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."

Comments

My neice

[EmagGeek]

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.

Re:My neice

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Do you honestly expect a 16 year old to want to be involved in someone's 70th birthday?

Re:My neice

[somersault]

I think, by allowing us to seek out the ideal people with our exact interests at the moment, the internet allows us to get into the mindset to discount the people around us as less worthwhile to interact with.

Yeah, that's an interesting point. I had a long distance relationship with someone who eventually came over to live with me, and for a while I weirdly felt like something was "missing". I'd feel she was a completely different person when chatting online compared to speaking for real.

I even feel like that when speaking to family members, I guess I just joke around more online. So I suppose it's really me who's different when typing than when speaking, even with people I've known all my life.

Re:My neice

[gstoddart]

Well, the daughter was so buried into her phone texting her friends that she hardly even spoke to my cousin (who knew perfect English) and not even to her other friend. I met her once. I have the feeling that when she is with her friends she texts in real life, she'd bury her head into her phone and start texting someone else.

I have witnessed this ... two teenagers who have gone someplace together and are now sitting and texting. I often can't decide if they're texting each other, or third parties.

But, it's usually kind of funny/sad/lame to watch several teenagers, all with their phones out, all with headphones attached to their phones, and all heads down and texting and more or less ignoring one another. It's like self-imposed autism or something, and actually kind of sad to watch.

I think, by allowing us to seek out the ideal people with our exact interests at the moment, the internet allows us to get into the mindset to discount the people around us as less worthwhile to interact with.

And, really, except for the fact that now all of the 'cool' kids are doing it too ... how does this differ from IRC, ICQ, AOL/MSN, Everquest, Second Life and all of the other things which have filled this niche before?

Teenagers have always been withdrawn, moody and sulky ... but now texting seems to basically fill up their day, which makes them look even more withdrawn, moody, and sulky. Some days I'm actually glad I don't have the ability to text on my phone ... it's too reminiscent of MSN or something to me.

Re:My neice

[xaxa]

Do you honestly expect a 16 year old to want to be involved in someone's 70th birthday?

I'm almost 10 years older than this girl, so I'm a bit more willing to talk to my grandparents and their siblings. After looking at Google StreetView on my phone of my new house we found that the houses my grandparents/siblings lived in during WWII were still there, and still recognisable. Though they were only children at the time it was interesting to hear about their experiences -- they'd hardly spoken about it before (so mum was especially pleased), but having a map, pictures, and in one case a Wikipedia page for my great-great-great-(great?-)grandad, jogged memories.

Re:My neice

[khr]

Do you honestly expect a 16 year old to want to be involved in someone's 70th birthday?

Want? Not necessarily... Participate, yes, and even pretend to be cheerful.

Re:My neice

[Quiet_Desperation]

And, really, except for the fact that now all of the 'cool' kids are doing it too ... how does this differ from IRC, ICQ, AOL/MSN, Everquest, Second Life and all of the other things which have filled this niche before?

Well, for one thing, those others were generally done while at home, and not while walking around or driving or other public activities. That seems to be the problem most people have with it. If they are sitting on a bench minding their own business, that's fine, but with increasing frequency their distraction causes problems for others.

There was a case here in California just recently of another shithead teen wiping out her car because of texting, and another where someone walked right in front of a car because they were so buried in their texting they just wandered into a street. You could argue Darwin Award for the latter, but do you want to be the guy who hit that person? There's still going to be an investigation as to whose fault it was, and, yeah, *that's* a perfect, flawless process, right?

On the other hand, YouTube videos like the woman who texted her way into a mall water fountain are always gold.

Re:My neice

[ElectricTurtle]

Parents reap what they sow. I think the problem is that helicopter parents coddle their precious snowflakes too much and that encourages the kids to become both brats and ineptly fragile in many dimensions. As counterintuitive as it seems to be for most in society, you shouldn't treat children like babies forever, you need to let them do things on their own, get hurt, make mistakes, learn consequences, etc. Instead I see parents always swooping in and doing things for their kids, leading to the kids never learning anything and feeling entitled to boot, or bailing kids out of even minor difficulties so they don't develop any respect for consequences.

Any parent whose children are not, for most purposes, de facto independent by high school is a failure.

Re:My neice

[jonescb]

Right. I'm 20, and I couldn't care less about being involved in my family. Why should I be obligated to care about an arbitrary group of people who I didn't choose to be my family. I'll do what I want to do, not what my grandpa thinks I should do.

Not just kids

[Xian97]

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.

My name is ___ and...

[Xacid]

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.

mental addiction is by mentally stupid people, no?

[Nyder]

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.