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.
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
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?
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
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.
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
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...
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.
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
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 is a difference between being an alcoholic and being drunk.
*hic cup*
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.
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
This sounds exactly like that you used to hear "them" saying about T.V. to me. My guess is that anyone who has the perpensity for escapism is going to find themselves a solution no matter what the activity...
Maybe the researchers are addicted to researching addictions. Someone should research the researchers' addictions to researching addictions.....
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.
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.
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.
That was a fantastic misunderstanding, Captain Autistic.
What if you're an Internet addicted alcoholic?
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.
Bullshit.
...Or maybe you should tell Darwin that there is no such thing as evolution, some finches were just addicted to certain environmental niches ;)
You are extending the definition of "addiction" far beyond it's intended meaning. "We, as a society" are not addicted to Foreign Oil or the Internet.
We have an Infrastructure built around the Internet and Foreign Oil which has been built up through significant investment over a long period of time
That's like saying that we have an "addiction" to the grocery store. People aren't addicted to grocery stores, we've simply been trained and adapted to living in a world where you get food from the grocery store. People would have a hard time if there were no more grocery stores and suddently they had to go hunting and gathering too. that isn't addiction.
I've seen real addicts, and there is a big difference between being an addict and adapting to an infrastructure.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
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.
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! --