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US Students Suffering From Internet Addiction
PsiCTO writes "American college students are hooked on cellphones, social media and the Internet and showing symptoms similar to drug and alcohol addictions, according to a new study.
This probably falls under the no-big-surprise category. CBC Radio 1 played a couple of interviews with students that took part in the study. I especially liked the quote in which the student felt like he had a phantom limb experience with his cell phone."
Must be why Katie Couric left.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
At 16, she is horribly addicted to all of these things. We had my dad's 70th b-day party over the weekend and she sulked in the corner the entire time with her face buried in her phone. When her dad tried to take it away so she could, you know, be involved with the family on this momentous occasion, she threw a temper tantrum I've not seen in anyone other than a 5 year old in the candy aisle at the grocery store.
She's like that any time I see her - buried in the phone.
I would hope they're enjoying every minute of their addiction.
...mass suicides of students will likely result from the lack of being tethered to their Shitter and Fakebook accounts.
I really feel for the humans who literally live online and nowhere else. It is sad. Very sad.
I told myself to go without internet for 1 hour... to prove that I am not addicted. And I am here on Slashdot to tell you all that I'm almost there! 55 min already... ... oh, damn.
I know, it really is easy to "forget" your kids are over-doing something when they're NOT driving you nuts. :) But I digress, as parents, we need to set limits on our kids. Our 12 year old is, like most, always wanting to either be on the 'net on his laptop, on his cell phone texting whoever, watching TV, or playing the Xbox. Guess what - we limit his time with each, and send his butt OUTSIDE! The worst thing we can do as parents is to let them grow up without exploring the world around them, and that includes nature.
Look at the date of this article, Apr 23 2010.... Olds for nerds indeed.
Bit like not wearing a watch - you feel somewhat naked?
meh.
ilovegeorgebush
Bah, this is just bashing from people that cannot even understand a new culture developing in front of their very eyes, therefore anybody who uses technology extensively must be very sick. Right.
I have several co-workers I see with their face buried in their phone every time I walk by their cube. Internet usage is monitored where I work (even this post) so they see it as a way to bypass the system. Before they put in Websense the same co-workers were on the web all day - they still are but now it's through their phones. The ones that were Internet addicted all went out and got smart phones when Internet usage started being monitored.
With collective conciousness...who needs texts.
I guess I'm addicted in a sense that I prefer life with the internet than life without it, but I don't NEED it to get through the day. There's reading ( although the kindle helps by giving internet ), listening to music ( although mp3 players love the internet ), and any number of things outside. For instance, I've got some bulbs to plant in the flower beds this weekend. Once it's not cold and windy here ( it is April, where are the warm days? ), I'll be spending more time away from my computer and desk and being outside doing things like walking all over the township or maybe finally getting a new bike ( last one I had was before 2004 and doesn't fit my height anymore ) and start riding it around places.
I'd also like to go out places this summer - go do some semi-local caves, hit the beach, go to some state parks, and generally just be outside and living. I spent all of my last summer between work and landscaping at the house so I'd actually like to go out and do things this year.
Could I live without the internet? Of course, there's plenty of things to do that don't need it. Could I live without the computer? Technically I'd be alive, but at a minimum I'd like to be able to add or remove music from the mp3 player and get pictures off the memory card for the camera. A simple wall adapter takes care of the rest of the technology needs to charge them.
Their parents' generation is addicted to their cars, while their grandparents' generation is addicted to their newspapers.
We should all encourage these children to go back to alcohol and drugs. This addiction to exchanging information is just too dangerous.
I mean, if they are CONSUMING information, they might learn things that we don't want them to learn, and if they are PRODUCING information, they may say things we don't want them to say.
Oh, this whole thing just makes me so crazy I almost fainted, fell off my dinosaur, and broke my wooden underwear.
why is a year old story being featured on Slashdot ? really this place is going down hill, I will have to only use my ipad to check those up to date websites.
tach315
I can say I personally went through this. Once I realized what was happening (not going out as much anymore, gaining weight/getting out of shape, neglecting my family, etc) I ended up shedding a lot of these things over the course of about a year. First cable tv went (hell, I only watched 3 channels most of the time and quitting would save me money), then WoW (again, would save me money, and was getting stale).
However, these weren't my biggest addictions in the slightest, but I wasn't quite ready to give up on facebook and similar social networking things. It didn't seem like much at the time. Afterall, I was still being "social" and wasn't becoming reclusive. It was essentially a substitute for hanging out with real people in real life. And besides - a lot of us got together on Fridays for movie night. Thing was - even during these movie nights I'd still be checking facebook despite everyone close to me was right in front of me.
The straw that broke the camel's back was over a benign status I posted: "Aww snap, time for daddy day care!" as my wife was going out with some friends and it was going to be one of my first times watching our baby daughter solo. Two women somehow took offense to this comment and proceeded to man-bash like crazy, nevermind that I'm actually sticking around and being a father. It boiled down to one woman basically calling her husband worthless and both of them saying I was a shitty father ("It's not daycare, it's PARENTING!"). And I know, I know - I should know better than to get riled up over trolling - but these are people I know in real life - straight up being offensive. The only person who could have came to my rescue was my wife. She sees all this when she gets home and is like "wtf is wrong with those bitches?" I reply "well, do something!". I needed help. I was getting attacked by two angry hens!
She replies "LOL" in the facebook thread.
I fucking LOST it.
I counted on the one person who could get me out of this mess - save my name on the internets - and she didn't pull through. How dare she? ...
The next morning I felt like such a goddamned tool once I put all this into perspective. I came to the conclusion that I was far too invested in things like facebook and virtual people that I promptly initiated the processes for deleting most of my online identity.
Around the same time I was reading a book (How Pleasure Works by Paul Bloom) that really forces you to think about how you put value into the things around you. So I had to ask "does x add value to my life?" As a result, here I am still on slashdot, still have my cellphone, but I'm outside damned near everyday, starting getting back into playing hockey and taking it more seriously, seeing more of family, and in way better shape than I was.
Overall, I'm much happier and feel like I've gained a much higher quality of life. I'd say anyone thinking about the same - go for it and never look back.
Oh, wait...
I use the internet a lot, mostly to read about a subject I am curious about. But often, if I am not doing something, I go to the interweb just because I am bored. If I am outside, on the bus or whatever, I use my smartphone to check the same wepages I looked at before I left. It is out of boredom/needing something to do. Just like addiction to a substance is (often) an escape from something, internet addiction is too.
- "If one man can create that much hate, you can only imagine how much love we as a togetherness can create."
I wonder how those results compare to long term isolation studies, like that they put astronauts through back in the Apollo days.
I suspect that the Internet isn't any more "addictive" than social contact is in general. The actual thenominon here is that theres a generation gap in the means of communication. If you've grown up always having the ability to talk to whoever you want regardless of location, you never develop skills like pretending not to find the people around you boring, because your ability to socialize isn't limited to the people around you.
I played so much bejeweled once that when i looked at peoples faces I was connecting sections of their face into three.
Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.
why do chemicals get all the bad pr? are prescription narcotics better? sex? as much as we can stand is good? gambling? supports ??? old time religion? yikes
what about excitement?
good thing the current chosen ones life0cidal religious holycost is ending abruptly, soon, so we can all get back to rehabbing ourselves?
we'll all feel better after the genuine native american elders rising bird of prey leadership initiative shows us (teepeeleaks etchings) how much of what we do without a thought is bad for all of us.
drop your weapons. you have the right....
And I found out that I do not care for real people anymore. Or the world outside. Guess it's too late for me.
It's social interaction FFS! My mom is addicted to that too - she keeps spending time interacting with her friends and family directly, through phone or other digital devices and when she was in hospital with her dose of social interaction reduced, she showed signs of withdrawal problems.
Calling social interaction addictive is like calling breathing addictive.
US Teen Pregnancy Rate at Record Low, CDC, and Everybody Else Reports.
"The US teen pregnancy rate in 2009, the latest year for which data are available, hit its lowest since tracking began 70 years ago."
It was even mentioned on the Internet: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=U.S.+teen+pregnancy+rate+at+record+low
while I don't doubt that Internet addiction is becoming an issue, as someone from a younger generation, I think it's ridiculous that people decry Internet Addiciton, when for the last 40 years the majority of north america has had TV addiction. Or in the case of some individuals Car addiction.
Is Internet addiction going to destroy society? No more than TV addiction did. At least with Internet addiction there is a small amount of interacting with others.
Do these "statistics" come with a source, by chance. I know the #37 on Healthcare quality is from a study that, instead of comparing number of people cured of illness per capita or something, came from a study that gave massive bonuses on the ranking to contries with socialized healthcare. Remove this bonus, and the US is number 1 again.
that's a useful tool you used everyday doesn't mean you are addicted.
I could take their clothes away and they would have a strong desire to get them back. That doesn't mean they are addicted to cloths.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Excellent, now all I have to do is quit grad school and I'll be able to leave slashdot long enough to get some work done.
I am sure one can add or remove some metrics used in coming up with these figures to mane any nation come #1.
Look. Mental addiction is just mental. It's bullshit. You bitch slap the person till the get in fucking line.
I was a herion addict for 15 years or so of my life. I find that someone considers even comparing drug addiction to cell phone addiction to be very fucking insulting.
For example, when I would get put in jail (and i would, on occasion, because thats where real addiction can land you), I would get physically sick without my dope. I'd end up puking, having the runs, not able to eat, wishing i was dead, or better, that i could get well (which I didn't realize at the time, i was getting well, by not using!).
Anyways, this is bullshit, and insult to anyone who's built their life back up after losing it to a truelly addictive thing.
Be seeing you...
" Things like not respecting parents or elders,"
why should we? I have no respect for people who are assholes, regardless of age. Just because you happen to survive to get old doesn't mean you should be worshiped. I have always hated the antiquated fallacy. and yes, I am old.
Teen pregnancy has trended down for the last 20 years.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
...and what is this.
Can we quit whining about how people are "addicted" to this stuff?
Who cares? What's the problem?
If people want to feel really connected, that is their prerogative. Who gets to decide how much is "unhealthy" -- whatever that even means -- and are we planning on stopping people from going to Facebook or twitter more than a few times a day?
If people feel like they are on the Internet too much, they have the power to stop themselves. If they're okay with it, then let them live their lives the way they want. And fuck you if you're going to try to make the decision for me.
Really, is this what we're calling everything where people can't exercise a little self-discipline?
Our culture seriously needs a giant cup of "Grow the Fuck Up".
-Styopa
It's also no wonder that 85% of U.S. soldiers are dumber than the average YouTube commenter. Have you seen the communities these people are recruited from?
In fact, my above made-up statistic might just apply to the voluntary enlistees of all militaries in this world. Especially those Eastern.
Start a blog with your EEG's live over the net!
www.Ihaveadream.com
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
It's not only cell phones. It's the 'bad' habits as well. Things like not respecting parents or elders, the 'me, me, me' attitude the teen pregnancies, the spending beyond our means for both government and a good chunk of the population.
One of the only fond memories of have of my High School Latin class was translating a missive from the Roman senate to the people bemoaning how young people are not as respectful to their elders as they used to be, and that their society was becoming morally bankrupt.
Every generation looks at their children as being somehow increasingly disrespectful and making poor moral decisions. That perception is weirdly constant.
Also, you have completely misrepresented this link:
It's no wonder that 85% of US soldiers in Iraq believe that they are there to get revenge for 9/11.
The actual claim made was that a poll in 2006 indicated that 85% of soldiers believed they were sent over there to retaliate, not that they are currently in 2011 deployed there in retaliation.
And finally, Zogby International is one of the worst international polling organizations in the world (leading questions, selection biases in their polled populations, etc). And the oilempire site you linked looks like the online Wal-Mart of conspiracy theories. Is JFK somehow responsible for peak oil by orchestrating 9/11? I don't know, but that website makes me suspect that somebody thinks so.
Just because you happen to survive to get old doesn't mean you should be worshiped.
Who asked that the 'old' be worshiped? I haven't seen any [yet]. What I have seen is a salient call for respect. No wonder our older population are so depressed and stressed out.
You should visit some retirement homes to see for yourself. It's sad. The bad thing is that we're all headed there. God help us.
While I can't stand the organization for its politics, policies, origins, higher-up administrators and more recent scandals, I will admit that going out and camping once a month with zero electronics helped give me the patience I need to proudly say amongst a group of internet addicted college-student peers: "Nah, I'll check [my e-mail] later."
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
Under your framework, do you make sure that you allow your 12 year old long enough time on the 'net to finish his homework? And do you make sure that you allow long enough time on the Xbox to get to a save point? I seem to remember The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for Nintendo 64, which was notorious for not allowing a save until 72 minutes in, at a time when some parents were limiting daily (or even weekly!) video game time to 60 minutes.
It's one thing to use technology extensively. It's another thing entirely when use of that technology becomes such a fixture or priority in someone's life that they wind up neglecting other important things in their lives--work, school, family, health, sleep, etc.
Which is exactly why the Amish choose not to use certain technologies such as home electric power and home telecommunications.
anxiety from not being able to get your "fix"
Does this include anxiety from not being able to get your "fix" of, say, electric light in the evening?
Can we as a society agree to stop misusing words that have very serious connotations like "Addiction"? Addiction is a very serious disease and using it to describe something as silly as people spending too much time online socializing than doing actual work or study belittles those that have true addictions.
US: First in a reverse alphabetical listing of all countries with the word "United" in their name! U-S-A! U-S-A!
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
"Students in the Maryland study also showed no loyalty to news programs, a news personality or news platform."
So, students are actually taking news from sources on all sides and making a decision from themselves? How is this a bad thing?
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
I eventually found the press release for this, and it's from April 2010
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/sociss/release.cfm?ArticleID=2144
Why's this on Slashdot in April 2011?
I believe most of these #'s come from the CIA factbook, though don't quote me on that. As for the whole teen pregnancy comment, teen pregnancies have actually gone down in recent years, with the most recent actually being record lows.
Your cellphone is not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck some dick for your cellphone?
No, I think you are confusing what the "bonus" is. Perhaps if you measured quality of actually applied treatment, the US might be first, but socialized medicine doesn't get a bonus to measures of "how many" in cured, it _is_ a natural bonus when measuring of how many is cured (and average life-span). The difference in quality of treatment has be enormous, if treating everybody is not going to easily beat treating only the wealthiest.
Let us imagine some numbers hopelessly exaggerated in your favour: Let us assume the US provides health-care for the 70% wealthiest, and cures 90% of all cases, that means 63% gets successful care. Now imagine Canada gives healthcare the 100% wealthiest, but has a MUCH low quality of treatment and only cures 70%, that means 70% gets successful care. 70% > 63% . Even if there was that great a difference in real-life (there really isn't), the citizens of Canada would get better treatment on _average_, even if those that _got_ treatment in the US was treated better.
I've been a netizen for 13 years, the most formative of which were during the height of the dot com bubble when I was in college. I was addicted long before smart phones and Facebook. But as I matured and realized that the Internet was 90% crap (like most of life), I found myself spending less and less time each day online. The same thing will happen to the majority of these college kids. If you use social media to enhance your real life relationships rather than substitute them, it's fine. My little circle of 20 or so friends and acquaintances in real life uses Facebook as our party planning hub these days. I think we have 8 events - real life events - spelled out for the next month alone.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Is anyone really bothered by these statistics? When you include countries that allow their under priviledged childeren run around on the streets and only the middle class and above are given an education then it's not a surprize to me when our less priviledged childeren are included in the study we come up short in comparison. If we threw the people that didn't care or gave up to the wild then we would look a hell of a lot better to. In America we try more then most to not only help the unfourtunate but to actually help them improve their life, we do this by holding them to the same standards as everyone else. This means that it doesn't matter if your parents are drunks or a drug addicts, we expect you to not give up and live off the street. Instead we force you to attend our public school system (we send kids that don't go to school to correctional facilities btw), to get at least a highschool degree and to make something of yourself. The problem is that not everybody is capable of this for one reason or another and others slip through the cracks in our imperfect system; this reflects poorly in our numbers. But screw the rest of the world we're doing the right thing.
It's all a bit like those chairs in Wall-e, kids glued to their screens not knowing what its like in the 'real world' Go outside and play ffs! Make dens, build go karts, climb trees, get chased by the neighbourhood (*spelling) weirdo, get beaten up by the local bully (not not just hounded through social media sites)!
Suffering, really? I'm reminded of that scene from Office Space:
Bob: "Looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately."
Peter: "I wouldn't say I've been *missing* it, Bob."
include $sig;
1;
Your cellphone is not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck some dick for your cellphone?
Word, I was homeless for years because of my drug habit.
How did I quit my drugs?
I took responsibilty for my actions.
Ya, i know, we can't expect kids to be responsible.
Mainly since we don't lead by example.
Be seeing you...
by Arthur C. Clarke? Not so much in what is happening, but by the older generation's bemoaning thereof.
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
heroin addiction is mostly mental. hey after you were in jail and finished withdrawing, why did you start using again, once the worst was over? you were an addict for 15 years? did you realize, say 2 years in, that if you just stopped cold-turkey for 2 weeks you would then have no more physical dependence on it? was it worth doing it another 13 years in exchange for those 2 weeks of pain? (especially if you already had been through a few days of the worst in prison). true there are terrible physical withdrawal symptoms. but the biggest part of that addiction is a mental one. a much more powerful one than cell phone use, true, since it feels a heck of a lot better than texting does, but still mostly mental. disclaimer: i aint never done heroin.
Approximately 15% of the US population doesn't have health insurance, a problem which no other developed nation has as the rest all have universal healthcare systems. Are you seriously suggesting they SHOULDN'T get credit for that? I'm sure the US healthcare system is great if you can afford all the treatment you need, the problem is that so many people can't...
How many of us are drinking our coffee while doing our daily digest of /. while at work? How many of you have answered an email while driving/watching your kids/insert your relevant activity here? Just because we are older and frequent different sites than "the kids" doesn't mean we aren't addicted in some fashion to the Internet and our technology devices either.
It has nothing to do with the Internet. As a kid/teen, going at the "official" family meetings is fkin boring. Especially meeting really old dudes. I'm far, far away from that young age, but I still remember it bored the begeesus out of me at that time.
:).
Stop forcing her to enjoy what you like and try to understand what she likes. Next time, try to take the "sulking" as a cry for help, not as an opportunity to bulldozer your way over her personality/thoughts/feelings, and you may avoid the tantrum. Oh wait, she a teen, you'll get the tantrum anyway
Not only that the "new generation" likes different things, even different people of the same age like different stuff.
Its called evolution, not addiction.
This is not surprising to me. With the costs of tuition going up, I am willing to bet most students are also working a fair number of hours. I work a job that normally requires 40+ hours a week, and come home to 9-12 credits a semester, three semesters a year. Weekends and evenings are filled with writing papers, taking tests, doing research, coding, and reading books. I don't subscribe to facebook, myspace, twitter, or any other social media BS, because I simply don't have time to care about what anyone else is doing - but I'm 33 and married - I gave up on socializing a long long time ago. Even still the endless routine is maddening sometimes. I can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel; basically 10 weeks of actual school left.
You can imagine though, that kids in their late teens and early twenties want to have a social life. I can certainly understand why they turn to this crap to get a touch of the life they wish they could have, and at least to a certain extent deserve to have.
One of the only fond memories of have of my High School Latin class was translating a missive from the Roman senate to the people bemoaning how young people are not as respectful to their elders as they used to be, and that their society was becoming morally bankrupt.
Every generation looks at their children as being somehow increasingly disrespectful and making poor moral decisions. That perception is weirdly constant.
Except for an objective few with clear heads, like Cicero. His defense of Marcus Caelius Rufus contains a lot of wisdom about the nature of youth and reasonable expectations of those afflicted. If you haven't read it I recommend it.
Myself I hope the age will yet dawn when useless and paranoid reactionary moralism (of which Cicero too was ultimately guilty, most obviously in his commentaries De Legibus) will finally subside.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
What I have seen is a salient call for respect. No wonder our older population are so depressed and stressed out.
You should visit some retirement homes to see for yourself. It's sad. The bad thing is that we're all headed there. God help us.
Well, the now-old people should've had more respect for the younger people, back before they picked the nursing home...
To add to what other people's say, this sounds like a family , more than technology fail.
Casting aside the obvious fact that it isn't surprising for a teen to be utterly bored by certain people (i rembember i spent a few visits i was forced to go to with my programmable calculator at hand, messing with something (also a favourite on boring lessons))
It's sortta OK... But
The real fail comes from the fact that she has this sort of relationship with her own grandparents. I may be a strange example as i have spent most time there when i was small, but i'd say that with my grandparents, aunt and uncle i have a better relationship than with my mother.
Still, i don't think any person i know treats his grandparents as boring strangers , because that's the behaviour she demonstrated there
I don't know, but does your family actually meet more often than on your father's birthdays ? Because if not, i aren't surprised at the outcome.
The USA is the most obese nation on earth. 40 years ago children played by going outside and having pickup games of baseball or soccer or touch football, running around and getting exercise. Now, they "play" by sitting there and moving only their thumbs.
You forgot broom ball, street hockey (Car...Game on!) and how about just plain riding a bike? I remember some of the crazy stuff we used to do on our bikes and spend the entire day doing it.
Times have sure changed.
Bear with me - it's a bit of a story. Anyway, I refuse to own a car, I have a motorcycle instead. As such, I rarely listen to standard "radio" anymore. While at work, I listen to Pandora - have for a while now.
Every once in a while (pretty rarely, actually) I drive my wife's car. And despite now being aware that I do it - I can't stop myself from subconsciously trying to thumb down a song that comes on that I don't like. Proof that humans have some intelligence and can infer, I adapt my environment and thus reach out to the source of the music - the radio. My hands fumble around, and I make quick glances, certain that somewhere...there's a thumbs-down button. Then I catch myself doing what I'm doing, laugh, and change the channel.
Anyway, there's my funny story.
TFA is from a year ago.
... back in my day we did it honestly, with powerful, mind-altering drugs.
I got addicted to computers, BBS', Internet, computer games, etc. Look at me at 35+ years old single virgin living with parents. Oh wait... :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Working at a university, I wasn't surprised at all by this study. The kids are so addicted to their various media devices that we can watch, pretty much weekly, students walking into one another or into lamp-posts because they're busy text'ing away. I find it sad that they've lost the ability to socialize normally and "need" this level of connectivity in their life. But I suppose it's little different than other addicting habits in that once you get into it, it's hard to stop. Or maybe they should just take up a few outdoor-ish hobbies to get their minds off the digital world.
Personally, I work as a senior Network admin and engineer. My career always has me surrounded by technology, I personally am not addicted to it. I don't own a smartphone, don't care about being disconnected for a few days (actually, it's very nice to be unplugged) and prefer books to any digital media. (on that note, this is amusing: http://www.wimp.com/abook/). But is this something that's dying with the older generations? I'm generation-X... and we're all now in our 30s and 40s. :/
Incedntally, that's EXACTLY my point.
But if it's not as bad as evil heroin, then it's the parents and students' responsibility, and that simply can't be!
And sorry, I didn't see that you were the OP. Since we agree that you can add stupid criteria bto this kind of study to make anyone best at anything, do you have links to a source for your numbers?
I'm sorry you had such a rough time. Unfortunately, scientific research is beginning to show that there is little difference between heroine addiction, cell phone addiction and eating too much. Your experience may make you feel entitled to your opinion, but it has little to do with reality.
.there is enough of everything for everyone.
The survey was done on a points scale. There was a max score of 100. Some proportion of those points was based on "people cured per capita," and others were based on "social interest type goals." A country that cured 100% of its diseases on a non-socialist system would not get a perfect score. IIRC, the proportion was 60% people cured, and 40% human interest goals (of which being socialist was only one.) I don't have the survey in front of me or I'd give a link. I can't swear to the proportions, but that was the methodology.
You're obviously speaking as someone who has never dealt with such an addiction either in yourself or in a close family member. Long story short - you're not only wrong, you're clueless. It's nowhere near that simple.
So you're a self centered jackass. So what?
And you think people with mental addictions can just walk away from whatever they're addicted to with no repercussions? You think they don't suffer physical symptoms or replace one destructive behavior with another? You're wrong on both counts.
Grow up, the world doesn't revolve around you.
It's about bloody time.
The cell phone has developed into an extension of one's self, like an extra sense. So an addiction to your phone is like having an addiction to your sight. Yeah, we give people a way to connect to the internet, a practically limitless source of information, and then when we take it away from them we're scratching our heads as to why they don't like it.
Somethings off here... Ahem...
The cell phone is an extremely primitive version of telepathy. I welcome its integration into our self.
Look. Mental addiction is just mental. It's bullshit.
That is a simple and ignorant position to take. Physical addiction and mental addiction are two different conditions that often go together (like in drug addiction), but that doesn't mean mental addiction can't be a very serious thing (as Laxori's post a few down makes clear). What is important in addiction is the narrowing of perspective and devaluing of otherwise valuable things in order to feed the addiction. Video games, internet, and text messaging all have a high potential to be the focus of addiction because of the way they produce dopamine release in the brain. Pushing buttons, controlling an environment, and getting quick rewards, when lacking sufficient complexity to engage our higher order brain areas can lead to a strong desire to keep doing the same while at the same time reducing self-control. A person doesn't just have or not have self-control, it is something that parts of the brain do. Thus, if you partake in activities that inhibit those brain areas and over time weaken them relative to other things that provide reward, you will have a harder time tearing yourself away from the activity: addiction. Yes, drugs will generally pull you in further and more quickly, but that doesn't mean one can't become partially addicted to these technologies. Moreover, there are people, probably those already prone to addiction in general, that get intensely addicted such that they stop eating, sleeping, studying, and/or working. How that isn't serious addiction you'll have to explain to me.
These effects can occur with a person in their room online for a long time, but a new array of issues arise when dealing with mobile devices. Now you can feed your addiction on the run, between and even during other tasks. This makes it easier to become addicted and more difficult to break it. It can lead to greater irritability, particularly for a child who doesn't have a fully developed prefrontal cortex, if they are torn away from their devise for whatever reason. Sure, there are some kids who are just rude and don't care about the people around them, but there are also kids that do care but get pulled in anyway. They might say they'd like to spend more time doing X, but they don't do it because they don't know how to break the addiction. People in general, and parents specifically, need to understand this process in order to engineer ways to help their children break away and be more healthy, particularly if the child wants to get better.
Nobody ever says, "I want to be a junkie when I grow up"
The fact that you had a rough time with addiction doesn't mean that there isn't a problem here worth examining.
And examining the science, it would appear that addiction to opiate drugs and addiction to novelty stems from the same mechanism in the brain. So it's possible that addiction to drugs and addiction to novelty is the *same thing*. We may eventually see people suffer physical withdrawal symptoms resulting from an intervention.
If you have an argument based on evidence and logic, I'd like to hear it. Otherwise...
And for the record, it's OK for you to be insulted.
Are you trolling?
If not, then I don't mean to belittle what you went through, but your post is amazingly stupid. Addiction has a certain definition; it typically implies a loss of control on the part of the abdictee (you can't keep yourself away from Facebook), withdrawal symptoms (you feel bad when you try to stay away after all), and a negative impact on your life even when you're doing it (a detrimental effect on your actual social life, for instance, your health, your studies/job etc).
Some things are more addictive than others. Some things are easier to get hooked on; some things take longer (and more willpower) to get off of; some things will have larger, more significant effects on you. But "lesser" addictions are still bad, just like getting slapped in the face is still bad even though you could also have been murdered instead.
Oh yes, and addiction is always a mental thing. Substances can have other effects as well, of course, either by their presence or absence (the "getting sick" you describe), but lots of things cause you to puke, have the runs, be unable to eat etc.; these are side effects, not a constituting part of the addiction. The salient point is that addictive substances hook into your body's neurochemistry, and thus have an effect on your mind.
Given that, it is nonsensical to assume that things that are not physical substances cannot be addictive, as you appear to do. If anything, it's surprising that *drugs* can have such a large effect on your psyche.
I've done work on addictions counseling, I've volunteered with harm reduction groups, used to moderate on Bluelight, blah blah blah. I feel the same way you do. All these people are deluded, whinging about how teenagers are addicted because they get anxious when they can't text or use Facebook.. It's the stupid, bourgeois hyperbole of people who've never had to deal with real addiction in their entire shallow, safe, comfortable, middle-class lives, and it's insulting. They've never had to deal with alcoholic fathers, or watching friends waste away, or seen people do stupid shit like IVing crushed up percocets or committing crimes to buy coke.
To quote an exchange from Half Baked, via Wikiquote:
Thurgood: I'm here today because I'm addicted..to marijuana.
Rehab patient: You in here 'cuz of marijuana?! Man, this is some BULLSHIT!
Bob Saget/Cocaine addict: Marijuana is not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke.
Rehab patient: I seen him [do it]!
Bob Saget/Cocaine addict: Now that's an addiction, man. You ever suck some dick for marijuana?
Thurgood: No, I can't say I have.
Bob Saget/Cocaine addict: I didn't think so.
Rehab patient: Boo this man!
[crowd boos]
A physical drug addiction may be an order of magnitude or two worse than being addicted to the internet and social networks but that doesn't mean that it isn't a problem that causes people to basically self destruct, and belittling one person's problem because yours was worse doesn't help anyone much. In fact, I'd be far more interested in knowing more about how you quit as that information might be put to use by some hopeless internet/WoW/Facebook addict reading the comments here. What made you decide that you had had enough? How did you keep motivated enough to go through with it? What would you recommend that these people do in order to help them quit?
Look. Mental addiction is just mental. It's bullshit. You bitch slap the person till the get in fucking line.
Not everyone has someone close who cares enough to bitch slap them into line.
Look. Mental addiction is just mental. It's bulls***. You b**** slap the person till the get in f***ing line.
This is the only bullshit I see around here.
My marriage ended because my spouse could not get off of world of warcraft. Did she throw up from lack of playing? No. Did her brain reward her for doing it? Yes. Did she fuck up her kids heads and their lives? Absolutely. Her son was in advanced math and started getting 15% on tests. His dream of being an engineer is in peril now. Divorce is hard and so are people losing opportunities like dropping out of schooll and flipping burgers or losing a relationship. Like a drug they can ruin a life.
Look. Mental addiction is just mental. It's bullshit. You bitch slap the person till the get in fucking line.
Go study some brain chemistry and come back to us with an educated claim. Addiction can have triggers that are not due to chemicals introduced into the blood stream. That does not mean that the addiction cannot cause actual physiological symptoms and be a serious hurdle to overcome.
Judging the hardships of others purely based on your own experience is simply arrogant. With your logic no one on this planet should commit suicide since there is no chemical messing with their brain.
.: Max Romantschuk
You seem to think you speak for every prepaid service in the universe. I assure you that some do not.
I speak for every prepaid service that I've tried: TracFone, Virgin Mobile USA, and two different services offered by what are now AT&T subsidiaries. All require periodic top-ups in order to keep dial tone.
Further, your 'what if everybody turns them down?' scenario is unrealistic. If somebody seriously approached so many people and came up empty, I would question the approach far more than the real availability of work.
For one thing, when I was looking for a job straight out of college, I got the same result: "we went with another candidate" times several dozen. For another, if all the kids in the neighborhood are doing services for a limited set of grown-ups, eventually the grown-ups will run out of work to do.
People used to holler that TV was making the kids stupid and there was a new study every week “proving” it.
The people doing these studies simply have no understanding of media science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Media:_The_Extensions_of_Man is a good beginning.
It's the shift from the industrial age to the electronic age people.
Pretty soon these kids with no "real world" skills will be pitying you like you pity the old people who can barely browse a web page and get confused by e-mail. Just like them you will be untrainable in the new media space.
These phones are a prosthetic for the nervous system. They extend it as all electronic media does.
The reason the kids seem like they’re not even in the room is because they aren’t. They’re hanging out with their friends. You’re old and being around you harshes their buzz.
The kids’ sensory balance adjusts to this environment numbing certain faculties while sensitizing others that are numbed in you. The reason they have withdrawal symptoms is because you are chopping off a piece of their sensory apparatus. If I jam a pencil in your ear before having a conversation with you I guarantee it won’t be a pleasant conversation and you won’t exactly shine.
These phones will disappear soon. There will be no faces buried in screens just visual overlays. There will be no typing just thinking. These kids’ thoughts will take place across the planet and their minds will be linked intimately with their friends in ways you will never experience.
Your tiny little minds will still be trapped inside the prison of your head.
Your sense of superiority over these kids is rooted firmly in your obsolescence.
One day soon you will have to ask a question of one of these kids to figure out what the hell is going on and they will roll their eyes, sigh deeply and talk down to you like a granny they are helping to cross the street.
Ever heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
People adapt. If one need is fulfilled, you take it for granted and concentrate on the next unfulfilled need.
If people spent all their time being grateful for and eulogizing what they already have, this wouldn't work.
If you don't believe this statement holds much worth, then, by your values, old and grumpy people (that complain about really small things all the time) would be very meaningless.
Look. Mental addiction is just mental. It's bullshit. You bitch slap the person till the get in fucking line.
Go study some brain chemistry and come back to us with an educated claim. Addiction can have triggers that are not due to chemicals introduced into the blood stream. That does not mean that the addiction cannot cause actual physiological symptoms and be a serious hurdle to overcome.
Judging the hardships of others purely based on your own experience is simply arrogant. With your logic no one on this planet should commit suicide since there is no chemical messing with their brain.
I agree,
A physiological dependency is as real as chemical dependency, but treated very differently.
Perhaps we should Bitch Slap the GP till he gets back into fucking line.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Verizon and Boost, among many, offer prepaid minutes that will not expire for 90+ days.
How long is the +? I checked Boost's web site, and just like Virgin, Boost's page says "Recharge at least once every 90 days to keep your account active (after 90 days any credit balance will expire)." Verizon doesn't even last that long. From its page: "Once activated, account balance will expire based on initial payment or in 60 days, whichever is longer."
But you *did* get a job eventually I'm sure.
In order to get the job I have now, I had to get the state to bring in a job placement service specializing in disabilities such as my (professionally diagnosed) mental disorder. Without the employment consultant explaining my disability to my employer, I likely would have been rejected for some of the mannerisms that my disability caused during interviews. But vocational rehabilitation is a social(ist) program, and its funding could be cut at any moment.
some unemployed will start their own businesses
To what extent can a minor seeking to pay for his own cell phone plan do this?
Undercut people
How does one undercut free?