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?

Comments

Criteria?

[Ashyukun]

and 12% admitted that they often remain online longer than expected

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.

Vice != Addiction

[faqmaster]

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.

Re:Television Addicts

[radtea]

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?

Addiction has two aspects. One is biochemical changes in the brain which make certain types of choice difficult or impossible for the affected person to make. The other is the social or personal consequences of the person's choice being physiologically limited in that way. Generally, if someone has their choice limited in a way that is not personally or socially relevant (coffee, anyone?) it isn't treated as an addiction, even though the biochemical changes associated with addiction may be present [Note to pendants: yeah, coffee is probably not addictive in the biochemical sense. But I'm sure if you're smart enough to know that you're smart enough to get my point.]

It's best to think of addiction as a perfectly ordinary physiological limitation, just like being crippled. A person may have a crippled finger (minor and not significantly affecting most day-to-day tasks, like a book addiction) but it is so mild that we would be unlikely to think of them as "crippled". Whereas if they had crippled legs we probably would. Of course, like any other physiological limitation addiction may be overcome by clever work-arounds, excercises of one kind or another, and various therapies. Some people may be able to do all of this recovery work on their own, just like any other physiological limitation.

People who believe that "choice" is some magical power unrelated to the physiology of the brain may want to claim that addiction is a causeless moral failing rather than a disease, and is best dealt with by punishing addicts until they impose their mystical "will-power" on the chemisty of their brain. I bet beating cripples would get some of them to walk, too (see the details of "treatment" of the shell-shocked in WWI for particularly horrific examples of this kind of thinking.)