnt the internet it is the person feeding an addiction aside from the internet, if the net wasnt there they would just find different avenues.
The people who have a hard time being away from the internet for more than a few days arent surfing, they are probably admins or stock brokers that have accounts and systems depending on them.
seriously this article is sickening.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
I remember once, back in the dim and misty, I wrote a post that happened to be the first, but wasn't a "first post". There was a lot of astonishment that the first post contained actual content. I've been away for awhile but I note that the "first post" dreck seems to have been somewhat modulated.
Seriously though, the internet is something it is mostly self destructive, not like alcoholism, and once you are able to step away, you are fine. I have had my periods of time where I spent 16 hours a day on the computer, but then I went outside and all was well. Many of these people are socially inept people who have a social life online - so what, better than the alternative of TV or becoming some weird freak who cruises the street with face paint on.
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
Those statistics are incredible low. I was thinking that perhaps, there might be a problem. Then I read through their stats and have to think - "Wow! Guess it's just not anything close to a big deal. Good!" Yay! Good news for once.
I don't have an addiction. I can stop whenever I want. I just don't want to stop.
Some people's famlies depend on them to make damn sure the internet is working day in and day out and they get in deep shit whenever something goes wrong with it. Indeed, I met my wife by helping her connect her modem to the internet years ago and to this day one of the only thing that drags my out of bed early is when the freakin' connection goes down.
This real world situation hardly fits into the scenario they were trying to paint with this "study".
In a recent survey 100% of respondents said they felt they couldn't enjoy life without breathing at least some oxygen every day. Cheap and widely available, but dangerously chemically reactive, oxygen is a substance known to produce a pleasant feeling of euphoria in the brain and a sense of 'energy' in the body when inhaled. However, users experience severely unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when use is terminated.
Over 80% of survey respondents also reported a psychological and almost physical need to 'do' more of the substance when under stress. Nearly all respondents expressed great anger at and rejected any suggestion that they consider quitting or cutting back on their use, and some threatened to become physically violent if any attempt was made to reduce their access.
They're only as II--certainly not as IV!
I left my wallet in El Sigundo!
I'm not addicted. I can quit at any time!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Seriously, alcoholism is a disease. A physical dependency and a psychological obsession with drinking or "the first drink" or "the thought that he may one day be able to drink like a normal person". People fucking die from it, from that thought, that obsession.
/. have a mailing addess to send replies to?
No one dies (well, maybe that gamer in Hong Kong is an exception) from checking their email or playing too much World of Warcraft.
As a person with a serious problem with drinking, who is in AA (hense Anonymous Coward), the idea that someone using the internet too much is the same as the life threatening condition of being an alcoholic is insulting.
On the other hand, the 12 Steps can be used for any form of addiction. Gamblers use them, Cocaine addicts use them, Sexaholics use them. Why don't a few of these persons who are powerless over the internet try using the Steps (go to Barnes and Nobles, read the Twelve and Twelve) and see if it works? Why not report back to the group. Does
"Do not use intoxicants. Even beware of coffee. It is one of the most powerful nerve and brain stimulants. The coffee habit is as easily formed, and as remorseless, as the alcohol habit. After a while, if excessively used, it produces its sure result; your faculties have been sharpened by this intellectual emery-wheel until the edges begin to crumble. Your mind becomes dull..."
--Albert Jeremiah Beveridge, 1905, "The Young Man and the World"
The rule is very simple. Any pleasurable things I don't do are dangerous addictions.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
If you're not willing to suck cock for money to support your addiction, you aren't addicted.
Anything can be "found" to be "addicting" if you phrase the questions correctly. But instead of "avoiding" other situations or spending time on your "addiction", they need to focus on the actions that an addict will be willing to perform to feed their addiction.
I can't say I have an addiction to the 'Net, but I'll admit a kind of strange addiction to Lumines(PSP). Once I get a game going, if you don't have anything to do with colored blocks falling to a musical rhythm, then I won't pay attention to you. My wife claims to have flashed her boobs at me while I was playing, and I didn't notice. :-)
How many times is this topic going to be discussed on /.?
When you have to read various commentary on an article and crtique of said article on the internet, and then provide your own comment on the article and critiques to a web site so everyone knows what your stance is...
That could possibly constitute an addiction...
Oh...
Well, it's a fair cop.
I'm currently posting from work. I got in trouble for surfing the net earlier this year. I stopped for a while, but I can't seem to stop now. Every day I say that I'm not going to surf. I come to work, finish my work, and then surf. It's not really effecting my productivity other than I could be doing MORE stuff than what is required of me. I am a bit afraid that I'll get in trouble again. But I doubt that my issue is nearly as destructive as alcoholism. My father is an alcoholic and my brother is a gambling addict. I suffer from bipolar disorder. All of these cause more severe problems. The real issue is with addictive personalities, addictive behavior in general. That's what gets people in trouble. It doesn't matter what you are addicted to, too much of anything is bad for you, even sex. My main problem is that my job is boring, and too easy for me. Not much critical thinking involved. Idle hands are the devil's playthings and all that. Anyway, if I get fired, it won't be because of internet addiction, but because of slacking off. Bleh, I'll stop rambling.
There are many tongues to talk, and but few heads to think. -Victor Hugo
Lets see other things most people find it hard to avoid for days.
Checking Mail
Paying Bills
Doing their jobs
Keeping up with their Childrens school work
Watching the News and/or Weather reports
Shopping
Just add the word online to the above and suddeny they become an addication.
There's already an Internet III? I haven't even figured out the Web 2.0 yet!
considering alcoholism is not an illness to being with...
kinda hard to compare apples to oranges when the oranges think they are bananas
The problem here is the fact that the internet is used for a multitude of things. One can say people are using the internet too much, but for a lot of people it's taken the place of reading books/reading the news/watching tv/talking on the phone/playing video games/listening to music/etc. That doesn't mean it's healthy to be sitting in front of a computer for X hours at a time, but no less healthy than sitting at home for those same X hours reading a book/watching tv/...you get the idea.
Tluin natha Linux xxizzuss uriu olt bwael mon'tun.
Great, so now I'm addicted to the internet??? Christ, I need some gin....
"But this one goes to 11!"
Sure it is AS much a disease AS alcholism. But I think the latter is B.S. It isn't a pathogen. I don't know why they don't classify all disabling addictions as one psychological disorder with multiple mainifestations. You can be addicted to anythign and let it destroy your life.
According to Slashdot, the US is a internet backwater where hardly anyone has an internet connection...at the same time we are "rife" with internet addicts.
But I can't wait to play Internet Addicts III.
Where can I find copies of the first two games?
What if you're an Internet addicted alcoholic?
Have you ever sucked cock for web access!?
Take 10 net addicts and put them in a locked room for 10 days without the net. In 10 days you will have 10 people
Take 10 real alcoholics and put them in a locked room for 10 days without alcolhol. In 10 days you will have 9 people or less.
Where's the 0xBEEF
Humanity can't be anymore addicted to the Internet than it is to knowledge or oxygen.
me: J and I'm an internetholic. .6 seconds (slashdot posting does not count as "surfing") and I'm hoping to achieve 30 minutes and get my first button!
crowd: Hi J
me: I haven't surfed the web in
crowd cheers in support
"As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue." ~A. Einstein
Isn't it interesting how this is modded `Redundant' rather than `Off topic', like there is some sort of acceptance for the first `first post' comment.
Addiction is not a disease. Yet another important life lesson learned by watching South Park and Bullshit!
aii'te, man. listen up. there is no such thing as addiction. PLEASE. someone has WAY too much time on his hands to start thinking up garbage like this. someone should have picked another major or done something constructive. stupid article. stupid idea.
GOOD DAY, SIR!!!
1) TV (not bad, but not that much choice, passive) 2) Drinking (bad for you short term ( beer googles), long term (married the object in the beer goggles)) 3) Cow Tipping (bad for beef prices) 4) Video Arcade (games aren't as good) There will always be a new popular thing that some people can't control themselves doing. Those people are probably also fat.
Oh come on. People who dissolve their liver in alcohol are sick. People with lung cancer are too. Someone who just sawed of his hand definitely has a serious health problem. But internet addiction? Quit making up new "diseases". There are enough real ones to cure.
I am addicted to breathing air, but I am not ill. I am addicted to social interaction, but I'm not ill. Why is there a need to compare a use of a poisonous substance(alcohol) to natural, instinctual human attributes? The internet is just a venue, and if I get my social interactions(information exchange) in a coffee shop, house, car or whatever(internet or mall), does that mean that I need to go to "H.A." meetings??? Humans Anonymous, anyone?
Just make sure you don't put the bottles back in the fridge after you refill them.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I'd comment, but I'm kind of blurry eyed from 12 hours of straight non-stop news feeds and blog reading.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
if you stop doing something compulsively, do you cease to live?
before there was money, there was hunting and gathering. people did that for 16 hours a day. was it an addiction? well yeah: it was food. but if you stop eating food, you die
so is food an addiction?
well you can stop playing WOW and live. even if you stop with heroin your life will become a living hell of withdrawl, but you'll still be alive
but if you stop acquireing food, you die
likewise in a capitalist society, if you stop working you cease to have a home, you cease to get food. well, that's not really true: in any society with social welfare, if you stop working you get some sort of aid or charity... but the point is, if EVERYONE stopped working, there would be no aid or charity to go around, so the ability to keep on living without working can only apply, unfairly if not for a good reason, to a small subset of the population at any given time
so it's the same thing: work and food, but with the buffer of money involved
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Take out all related links from wikipedia. You start reading about sorting algorithms and 3 related links later and you're at Kevin Bacon.
Who gives a f_ck about world problems? They don't give a f_ck about us! The only time they care about us is when we (the US) have to bail "them" out of whatever jam they're in. The UN is almost entirely funded by the US. We have bailed out countless countries from starvation, disease, criminal dictatorships, wars, etc.
I'm tired of the US being asked for help, bitched at, blamed, pointed at, etc. And the Internet is the last straw. We should close the borders, electronically and physically, and see how the rest of the world likes it. I think it'd be great! Let the UN rot. Let them whine and kick and scream. Let the British tabloids whine and kick and scream. Let CNN and teh NY Times whine and kick and scream. Let the Chinese sell their junk to someone else. Let the mid-easterners sell their oil to someone else. Let the terrorists blow up someone else's tourists and military.
Speaking of military... why are we still in Kosovo? And England, Germany, Okinawa, Turkey, Spain, and dozens of other places? Why not pull back our military, and save some money? Let these people who benefit from our protection and take us for granted feel what it's like to take some abuse from some of these terrorists. Then watch them crawl back to us and ask for help. We've been the most generous nation on earth for 100 years or more, yet we're rarely thanked for the help. Why is that?
Your car is an addiction that you find it "difficult to stay away from...for several days." You know it's no good for the survival of the species but you just can't stop.
Do you listen to music EVERY DAY? You're a full-fledged junkie.
Do you watch sci-fi movies more than 5 times because you really like them? You have an unhealthy obsession and you need help, you Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, fantasy-obsessed nerd. You need therapy.
Do you eat "comfort food" even though you know it's not healthy? If you do so twice a week, that's fine. But three or more times and you've got a problem.
I'm just getting really tired of calling everything a disease. Bipolar disorder, ADD, General Depression, all the symptoms sound totally normal...Or does that mean I have all 3? What a crock.
12% admitted that they often remain online longer than expected.
When you consider the effect of buggy browsers, combined with confusing, poorly-designed web sites, this is just the normal situation for all of us. It's not a symptom of any problem in the user at all.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
It's just how you like to spend your free time? Some people have a lot of free time (particularly single people without children). There's probably very few who spend it staring at a wall, so you find some way to fill it. Maybe you watch TVs or movies, maybe you quilt, maybe you play games, maybe you surf the net. Whatever. I think you'd find a large number of cases where it's simply something people like to do with time they have to themselves. Are the people who watch around 4 hours of TV per night (which is the AVERAGE according to Neilsen) addicts? Or maybe do they just have that much time to kill?
Nearly 89% of respondents said they found it difficult to stay away from electricity for several days and 75% admitted that they often use more electricity than expected. More than 98% of those surveyed said they hid electricity use from family, friends and employers, and the same percentage confessed to using electricity to flee from real-world problems. Approximately 86% also said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of electricity. 'Potential markers of problematic electricity use are present in a sizeable portion of the population,' the researchers note.
Good Lord, people. The internet is a means of accomplishing other things, it's not an activity in and of itself. Most of the population uses the internet every day at work, using email, company intranets, or talking on company-wide VOIP systems. Are they addicted to that?
FTA:
People do exactly the same thing with TV, or hanging out with friends, or talking on the phone. That doesn't mean they're addicted. How many people lie about how many hours of TV they watch? Probably everybody.
Addictions are chemical. Anything psychological is merely a bad habit, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
Nearly 86% of respondents said they were able to stay away from the internet for several days and 88% admitted that they rarely stay online longer than expected. More than 92% of those surveyed said they do not hide internet use from family, friends and employers, and the same percentage said they do not go online to flee from real-world problems. Approximately 94% also said their personal relationships do not suffer as a result of excessive internet usage. 'Potential markers of beneficial internet use are present in a sizeable portion of the population,' the researchers note."
Time to start IA meetings.
I mean - internet addiction can have pretty bad consequences.
I'm sure I heard last night on the news about how a internetting driver killed a pedestrian. And the one who beat his wife whilst internetting. And the women who slept with an fat ugly pig of a man because she was internetting.
Actually - the last one may be true.
... it just means the beer goggles are that much more effective when looking at pretty women.
Name: Mr. Anon E Mouse; SSN: 555-55-5555
There are reasons why my life is so net-centric, though:-
I realise that in light of that, simply advocating moving online in a wholesale sense might sound like the proverbial ostrich maneuvre...but if I knew of something I actually *could* do to change the political situation, I'd possibly do it...there just doesn't seem to be anything that can be done. I actually feel as though the only thing I really can do about the offline situation is to keep my head down as much as possible...and the net means I can at least construct some semblance of a life for myself while I'm doing that.
Heck, I'll even use IPv4 instead of IPv6 if you insist!
...
Just don't make me do dial-up
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I blame my mother!
only 6% said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive internet usage? I am surprised it is not much, MUCH higher. I know it certainly is in my circle of friends and people I know.
... he must be in the bathroom.
I tried to ask all my friends, but when I emailed them and posted it on my web journal, they all said I'm not addicted to it.
What gets me is that out of 20 friends, only one of them didn't reply within 30 seconds to my email
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I see this in people all the time.
Can't go a full day without checking their email.
Prime example of this was a Boy Scout troop we took
on a pack trip into the Rio Grande Valley last fall.
There was one scout leader who we thought was actually
having a nervous breakdown, as it turned out the battery
in his blackberry died and he had no way to charge it or check
his email. It was the DT's just as a druggie goes through.
Needless to say we no longer allow any cell phones or
electronics, other than two way radios and one cell for emergencies,
on any of the trips.
Another less idintified problem is the "I need to work" syndrom of the internet
When we get home we go to work.
Just like now, I am at home, Im off work, but am waiting for a client
to reboot a server so I can check it out again.
so yes the internet is addictive
-- I am the NRA, enough said...
Ok, what if I want to avoid contact with my peers, and do something that I'll end up spending more time on than I planned? Is there something I can do which they won't call me "ill" for doing, or am I just already ill, and I should just pick an addiction and run with it? ;-)
I can quit the internet anytime I want to! I just don't want to!
For some people, internet addiction is an improvement.
brainless couch potatos sitting staring at a flickering tv screen all night long every night is ok tho, I don't remember ever seeing a study of TV addiction.
Hi. i'm HaDAk and...i'm an addict.
I am sure most of us here would find it hard to go for a couple of days without at least checking our email. At least so we don't have to sift through 300 emails when we get back. I have been on vacation and never really had a care check either my email or surf the net. Of course that was many years ago and checking my email is now as simple as using my cellphone. If I were on my vacation I would at least check my mobile account for important messages. I am 45 and I am lucky that my whole family including mother and father, step mother and step father and my sister and cousins are all savvy computer users. Needless to say my friends are too.
As far as people using the internet as a means of escape that does not surprise other than the low numbers. If the internet was not around then they would turn to something else to escape to like TV or books.
there is. See these people more educated then you in this subject study in, show analysis, and publish it in peer reviewed papers.
"Unless it has something to do with a chemically addictive substance"
Like what the brain produces?
How do you accunt for someone who is not addicted to anything else, suddnly spending time surfing the interent even when it is detrmental to them.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Maybe it was a stuck I key. "Internet Addicts As I As Alcoholics". OK, that didn't make any sense. [grin]
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
The first step is denial. ;)
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
It seems a little broad to speak of "internet use" as a general category. Are we talking about news addicts? Compulsive computer shoppers? Porn addicts? I think the last one is probably one of the more likely addictions for internet-use. I could also see users of sites like Wikipedia or DailyKos who have a need to continuously post.
Really, I think the internet is the least important term in "internet addiction." It's just the medium for a given addiction. For me, it's *sigh* email. Maybe I'm just lonely.
I'd rather be an alcoholic... At least it's more fun sometimes.
Between Slashdot and Stumbleupon I don't have the time for my girlfriend.
It takes so long to blow her up y'know.
Hee Hee The drinking bird does all the work!
and ZILLIONS of people dammit. since when being together with people in numerous legal activities have become "an addiction" ? if so, im a people addict.
pity the pathetic brain of scientist who dares to compare alcohol addiction with internet connectivity.
morons.
Read radical news here
Wait a year or two and watch people and sham doctors continue to bastardize medicine by classifying this as a "disability", and then leech money from the government and insurance companies as 'compensation' and 'therapy'.
It is time to stop every single medical abnormality as a disability and force lazy people and hypochondriacs to suck it up and deal with it. Another joke of a "disability" is RLS, or Restless Legs Syndrome, and how RLS is classified as having 3 or more episodes of tingly legs when sitting or lying down and the urge "...to get up and move around..." PER MONTH. As a matter of fact, I am experiencing tingling in my legs and the urge to move around, but that it because of either the position that I am sitting is is cutting off/restricting circulation to my legs, or because of the fact I have the urge to get up and stick my foot up the ass of the hypochondriacs who belive and perpetuate this crap.
WHY IS EVERY SINGLE ABNORMALITY CLASSIFIED *AND RECOGNIZED* AS A MEDICAL DISORDER AND DISABILITY?!?!?!
I don't care how many 'doctors' stand by those claims. No matter what degrees or how many degrees you have, that doesn't necessarily make you correct. When you come up with bullshit like this, that's when you start to lose credibility, no matter where you went to school.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
I wonder who the genius was who decided it was a good idea to have an upper case 'i' look the same as a lower case 'L' in sans-serif fonts? I read the word 'ill' in the title to be the roman numeral 3 at first.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
I suck at making friends, or keeping them for that matter. I'm strange, that's all it is. I like certain things, and the only outlet in life where there are other people who like those things is on the net. So it's not that I'm addicted, this is where I live! I have a girlfriend, the internet and a car. That's also their order of importance. My girlfriend is not techy at all, she just says ... "He has to have his nerd time." Thank you for understanding baby :). I sacrafice my biological needs to be online, i mean if you sit in one position for too long... things start to moosh. You all know what I'm talking about lol :P
I can't believe parent was modded up. Oh wait, this is slashdot.
There is no such thing as [being] addicted to the internet, or a video game, or anything except for a chemically addictive substance
According to the Wikipedia, "Addiction is characterized by the repeated use of substances or behaviors despite clear evidence of morbidity secondary to such use."
If someone is repeatedly spending time online despite the clear harm they recognize it does, then they are, by Wikipedia's definition, addicted to being online. Such people exist. Therefore there are people addicted to the the internet.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary:"Compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal."
So, according to M-W, if someone is repeatedly spending time online despite the clear harm they recognize it does, it is not an addiction, because it does not involve ingesting/using a physical substance.
Unfortunately, since you never pick a clear definition, your argument takes the form of mushy emotional crap rather than anything of substance.
There are no addictions, just addicts.
Can't really argue with you SINCE YOU DON'T HAVE A DEFINITION OF ADDICTION. But assuming you agree either with M-W or Wikipedia's definition, you are wrong. There are people with physiological addictions to heroin, satisfying both the Wikipedia and M-W definition.
These people have an addictive personality and will be addicted to anything to pass the time
So according to you, people who are addicted (but not really since it's not chemical!) are just "passing time".
If I personally am doing something to pass the time, then it is something I am doing because there is no way to do the things I really want to do (e.g. stuck at a bus station) and is completely optional (e.g. I can choose between twiddling my thumbs, pacing back and forth, playing with a yo-yo). I don't see how either a heroin addict or person who continues to play 30 hours/week online to the detriment of work, school, physical health, or social life is doing either of these activities just to pass the time. I certainly don't see how "passing the time" fits in either with M-W or Wikipedia's definitions of addiction either.
Unless it has something to do with a chemically addictive substance, please stop posting these inane flame bait articles.
But please do keep writing these half-brained posts! Apparently people are eating them like chips around here!
Like, electricity, indoor plumbing, comfortable (not "survival fire") heat/AC, frequent bathing and teeth brushing hmm what else...lots of things really!
The internet is part of many people's modern lives, its not going to get any smaller unless WW3 hits or something.
PS, TV watching is actually way down among those with internet, go figure. (and lots of it is tivo-style/streamed instead)
ahhh, now I can relax.
Bah! I'm so tired of all these articles about how technology is addictive and can ruin lives. It's all nonsense.
The internet is like alcohol! WoW is like crack! Pornography is like heroin!
No, the problem here is that people can't control themselves, and they like to blame entertaining activities for their own stupid downfalls. If you're lazy, you're going to spend a lot of time watching TV, or surfing the internet. Not because those things are addictive, but because you're lazy, and you don't want to put in the effort to get up and do something that requires a more active participation. With or without these passive activities, you're just going to be lying on the couch anyway. Laziness is a problem, these activities are not.
If you can't restrain yourself to using the internet sensibly, then you need some discipline. You can't just blame the internet for being to addictive and brainwashing you into neglecting your friends and family. You can't walk away from it because you're a lazy slob.
It's been said before, and I'll say it again...
Addiction is only as serious as the amount of distress it causes to the individual. This can be strain in relationships, work, or other daily activities. If the amount of time spent on the Internet is problematic to the person, it's just as much of an addiction as anything else.
how many of them were World of Warcraft players?
but she did say this (which I find profound):
Why are you addicted? Because you have dreamt of nothing better.
Why have you dreamt of nothing better? Because no one has taught you to dream better.
Is all about consequences
if you believe everything every doctor and every media is trying to t(s)ell you, you are sick from the day you are born and you die of a disease called life.
i don't care.
My research studies says too many people are stupid enough to take research studies as an accurate report. Don't you realize that if it was actually possible to take a survey on everybody in the US THAT WAS WILLING TO that the numbers and percentages could be drastically different? Maybe too many people are on the internet, but don't give me research studies reports. Who cares anyways? Are you telling me that we need to pass a law to keep people from using their computers in their own houses? You have got to be kidding me.
I don't normally make first post comments. I just did this time as a joke, as it was relevant to the article.
Special to SlashDot:
This is the second time aspersions have been cast upon the intelligent population of internet users. Could this be a reaction to the declining usage of $100 per hour counseling sessions?
Both of these studies clearly have an agenda. The facts appear to be plausibly documented. It is the conclusion which is in doubt. The subjects of the study were described as having met with situations of cognitive dissonance. Instead of performing a deestructive act, they quietly went online, where it is even rumored they have been shopping. Even George W. Bush praised Americans for their shopping contributions to the economy, which stands as a counter statement against the attempt to create economic slowdowns through the promotion of fear.
Nearly all psychologists would agree that in the face of disturbing situations, any calm ctivity which allows the practice of distress tolerance is a candidate for an acceptible course of action. I see no biomedical information in the article, but I presume the internet activity reduced stress as indicated by common measures.
The flaw of this, and the previous article, is that it *automatically assumes* that "too much internet usage" is a negative event. This appears to be an incorrectly derived conclusion. Perhaps excepting pornography, internet usage in general statistically correlates with additional knowledge acquired. (The parallel humorous comment is dispensed with by remarking the other activity refines technique.)
The information age is here to stay. I do not wish to see any more articles copying symptoms from biochemical dependency diseases onto information acquisition usage. Copying symptoms is considered dubious for any other disease; therefore we must not allow this logical fallacy to remain unchallenged here.
--TaoPhoenix
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
for the last 8 years and I'm still not addicted!
So say we all
Misspending one's time overmuch on something someone likes to do isn't an addiction. At least not by itself. There are "addiction markers" that help recognize if one has crossed the line. One of those is like all addictions, when there is a loss of physical ability, muscle tone, and a 25YO looks like his Dad or Mom. Later on, as this addiction worsens the addict gets "upset" by anything interfering with his routine. Not all of that upset comes from "being an addict". A lot of it is from the lowered physical health, so as the addict begins deep inside to realize and "sense" how unhealthy he is becoming, anger begins to set in along with agitation. This post is long but I can show you ways to achieve the highest state of health you can imagine, be a Johnny Weismuller, Lou Ferrigno, Jack LaLanne without giving up computer time..
Usually whenever someone is addicted to one thing there is always other companion addictions also. One of these is drinking lots of colas and coffee, even tea, and smoking cigarettes. Take an honest look at the contents of those products and you will notice many chemicals the human body can not handle or process. Fructose corn syrups is one. So while someone may be addicted to computer use at first it begins to morph into a multiple addiction syndrome. Caffeine is in so many drinks, aspirin, and many drugs like cough medicine that it is very easy to consume 1000% what any body should have in one day. Caffeine dissolves the "myelin sheath" that surrounds all nerve conduits and protects the nerves from rubbing against the inner flesh. It only takes a few days for that to start and many of us have done this for years. That is where the severe agitiation comes from, evidence of a missing myelin sheath. A diet rich in B-Vitamins helps counter this from happening as badly, which would be eating spinach, broccoli, kale, and other kinds of greens but Celery is especially good.
Cigarettes and tobacco products and pot too, they all introduce chemicals into the bloodstream that bogs up the blood, gets in the way of proper body functioning. Your blood is your life, the bloodstream your Alaska pipeline. Filling that pipeline with garbage reduces the amount of blood, nutrition, oxygen that is reaching the body, and you can easily become malnourished and very cranky. One answer is nutrition, another is going to a doctor. Nutrition will help cancel out what all the bad crap is doing to you by making what blood does get through carrying super nutritious fluid nutrients. Going to a doctor will get you bottles of Prozac, Wellbutrin or Zoloft prescriptions. And they might would help you IF YOU WERE HEALTHY, but since your body is malnourished something else happens. Being "malnourished" means more than food. It means your body is low on oxygen and along with the caffeine & tobacco crap in your blood you become extremely acidic... which means you become a prime candidate for cancers.
So getting more oxygenation into the blood is needed. Unfortunately the psychoactive/psychotropic meds are manufactured in a laboratory and are not organic. They're inorganic foreign substances, and your doctor gave them to you. After a few days or a week, the immune system sees them as being an "invader" and begins attacking the Prozac whatever chemicals. It is at that point you call the doctor and he increases the dosage, which is OPPOSITE WHAT SHOULD BE DONE. This battle between the meds & the immune system, like any battle, consumes the combatant's energy, resources. Calling in more meds for reinforcement gives the meds an advantage and the patient gets weaker, & weaker, & weaker over the next few weeks and months. Some teenagers at this point will commit suicide because deep inside the animal brain they know they are dying. They become a shadow of what they used to be, and they know it. This is an insidious process of lowered oxygenation of the brain that happens very gradually but it leads to a severe lack of stamina.
There are a n
Industrial Age 2 + How-to Stop Malignant Cancers.
Hi my name is Joe, I have an addiction to the Internet.
Not just MMORPGS but also email, message boards, IM, PHP coding, and even emerge --syncing =)
Tell me about it. I always wondered why they called that guy Kim Jong 2. It took me a while to realise he wasn't a sequel.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
I don't think it is an addiction. I spend about 3-4 hours a day on the internet. I do not read newspapers, watch tv, listen to the radio, or use the telephone. The computer is a one stop source for information and if you added up the average usage of other technologies by an average person that does not have the internet it would add up to 3-4 hours a day. You could easily say someone is "addicted" to television just as easily as addicted to the internet.
I can stop whenever I wa
I learned it from YOU, dad!
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
I don't normally make first post comments. I just did this time as a joke, as it was relevant to the article.
If it wasn't for the internet I wouldn't HAVE a social life/friends.
Does the internet:
infuse into every cell in your body and break down into a potent carcinogenic toxin (acetaldehyde)?
cause you to run your car off the road and into a crowd of people?
wash all the niacin out of your hippocampus and cause dementia?
when taken away, run the risk of convulsions, epilepsy and stroke, all three potentially fatal?
There's a difference between obsessive/compulsive behavior (disorder or not) and addiction. An addiction is synaptic reregulation to chonic exposure to a substance that mimics or replaces a neurotransmitter. It causes obsessive and compulsive behavior, and so does a lot of other things.
"Did you know they just showed smoking can offset Parkinson's disease?" -- Thank You For Smoking
"Chronic exposure to the hypothesised MAO inhibiting substance (TMN) can prevent MTPT to MPP+ conversion, and thus prevent MPP+ mediated apoptosis in the substantia nigra." -- My dissertation
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B