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Are You Online More than 4 Hours a Day?
R3 sent us an interesting report that talks asbout Belgian psychologists claiming that using the Internet for more than 4 hours a day is addictive behavior, and should be treated like alcoholism or any other addiction. If they try to take my laptop away, I'll bite them: I'm
not addicted, I swear ;)"
suits me. as long as the wards have PCs, 100BaseT, ......
"Cake or death!" (E. Izzard)
--
"This isn't the post you're looking for. Move along."
Oh, you can definitely be addicted to books - though I think you'd have a hard time making a newspaper last four hours. Except maybe the Sunday editions, and newspapers not in your native language.
"Cake or death!" (E. Izzard)
--
"This isn't the post you're looking for. Move along."
Well... Playing action quake2 is not exactly browsing the internet is it?
See BBC for a statistically more informative article.
/. Addicted Developer)
I request more info on the nature and effects of dopamine (which was not mentioned by BBC).
This could explain certain behavioral patterns that I have, based on feelings reflecting (usually failure of) finding surprising news. Searching for news constantly feels most important. I sometimes pass getting to bed even if need for sex is expressed, to catch up work undone because of news hunt, but still fail to work for the same reason. Thus, I think a chemical addiction might apply to me.
I still don't understand just why I start salivating when reading especially tech related news. What was the original trigger that connected this chemical reaction to the event of finding impressive news articles? Feeling of power through knowledge, hardly?
If peoples behaviors are this easily activated, well... Who controls the nanomachines, controls not only the world, but peoples feelings and behavior as well. Hmm (mental note: reread end of Diamond Age). Might explain certain history events. Scary that civilizedness is no protection. Actually the particular chain of, er, psycho-chemical events is likely an essential part of it. (Mental notes: nothing new, be more conscious that feelings are chemical and do control behavior.)
YaSAD (Yet another
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
Personally I work on the Internet and a fair number of hobbies revolve around it, but I get bored with it sometimes. I don't have the attention span to become addicted to things
---
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I'm much more addicted to oxygen though. If I go for more than 30 seconds without it, it becomes all I think of.
. when in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout --Robert Heinlein
i work and play on the net. if i weren't on the net all the time, how would i know anything about tcp/ip security? in spite of which, i manage to be a multidegreed, bill-paying, farm-owning adult who doesn't neglect friends and family. like everyone else here, i multitask. i don't neglect children, friends, family, i take breaks, go on site, exercise, what have you. my pomeranians take turns lap-sitting, 2 at a time, when i'm on, and the cats help me type. i am mostly a believer in and consumer of climical psychology and psychiatry, but with the 4-hours-daily-internet=addict stmt, these guys are lost. do they claim 4 hours a day cooking, driving, using a phone, make one an addict? do they differentiate between productive use and time-squandering? would they have any idea how to define the difference? are they so forward in their thinking as to be able to specify all the valid lifestyles and information styles of the next century? is a heart surgeon who spends many hours a day in the O/R and then more hours reading medical journals `addicted'? please!!
see subject
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
I was recently without a connection to the net for a few days and I was definitely going through withdrawl, I missed all the geeks here...I think. I think having an addiction to the internet is like having a dependancy issue rather than a true addiction. When you're not on you just feel disconnected, at least thats how I felt. Maybe I'm a hopeless addict, who cares. I don't badger people for being addicted to caffine or gambling.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
I only have two machines for myself, an NT client (my day job requires a Notes client) and a Linux box (firewall and NAT router between me and DSL). The third machine belongs to my girlfriend - while I hand-assembled it, she bought the parts :]
I have fixed Internet connection at my work and at my home. And every now and then I browse some pages from Internet, read and write e-mail. But even more often I am accesing our local net. In my opinion -- this talk about online time is heavily biased towards dial in users.
Not every day. Thoroughly reading every new RFC (well enough to implement it) could take an hour per day, and all the Internet-Drafts would easily get you past four.
If you do, you're probably addicted, eh?
C'mon. The 'net is more of a *vehicle* for those of us who WORK here than an addiction. You might as well tell a truck driver he's addicted to the road!
It started out innocently enough, getting my email using a 14.4 modem. Then, it was reading /. and UF over a 28.8 internal. Before I knew it I was downlaoding mp3s and seti work units over a T1. Sorry, I have to go get a new kernel now.
That means those who spend more than four hours a day in the office could soon be treated on the NHS like alcholics and gamblers.
Top Brussels health advisers say new evidence shows constant sitting creates high body levels of fat, a lipid-like chemical linked to heart attacks.
Now the EU psychologists are warning Scots GPs to brace themselves for a wave of new patients suffering from addiction to office chairs.
Stars like Harvard president Neal Rudenstein and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates have already admitted to working binges. Gates gets up at 5am every day so he can cram in four hours in the office.
But it is the growing number of ordinary workers with access to office cubicles who are causing most concern.
The spread of cheaper and easier ways to get office jobs means that an increasing number of housewives and older people are getting hooked.
The psychologists base their fears on alarming real-life case studies. One Florida mum recently lost her children in a court custody battle because she couldn't keep out of the office.
Experts say up to 400,000 Brits may develop cubicle addiction in the new Millennium. A recent study of young people in the UK revealed that the problem often starts at college, where one in 10 students work for up to 16 hours a day.
Dr Kimberely Young, a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh who is advising Brussels scientists, said: "Until recently, it was regarded by some psychologists as a joking matter. But the increasing number of divorces in which it is cited as a cause of family break-up has changed this attitude."
Like the old story about Hunter S. Thompson (or Tomothy Leary, not quite sure which): His doctor told him he's on so many drugs he'd better keep doing them, because quitting would kill him.
This is a term I have detested, just like the term hacker it gets bent out of proportion. The first thing that comes to mind when I think surfing is someone riding a board on waves of WATER in the OCEAN or the like.
:). I do not consider my self addicted because I like getting away from the computers, and if friends are over they are more likely to use the computers than I.
If they mean looking at web pages, then thats about 1% of my total internet use. I can admit I sometimes spend up to an hour looking for a webpage with some of the search engins out their. Personaly I spend most of my time on IRC and chating with my friends. If this is under their umbrela of 'surfing' then why don't we consider communicating in general, addictive.
Another thing is, I do not disconnect from the internet, I have a static IP and a 5 computer network at home. Granted I don't use the computers THAT much, but I have software projects on some of them, others used for serving webpages, one for serving the mp3's
-magister-
Hmmm. No TV in the House. Maybe that's why I spend so much time in front of the computer.
What?
Another bogus study... Where do these turkies get the funding for this nonsense!
The average home TV veiwing in the US exceeds 4 hours per day... how about a study on this!
psychologists for some reason never seam to be addicted to psycology. Think about it :)
I know a lot of people do take shelter from the real world online.
I personally don't deal well for extended periods of time with out access to a networked computer.
Receantly I got conned in to going on a trip up north, (were un none to me when I aggred to go there was no land phone lines or electricity.)
Ended up walking 15 km just to be able to plug in, and recharge my cell and my notebook, so that I could get online.
I don't think they talk about reading news on the computer / net or a book. But rather that people start getting in to chats etc.
That is something I even understand, I can imagine that somebody is simply reducing his contacts to computer people, as they are easier to deal with.
Though the problem here is not the computer but rather the person itself.
The problem I have with this research is that they generalise to much for my taste.
Michael
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
Yeah..I fall into using it to replace "reality." I found it easier to communicate over the Internet than real life (since I sort of have a social phobia). It is extremely unfortunate though because it consumed my life. My grades dropped, lost all of my real friends, for several years I was basically friendless except semi-friends I talked to only at school. I finally got sick of it recently and made a friend over IRC and found that fine enough, until even more recently where I've decided to FINALLY kick my IRC "addiction" (this I think was actually addictive as I constantly thought about the IRC people when I wasn't on it). Now I'm slowly trying to phase back into the real social world and make friends again.
At first glance IRC friends almost seems better than real life, but once that's all I had, I slowly realized it isn't even remotely comparable to real life friends. Although real life friends are capable of hurting your feelings much more deeply or screwing you over greater, minus those extreme situations, when actually socializing them, the experience is much more rewarding...leaving you more satisfied than the unseeable, untouchable, unhearable, unemotional irc/text friends...
Now I spend a lot of time on the Internet still, but because I'm in a phase period and still find myself with too much free time...I find myself extremely bored on the Internet a lot but still use it because there is nothing for me to do in real life.
But my time on the Internet seems to be continually (slowly) decreasing, which is good for me.
I've learned a great deal from the Internet, and still do, and from people I've met on it...that I am thankful for. No offense to Christians here, but I think the biggest good thing from my Internet usuage is slowly migrating away from Christianity, both through the help of people on IRC and resources on web pages. In "real" life it's more likely I'd have just kept myself exposed to other Christians and stayed away from non Christians...where as on IRC I had little choice. But now I am quite liberated in thought thankfully.
The Internet is also useful for up to the minute news on about any subject you're interested in, but these benefits in no way justified my 14+ hour daily usuage for about 4 years (unless I was at school, then it was about ~10+ hours usuage because the time spent at school took away time I could be on IRC).
How wonderfully ironic that this story should be published on the net. The fact of the matter is that we are all addicts. Our brains operate off of chemical reactions. The more dopamine in the chemistry, the better we feel. Therefore our entire existence is built around getting dopamine. It's an easy concept for anyone who's programmed a reward based AI.
"There is nothing more intimidating than an idiotic smile worn by a manifest non-idiot." --unknown
TV is also a problem...and possibly even worse depending on what you do with the time you spend on the Internet. If you spend that time talkign to people at different parts of the world it's likely worse psychologically than watching TV...as you end up developing a dependency on socializing with these people you really don't know. And spending several days away from the TV for the person who spends many hours a day watching TV would probably hurt hte person less psychologically than the person who spends many hours talking to people on the Internet everyday. (I'm refering instant feedback chats like IRC, not messageboards...although it can possibly be almost as bad depending on the messageboard and the setup. Here it isn't because you never really get a chance to get to know the posters and talk to them direct continously...It revolves more around discussion of these topics than socializing with people as individuals).
i'm online for way more than 4 hours a day, but when i cannot access the internet or something else because of where i am, or software problems, i don't go into withdrawal, i just do something else. heh so i'm a pseudo-addict.
SuPz.orG
4
Uhh, I work in an internet related field and am probably connected in some way or another for 9+ hours a day. I cant help it, thats just the way my job is. Am I still addicted? I'm not going to quit my job just because some shrink thinks that being online for more than a certain amount of time is addictive.
...I just don't WANT to ;)
job?
well ive noticed a lot of people who use a computer more than 4 hours a day spends much less time than that watching tv. and vice versa. i think its a one or the other situation and doesn't really matter because who cares how you spend your time anyway? as long as you pay taxes i guess heh.
tyler
daveo saw a similar study in a long time ago, but saying 5 hours. however, this is for compulsisve internet users who use it to escape reality (heheh), but we are hackers, who do rthis as a hobby, and sometimes for jobs, so it does not apply. however, there are non-hackers friends of daveo's that are on more than 4 hours a days but he does'nt see a problem with them, certainly not like alcoholistm
-DAVEO
For a lot of us, the problem is that our jobs and hobbies are pretty much the same thing. I like administering Unix/Linux systems in my spare time, as it provides an intellectual challenge to me, so it's one of my favorite hobbies. As it happens, my job is that of a Unix sysadmin. So, for my job, I spend easily 8-20 hours a day online (I work from home). Most other careers don't correspond to people's hobbies. Can you see the McDonald's clerk flipping hamburgers in their spare time? Or, the surgeon cutting open his family just for the fun of it? Or, WORST OF ALL, the lawyer who does the same as a hobby? Run for the hills! :-) I can't say whether or not it's healthy, but I certainly don't view my life as living an addiction. If I could get paid what I do, without having a college degree, in any other field, I might be doing that instead of this.
-- You have moved your mouse. Windows will now reboot.
The experience with real life friends is MUCH more rewarding mentally...unless you have really shitty friends. But that would just mean you should try to find new ones, not seclude yourself from the surronding world and talk to words.
I've had an "addiction" to IRC for the past few years, and it isn't nearly as satisfying as real life friends...plus being away from my real life friends for several hours or even minutes doesn't make me feel like I'm missing something. Where as if I was away from IRC for a few minutes I'd instantly feel deprived...and that feeling would increase as time passed.
How much time does the average American household spend watching TV on a daily basis? I would bet my K6-2 300 that it's more than 4 hours.
At the end of the article,
"Dr Kimberely Young, a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh who is advising Brussels scientists, said: "Until recently, it was regarded by some psychologists as a joking matter. But the increasing number of divorces in which it is cited as a cause of family break-up has changed this attitude."
This is ridiculous. A healthy relationship isn't going to end because someone spends too much time online. This is just yet another means for people to blame someone or something else for their problems instead of taking responsibility for their own lives. Sheesh....
What if it's part of your job? Are you then a work-aholic?
No it isn't...
With more and more productive activity being performed over the Internet, I find it unfair to dream up an addiction for it. How much time did you spend at the library doing research for an account or a term paper? How much of that is now done over the Infobahn? How about shopping, chatting idly, watching porno flicks, e-mailing grandma, and getting your news? There is time being averted from these activities, yes, but the fact of the matter is, the time that was at first dedicated to these activites has not vanished, but has simply been displaced into a more productive ways of accomplishing the *SAME GOAL*.
It seems to me that this so called *addiction* is a side effect of the explosion of computer usage in the world. A husband and wife drift apart and the husband uses his hobby (in this case, computers) to get away from the rigors of everyday life with his spouse. Instead of making love to his wife, he's working on a whiz-bang Alpha Linux box. Does the spouse blame it on the computer itself? Sometimes. But the Internet would probably catch most flack. If you're like most hardcore computer users, you've got some kind of connection to the Internet within your grasp, most of the time. Voila, the blame is put on it.
And honestly, where would we be without it? Linux would have never come into existance. E-commerce, an ever growing strain of the business, would never come to be. Software would be traded in local user groups, the good stuff never getting outside the state it was made in. Without it, we would be in a much poorer state. And, I don't know about you, but most of my experience with people outside of the country (some with damn valid opinions) comes from the Internet.
Sorry for the term paper, guys.
aÍÍ©ÍÌÍ£Ì'̽ͩÌÍzÍYÌÍÌY
What you mean is that the distance of insertion is inversely proportional to the radius of the circle and directly proportional to the digestive tract. Therefore as the radius of the circle approaches zero your head can go infinitely up your ass!
Looks like I have a problem,
I guess many of you do too, hehe.
Computer-addicts Anonymous here I come.
Did I get the first post?
Maybe thats why I only have three machines for myself. Everyone does right?
So there.
Oxygen is a very toxic gas and an extreme fire hazard. It is fatal in
concentrations of as little as 0.000001 p.p.m. Humans exposed to the
oxygen concentrations die within a few minutes. Symptoms resemble very
much those of cyanide poisoning (blue face, etc.). In higher
concentrations, e.g. 20%, the toxic effect is somewhat delayed and it
takes about 2.5 billion inhalations before death takes place. The reason
for the delay is the difference in the mechanism of the toxic effect of
oxygen in 20% concentration. It apparently contributes to a complex
process called aging, of which very little is known, except that it is
always fatal.
However, the main disadvantage of the 20% oxygen concentration is in the
fact it is habit forming. The first inhalation (occurring at birth) is
sufficient to make oxygen addiction permanent. After that, any
considerable decrease in the daily oxygen doses results in death with
symptoms resembling those of cyanide poisoning.
Oxygen is an extreme fire hazard. All of the fires that were reported in
the continental U.S. for the period of the past 25 years were found to be
due to the presence of this gas in the atmosphere surrounding the buildings
in question.
Oxygen is especially dangerous because it is odorless, colorless and
tasteless, so that its presence can not be readily detected until it is
too late.
-- Chemical & Engineering News February 6, 1956
Work... Web... IRC.. Cu-SeeMe... IRC.... I'm like a BOT
It's the other way around, people who spent less then 4 - 5 hours a day on the internet, should be considered mentaly handicapped. Besides, what if you have a perminant connection? Damn, doctors scared of technology.
Hey-- don't discount the research! Addictions are sometimes considered a DISABILITY... that might mean that if a official Internet addiction is recognized that it is possible to be considered disabled... in other words, most American hackers might be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and other Civil Rights laws... Simply put, it might be illegal for your boss to fire you for spending too much time online! Your addiction to the net might be protected under law! Hmmmm... think of the implications.
"Perhaps most amazingly, votaries of 'diversity' insist on absolute conformity." -- Tony Snow
I'd think that television addiction is a much more serious problem; at least on the net you have an opportunity to interact... I find it odd that four hours of surfing makes one an addict; I do so as part of my job, yet I often go for days or weeks without logging in or feeling the urge to. I'm sure that it is possible to be addicted to the net - but I don't think a simple time limit can be used as an effective yardstick. I've been addicted to MUDs in my day - couldn't stop playing. But I'm not (currently) addicted to the internet...
I'm only about 8 hours a day and I'm only 13. When I'm at school, Its hard to think of much but the net!
I'm online about 8 hours a day and I'm only 13. When I'm at school, Its hard to think of much but the net!
And in Belgium we tell Dutch jokes...
Funny... Didn't know the French joked about us. I thought they'd joke about the Germans or the English.
superblog.org: all your favourite blogs on o
The big break I get off the Internet and computers in general are weekends in the summer(weather permitting). I drive back to my mom's place, and just do car restoration for several hours a day. Of course, when I'm done, I journal it on a website, pictures, diagrams and all. heh. Needless to say, it makes for a much-appreciated web site for others to reference off of.
will there be coffee at the Geeks Anonymous meeting?
/me starts buzzing at the idea of caffiene.
I don't know how many people have posted similar stories. I've only read anything that was moderated over a 2 so I hope you'll forgive me.
:)
Anyway I was addicted. For me it was mudding. I was online every waking moment, if I could get away with it. My worst case was being online from about 9am to 3am the next morning. No breaks.
I'm not exactly sure why I got hooked, maybe it was the game, maybe the people on line but I did get hooked. I recognized really early on I was addicted, even before the term Internet Addiction
was known. At the time I thought I could stop if I just put in the will power to stop. I never stopped.
I eventually got kicked out of University and told not to come back for a year or two.
Sometime after getting kicked out things changed. I started spending less and less time on line. I stopped mudding. I think I just outgrew it. I didn't make any consious effort to stop I just stopped.
Now days I like to have internet access and do spend time online but I'm not bothered if I don't have net access. In the old days I would have been crawling the walls within an hour.
Shawn
Maybe it should read, if you're offline more than 4 hours a day...
There are several different types of addictions. I for one have a serious oxygen jones, but that's neither here nor there.
I agree that there is such a thing as "too much Internet." There was a sound byte this morning on the radio about some kid whose father came home every night, went upstairs, and chatted with his friends online until all hours of the morning. That particular marriage is headed for divorce. That's certainly destructive behavior, but the odds are good that if the Internet didn't exist, people with a tendency toward that kind of addiction would end up being addicted to something else -- gambling, TV, tent revivals, whatever.
There can be a good side to this sort of addiction. I joked earlier about my oxygen addiction. Take my O2 away and I get agitated. I had a friend back in my AOL days who regularly ran up $1000+ AOL bills because of the time she stayed online. I think it was silly, but it apparently gave her something she wasn't getting in real life. Her doctors agreed -- she'd been on a number of antidepressants over the years, none of which did much for her, and her depression went into remission when she was online. This particular addiction, much like mine, was keeping her alive.
Many writers are addicted to writing. Robert Heinlein described a time when he quit writing and felt vaguely sick through the entire three week period. John Campbell sent him a manuscript to revise, Heinlein sat down to the typewriter and the malaise went away. Isaac Asimov wouldn't travel unless he could write (and never on a plane, of course).
The point I'm making is that addictions can serve a physiologically, psychologically or socially useful purpose. Rather than an arbitrary number of hours a day, I would base a determination of whether an addiction was "bad" on what its results and consequences were. If you're on the net 12 hours a day hanging out in #linuxhelp while you're monitoring servers for an ISP, that's one thing. If you steal a credit card so you can pay your ISP bill, that's something quite different.
--
Someone you trust is one of us.
Yay - yet another study trying to seperate the masses into 'them' and 'us'. Sounds like the neo-luddites are back at it again.
I'm on the 'net far more than 4 hours a day. It's kind of my job description. It's really hard to do remote server administration and development on a server without being connected to it.
Plus, can you really call it an addiction when the results are usually positive? If you can, so what? Smoking and drinking are forms of addiction - I have yet to see masses of people gaining enjoyment, wealth-building employment, a great degree of education (ie. mental workout), and meaningful conversation out of a cigarette.
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
- Jeff
There are some things that Belgians should be locked up for, like your weird obsession with mussels and french fries with mayonnaise. What the heck is that all about?
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
I sometimes have to go out to sea to conduct research. In the earlier days, communication with the rest of world was extremely limited. In this type of environment one truly realizes who one truly wants to be in contact with. Everything else is a waste on bandwidth (and money).
At work I sometimes disappear into the library to read journal articles. I grab a bunch of papers and disappear into the depths of the stacks.
I use the internet a lot. But sometimes I just have to get away from everything and everybody. In this modern age of total communication and linkage, this can be one of life's last pleasures.
Off the point here but... It is interesting that you put pot at the same level as hard drugs. You should go to the Netherlands where there are millions of people legally smoking pot and yet the country has a higher per capita income than the U.S. Maybe you don't know this because your politicians don't want to acknowledge this?
Thanks. I had a breakfast meeting this morning, and your succinct clarification of my feeble attempts at unravelling this conundrum has provided me with a deeper insight into the minds of my great leaders.
As a commmunity service, Rob should track us, send warnings, and then refer us to the proper agencies if we don't log in from another network address (indicating movement of some mild sort).
This sort of passive health measure is the wave of the future...salt shakers that screech when moved, pictures of smoker's lungs on the cigarette package (which will include a free nicotine patch), pictures of smokers' lungs on Godiva and Ben&Jerry's ice cream packages. Utensils that analyse and resist picking up food that is "unhealthy". Elevators that only go to a landing between every other floor (thus always a half floor of stairs + faster elevators).
Seriously, some little nag window to say, "Take a long focus break" would probably help some with that weird can't-focus-except-at-18-inches thing.
Pets are good for that.
John
(At burning man...what...a WEEK from now?)
Isn't technology wonderful? Net addict, workaholic, sex addict, all at once!
Freud should be alive today.
4 hours? That's it? Hahahah!
... that's when addiction should be considered.
I recall my days of being seriously addicted to MUDs and MUSHes. Now THAT was addiction. People walked into the lab and said `Hey, want some crack?' And I'de say `Want some MUSH?' Two hours later they'de be all jacked up on MUSH. 4 hours a day sounds like a good, well rounded number for those people who aren't connected. 12
Bad Mojo
"If you can't win by reason, go for volume." -- Calvin
I already said this before, but my post doesn't show up unless I select one of the "newest first" sort options, "oldest first" skips it. (#273). So since it's relevant here and slashdot seems to be broken, I'll repeat it.
n et.addiction.ap/
Funny you should mention heroin (usually injected IV, for those who aren't aware). CNN mentioned injection in a story about the same study -
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9908/23/inter
Greenfield, though, argued that his estimate is conservative. He added that, just as a drug is most addictive when absorbed directly
into the bloodstream, the Internet's potential for abuse will grow with modem speeds and ease of access.
All I can say is wow. While it would be fun to do so, I think there's no need to point out how horribly flawed that logic is.
History and social circumstances have given rise to many difficult and strange occurances happening because of lack of sensativity. Hitler for one was greatly misunderstood and turned to creating a sphere of friends who had views of people who were equally disinterested in life. I dare to bet that if he had the net he might have turned out better. Might even be quite the personable guy. Back in High School I spent much time surfing the net and screwing off. This cut into many areas of my life. I had neither the time nor the interest in many areas of my life. However because I am quite driven to not fail (never have failed a class once) I managed to do quite well. The knowledge that I gleaned from the web surfing morphed into my love for linux and computers in general. I am taking classes that will make me a CS major due to this exploration. So what do I think of people who poo poo the internet I say that they are not really CS majors or people who care for the future. Most people of the future will not be concerned with any aspect of face to face communication. Coders of today do not even have to meet employers now they can just use e-mail and cvs to do their work and their bosses can check on all of their work up to the minute without fail. If I do such transactions all day long and I code for 8-10 hours a day does that count me as an addict? I would think they mean screwing off then in this case this would mean that they think the all this cannot be productive. If we use logic we can infer that since corporations are the ones' producing all of the content (at least the content that individuals use on a daily basis) that these are things that do not count or are at least not beneficial to people who are healthy or of sound mind. How would this be different from real life where all content that matters in a capitalistic society is produced by corporations this would mean that this is also is of no consequence. In most circles of everyday people the said beliefs are associated with elitests. So what matters in society today doing somewthing well or doing something that is just impressive with regard to a sociel cause? What makes this group of people different from those who wish for death to humans to make the planet safe for all other life forms (they do exits apparently a very extreme group of environmentalists) In places such a europe where most forms of behaviour are tolerated in a more liberated fashion I can not easily believe that this can be said and not be contradicotry. How far are we away from a society that will pass laws preventing people from being anti-social, from moving away from an area unless the government approves, forced programs of anti-depressants and other mind altering drugs to make people always feel good? Not very long I shall say. The problem is that at the present there are too many who would resist changes such as these and are therefore instituting them slowly and subtly. I think that acts of a self destructive nature should be tolerated and allowed to let people enjoy an optimum life.
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
the term "kernel patch"! Maybe we need "net patches", give the user a feeling of having learned something 24/7 :P (whoops, that's what info-TV is for)
Seriously... My employer pays me to sit in front of a PC nearly non-stop, and a goodly portion of that time is spent with, at the very least, a browser window under whatever I'm working on. By the time the weekend rolls around I'm sick of PCs, the internet, and everything with an interface more complicated than "on/off".
My home PC hasn't been used for anything more serious than playing MP3s and checking the current status of the state lottery in about a year.
Now, smoking on the other hand... THAT is an addiction. If I go 24 hours without getting some nicotine in my bloodstream, I go insane. If they outlawed nicotine tomorrow, I'd probably have to sell off my PlayStation to buy patches off the black market.
That hasn't happened, though, and I'm happy to say that with the help of "The Patch" I've gone 2 weeks. It's been ROUGH.
Next on the chopping block, CAFFEINE. This link says all: http://home.msen.com/~ferret/Excess.htm
I can see one big internet-related problem... Ultima Online, the first graphical MUD. That game is addictive. Plenty of people have come out of it with tales of compulsion, carpel tunnel syndrome, and (for some european players) staggering phone bills. For what? A game whose quirky too-much-like-real-life-to-be-a-game rules force a player to use 4 of his 5 characters to get virtual JOBS to support the one character that goes out and has fun. I've seen people spend 40 hours doing mindless tasks on one character to support 2 hours of hack-n-slash on another. (tasks like: use axe on tree, use knife on wood, rinse and repeat until weight limit reached, sell items, deposit gold, rinse, repeat)
I must say I agree with the addict-in-recovery that posted his tale of woe... Give meth, H, or even a prolonged course of codeine a try before you spout off about addiction.
--Threed
I just subscribe to interesting ones that I may need in the future or are just interesting and then I can just delete the accumuliated messages and post to sladhdot and update my debian system and possible my kernel. All this keeps me on the cutting edge of what is happening in the world and prevents me from being alientated from the rest of humanity.
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
This study starts from the flawed assumption that there is some magic difference between being 'on-line' and not being on-line. There isn't. Not on real OS's which have been 'internet aware' since almost the dawn of the internet (Unix).
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
I haven't had a drink in 9 years and haven't missed it.
;-)
I have never done drugs.
I deny that I'm an alcoholic or a drug addict.
Does that make me an addict?
How long before you are no longer a newbie and what's next?
I am sometimes on the net for 8-9 hours a day (yes I have had my fair share of girlfriends, one even *loved* the internet and she looked pretty good)...... and I have to symptoms of withdrawl at school or any other time when I am disconnected from my measly 56k connection (atleast I connect at almost 56k). I wish someone would perfect a wireless networking system so that if I get an adsl connection where I live I can put a small radio reciever on my roof and connect to the internet from my laptop when I am about 15 miles away from home in town. :)
---Got Coffee?---
yeah..kinda like saying track stars are running shoe addicts because they wear running shoes. Duh. Being a construction worker does NOT make you a hammer addict.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
I confess, I surf the net for more than 4 hours a day. In fact most days i am online for more than 8 hours. I have gone on surf binges of more than 14 hours at a time, only taking a break to get more pizza or another beer. Does this make me an addict? I have gone on vacations of more than month away from home, without a computer, and did not suffer any withdrawel. Also although i may be online, im usually doing something else at the same time.
Addiction is a myth created by those who would open rehab centers and try to rehabilitate us, for large sums of money.
You could state this but think of just how could it work? If you work on a project that is important enough you could be terminated for creating a sufficent monitary loss for the company to cause alientation of it's stockholders. Plus this has not be verified by the government. Sounds like the time Homer Simpson tried to gain weight because he hated to excercise and do other extra work at SNPP, he then thinks that this will give him a dream life compared to others: very little substance. In short don't quit the hard work yet ok?
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
I surf a lot, AFTER I get home from work... I could really get into a big tirade about information and the advancement of mankind but I won't, just insert all sorts of visionary futurist tripe here, add the word meme a bunch of times and you've got it. ;) Anyway, it's non-destructive as far as I can tell, unlike drikning and gambling... You've gotta have passion for something, as long as it doesn't kill your liver and your credit rating.
-- The unsig...
I quite frequently am on for more than 8 hours a day and that does not count the time i spend online at work!! What does this make me?
...I have to watch out for RSI/CTD stuff. Tendinitis and carpal tunnel mainly. I wish they would come up with better input methods than the keyboard/mouse. Voice recognition is coming along, but I want to see mind-controlled input. Already we're at the point of being able to roughly control a cursor with a particular brain wave (forgot the name of it).
Hell, I'd be willing to spend over $1000 to have a new input method. That's how important computer use is to my life! *sigh*
It would also be nice to get back into gaming and IRC. I've all but abandoned those activities because of hand/wrist problems.
NT for alpha? hahaha
If I spend 4 hours a day offline, does this mean thet I'm addicted to reality?
Hmm..some people spend lots of time at the gym...guess their addicts
Some people spend lots of time commuting...addicts
Some people spend lots of time sleeping...addicts
Oh yeah...I've heard some people even spend 8 hours a day working! Omigod they need to check in to betty
This is so stupid. I'm a software developer and have a permanent T1 connection. Does this mean I'm "on" the net all the time and hence a super-duper-whopper addict? I wonder if mister psychologist is a psychology addict.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
http://www.gis.net/~luanns/matthew/
First, I am not offended by your post. Any Christian with a mature faith should be able to freely evaluate other religions and build on the truths that they find there. I also congratulate you on staying away from "real life" friends who believed otherwise. However I hope that you are now liberated in thought enough to see Christianity from a different perspective. Commit to seeking out all the truth you can find, wherever you can find it, and please don't overlook the good principles in christianity because some of your real-life acquaintances weren't perfect.
Technically, I am "online" 24 hours a day x many machines because I have a dedicated connection to my computer at my house and I'm a sysadmin of a handful of linux, solaris, dec, and aix machines at work. And I have a beeper so I guess I'm technically working 24 hours a day also.
Bottom line the best definition of an addict is one that cannot control their use of said object, and that inablility to control that use has impaired their life in some way. For some people that means doing whatever addictive behavior once a year and they end up in jail, fired from their job, get divorced, and their dog dies. For others it may take them doing the same substance 24 hours a day for 20 years before the same kind of result happens, but for both people the problems stemmed from the same behavior and the net result was the same.
Hmmm, well that makes me an internet addict, and i don't even have an excuse, i don't use the net for work, i don't know what tcp/ip is, i don't know what ftp is, i don't even know what e-mail is... j/k
:o(
but it also makes me a college addict (at least i'm supposed to spend four hours at college a day, when i'm not skipping classes to stay home and play on the net) it makes me a swimming addict..... hang on, i'm even addicted to sleeping !!! when i can drag myself away from the net long enough to crawl into bed.....
hmm, i'm even addicted to sitting in this chair....
blimy and all i thought i was addicted to was ciggerettes
AAAArrrrrrgggh.... ooohhh noooooo... they're coming to take me away haha hehe hoho !!!!
goodbye......
I heard that studies have shown that while a person watches TV, the human brain is LESS ACTIVE than if they were doing absolutely nothing at all. I have no formal proof of this study, but I do believe it... do you?
"The voices in my head say crazy things"
Its scary if you think about it.
Linux was mostly, if not all of it, was created by folks on the internet who spend more than 4 hours a day. So if any addiction can produce such a product as linux then, more power to the addicts!
I spend about 6 to 10 hours a day on the internet and my pc, I learn new technologys as they happen. I'm a network admin, if I can't keep up with the new technologys except by reading dead tree publications, which most of them take 4 months to publish, what good am I to the company.
If we have more people "addicted" to the internet see how much more they learn, you know they are at least going to be literate, and more users means more technology to give us bigger and badder technology.
I can see folks addicted to IRC especally in the "fluff" channels. but if your in a channel with say other linux users decussing the latest programs or getting help in an area where your knowledge is lacking, I'm sorry I just cant see it as a bad thing.
"Linux the OS written by and for internet addicts"
Just another Techno-geek lost in cyberspace.
My favorite addiction is the addiction to Oxygen.
Apparently, Oxygen is so addictive; that a single breath makes on addicted for life.
However, Oxygen is extremly toxic. It has been found to kill people when its presence is measured at only 1 part per Million.
It is extremly flammable. 100% of all fires since 1965 have been reported in the presence of oxygen.
etc....
But I don't see anyone trying to ban Oxygen!?!
Quack
than the millions of people around the world that sit down in front of the TV for 4 hours + everyday? i havent heard any new articles about TV addiction.
Oh shit i read the fuckin newpaper everyday -- i'm addicted i need some fuckin help. Is there a 12 step program?
a) Stupid
b) Not Scottish enough
c) Probably catholic
d) All the above
Take anything written in this paper that isn't about womens breasts or football (US read soccer) with a pinch of salt. If you're serious about your football then just read the bits about breasts.
ZamZ
Here are the things I DO do:
go to school.
go to work.
go to the lake.
go on-line. (muck, read news, keep in touch with friends)
watch movies.
Things I DON'T do:
watch tv.
read local news.
listen to radio stations other than NPR.
get lost in an alternate fantasy on-line.
play massive amounnts of internet games.
Do I spend more than 4 hours a day on-line?
HELL YES!
Do I spend more time on-line than school and homework?
HELL NO! (heh, unless I'm not currently taking classes. *grin*)
What's yer beef?
Friends don't let friends buy Compaq's. (Dell/Gateway... same same) You want a good computer? Build it yourself.
3.14159
Addicts often deny their addictions. Most kids who are online for long hours seem to deny Internet addiction. You clever hackers joke about it; you say foolish things in your attempts to refute professional psychologists. Cast off your silly delusions and face the fact: if you spend one-sixth of your day clicking a mouse and staring at a monitor, then you have an addiction.
Those who day-trade (~8 hrs), web browse (? hrs) normal content, shop via 'the Net' (? hrs), visit porn sites (? hrs)??? Would they then be work-web-shop-sex-aholics? Ohoh, that's gotta cost a bundle going to a shrink for that or a lot of time investment going to those addiction help groups.
I'm on the Internet almost every waking hour. Am I an addict? Probably. Is it like alcoholism? Well when was the last time alcoholism could lead to a salary several times the national average? Am I going to treat it? Hell no!
Let'em call me an addict - but I need Internet in my work! I get paid for it!
--
It has to work - rfc1925
Split personality?
True Addicts don't Dial Up, We're ALWAYS connected!
Hell, I'm on IRC at home right now, even though I'm at work.
Kintanon 24/7 BABEE!
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
I think it's working, I'm only online for his sessions now.
*Carlos: Exit Stage Right*
"Geeks, Where would you be without them?"
*Carlos: Exit Stage Right*
"Geeks, Where would you be without them?"
"Got Linux?"
Well since I live in the middle of no where, there isn't much I can do... It's pretty bad when you live in the D/FW area... It's an escape from boredom and it better than tipping over cows.
-Ellis of Geeknews.com
I once was not an internet addict. I once only checked my e-mail, maybe did some ICQing, and was done for the day. But then, one spendous day, I discovered THE WONDER THAT IS POKEY THE PENGUIN. HOORAY FOR POKEY. HOORAY.
Addiction has nothing to do with the number of hours you spend doing something. An addiction can only be called as such if a habit creates a negative impact on the rest of your life, and you still keep doing it and can't give it up.
The text of the study wasn't included in the article, so it is unclear what sort of claims are being made here.
So, I fire up Netscape and spend an hour and a half downloading the latest version of the program while taking a shower, eating breakfast, and watching TV. Then I download a couple of mp3's off Usenet over the next two hours while I go out. Then I come home and spent a half hour reading e-mail and checking out Slashdot. Under the vague definition given in this article, I'm an Internet addict. Yet I have spent very little actual time glued to my monitor.
:) Must be some new treatment I haven't heard of yet...
This is one of the funniest things I have ever heard in my life. Now I'm not just shrugging this off because I do fit into this category (I use the internet well over 4 hours of time), hey, it does cut into other activities, but it is hardly an addiction. I use the internet as a means of gaining information, for communication, and, while I am currently unemployed, have used it as pretty much all of my job, having been a web master, and technical support. I could hardly consider something you use for your job to be an addiction, more of a tool. A very useful and educating tool actually. Many people talk on the phone more than 4 hours a day, as a result of their jobs, and I don't believe anyone would consider that addictive behavior, or if they talked on the phone for more than four hours a day NOT as a result of their jobs. Or reading a book, many people read books for more than four hours a day as well. In my personal opinion, I believe that these psychologists are simply attempting to grab on to the Internet bandwagon and use the fact that almost any nes, study, breakthrough, what have you which relates to the internet is almost instantly publicized, read, replied to, discussed, and then funded by somebody with a lot of cash who takes the whole thing hook line and sinker, in which case I would bet they will be rather successful. I'm not a psychologist, but I'm an internet user, and I could tell you that I can go just fine without using the internet, if my computer blew up, I would live on, I might not have a whole lot to do on those boring rainy days when nobody is home and there's nothing to do, but I wouldn't exactly be going through withdrawals. I believe if the internet was really addicting. I wonder how many hours a day these psychologists spend looking for new addictions... hope it isnt more than four, we might be looking at some kind of disorder!
That's a great story. I wish more schools taught that in grade 6.
I log a good 17-19 hours/day during weekdays; 8 at work, 11 or so at home working/playing with my 3 boxes (no games, no time for those).
Addicted? Damn right I am. Seeking cure? Hell no. Let everyone else get rid of their anti-depression drugs, booze, etc etc, and then they can come and tell me that I should get offline more often =P.
BTW, does this mean ISPs are gonna start putting disclaimers on their signup agreements (i.e. Warning: Too much time online may cause detachment with reality, obesity, carpal tunnel, random spurts of 3r33t sp34k, and other maladies)?
If I spent 4 hours a day smoking would I be addicted?
:)
Probably, but the goverment can't claim taxes from the Internet (Yet).
They said that when people are on the internet they aren't spending time with their family, freinds etc.
Well I got news for you, I don't take people to loo when I want a crap, it isn't a family afair.
Am I being anti-social?
This seems like a half assed report by EU Psychologists to try and acquire more funding.
I like it when they say:
'Experts say up to 400,000 Brits may develop Internet addiction in the new Millennium.'
Hmm, 400,000 MAY (which means they MAY NOT) develop an internet addiction in the next 1000 years.
Gotter go, I have to rob a off-license (Liquor Store) to pay for my phone bill
QBal
Scatterd shower's my arse - Noah
I'm an addict. I need the web to do my job and I work 8hrs a day
I'm an addict. I need the web to do my job and I work 8 hours a day.
I've found doing computer tech support has done about the same to me... that and I have a strange urge to bludgeon any one using their CD-ROM drive as a cup holder.
Yessir!
24/7 dynamic dialup in full effect, with obsd firewall and a couple linux boxes behind, all in a nice APC Back-UPS 650 == ZERO DOWNTIME!!!!
People that only spend 4 hours online do have a problem... they don't spend enough time online!
Coincidently, I just returned from the APA (American Psychological Association) Annual Convention. As a doctoral student in clinical psychology my pet research interest is in psychology of / psychology on the internet, and at the convention I had the oppurtunity to see presentations of the leading American psychological internet researchers.
/. effect.
And they can be just as clueless!
Actually, that is a mild characterization of their research strategy. Stronger characterizations could portray them as irresponsible researchers or economic opportunists.
Here are some of my criticisms of what I have seen / read (to substantiate the previous flammable commentary):
1) use of very large Ns, 9k to 18k, which is very rare in psychological research. With such large Ns, it is very likely that minute numerical differences will be found statistically significant. (So it is more probable to falsely find differences between groups, and for errors to be made).
2) most studies use Survey data, which is NOT scientifically rigorous! Surveys yield correlational data, which does not permit causal inferences. Common in this case: does internet use cause lonliness / depression, does depression cause internet use, or does something else (like lack of a car or geographic isolation) cause both? Survey data can not answer these questions.
3) Many psychologists do not undertand / appreciate the culture of regular or heavy internet users. They discount social contacts formed and sustained via the internet. To most psychologists, real life has no substitute, and internet relations are worthless and misunderstood. (Sociologists seem to be much less clueless and seem to be ahead of psychology at this time).
4) Two of the most prominent studies occurred exclusively on single sites, one on abc.com and one on msnbc.com.
One very real problem of this is selection bias, who do you know that regularly visits these sites? These sites cater to a specific audiece, and that audience may be VERY different from the rest of internet users, thus any results may not apply to people are not in those audiences.
...and, for those inclined to conspiracy theories
I think I remember the msnbc study advertized on the cable tv channel. The researchers do not consider the possiblility of ballot stuffing (by, say, the Religious Right to defeat the porn-riddled internet demon; or by Internet widows, who entered info for their never-available husbands (sorry for the gender stereotyping).
Not to mention net users (especially l33t kiddies) entering false info to screw with the researchers. Or possible effects similar to the
These researchers are also not technologically savvy, and they seemed to undertake rudimentary steps to prevent multiple entries / cracking, which may slant the results. (deleting cookies, ip-spoofing, yada yada yada).
Wanna go way out there? NBC and ABC hosted / sponsored these studies, who have economic incentives to see the internet get a black eye.
What about this Belgian study? Having not read the study, I can not speak directly to their research. But I know a little about Dopamine (DA), that makes me skeptical:
1- DA is strongly implicated in subjective feelings of pleasure! (how cocaine works, and maybe sex). So People who are the internet alot are having fun? This must be a problem...
2 - DA deficiency is related to Depression and Schizophrenia. Since researhcers have already claimed the internet causes depression, this coulbe be a contradictory finding.
3 - It is unlikely (probably unethical) that this was an experimental study, where they manipulate internet usage (you must surf the nt for 4 hours now, begin); or DA levels. Thus, this may also be correlational data, mini critique as above #2.
As may be evident, I am very interested in psychological and internet interactions. I am biased in favor of internet based communities, and computer mediated relationships. I am currently working on culturally sensitive internet research, and hope to present at the next Annual APA convention. So place my commentary in the appropriate context.
Hey, were these guys the same ones that said 4 hours on the phone was addictive?
I work as an admin, and of course, I spend WELL over 4 hours a day on the net. I'm doing research, writing e-mail, reading e-mail, configuring things, etc.
I know managers who use their phone for up to and over 8 hours a day doing things that take me half the time on the net. Isn't that addictive?
Oh well, these guys probably pay exorbitant rates for the Internet, so maybe there's a price ratio. Perhaps X number of Belgian Francs = addiction.
Linux - because it doesn't leave that Steve Ballmer aftertaste.
Man, I must have oxygen 24/7 or my ass is grass!
I admit it... I am an addict!
Granted, I'm no psychologist, but I do remember from Intro to Psych my freshman year that to be addictive, something must first be potentially harmful. Where's the harm in surfing the web? What's the worst that could happen, you gain valuable job skills? :)
Enough of the "I have to be on the net x hours a day, its my job!"
We all know something is an addiction when it interferes with you responsibilities. Work is your duty, chill.
Though there weren't any details, I'm sure they tried to use an average user, who is usually in an AOL chat room. That's a terrible waste of 4 hours, but I doubt its an addiction. Most people's existance is a complete waste, let em pretend they're lesbians named Brynn for a while.
If it wasn't this it would be network TV.
In my opinion it seems to be a good thing... On the net, you can only view and digest so much mental fluf untill you begin happening upon news and intelligent articles... Does anybody remember when we were warned because our kids were not reading enough? what is it now? reading too much? I think that it's about time we focus on learning, and the net has a profound effect on that.
To start, to be addicted to something means that you do it despite bad consiquenses. Like the devorces and such. For some people, it may be an addiction, but most it isn't, because if something important calls, they can just ignore the internet, and they arn't thinking about surfing all the time. It is human nature to have the possibilitty of addition with anything that is high stimulation, and give pleasure. The researchers are right in saying that the internet can be addicting, but they worded it all wrong :).
I wasn't lost... I was only momentaraly confused of my spacial orientation relative to my prime destination.
I should know, I am online for considerably more than four hours a day (usually from 8-12). I also have a hard time leaving the net for days at a time. The hard time I have is that my boss starts charging my vacation time, or if I disappear too long, he'd stop paying me.
Any study that takes an arbitrary length of time, and says "if you go past that line, you need help" is a joke. It's an attempt by some little known psychiatrist to get his name associated with a currently faddish syndrome. It does nothing to help identify the problem, it does nothing to help people who have a real problem, it just gets his name in the paper.
There are real people who have serious net addictions, to the point where it destroys any part of their lives that isn't online. These people need help, not misguided studies.
----
----
Open mind, insert foot.
At least for me, this is bullshit. Once a
pollow time I used to read newspaper for
about 90 minutes a day, watch an hour or two
of TV, read a magazine and maybe some pages
of a book. The only change now is, that I spent
all this time together on the net, reading news,
surfing entertaining sites, reading slashdot and maybe some online shakespeare (hey, I can even do that on my toilet - read othello there yesterday, just as I used to do with the books).
-- NoWonder of WonderWorks/OmegaProject
The three step program uses a microcomputer embedded into a patch, which you place on your bicep. It uses satillite phone technology to access the Internet and injects a healthy dose of packets into my bloodstream at intervals which decrease over time. Eventually my net addiction will be completely cured! (Sorry, I'm really frigging tired :)
If he doesn't I will supply a copy of the DECUNIX or NT and some software for ya :)
I have a cable internet connection (UL as well as DL), and so am online from as soon as I wake up untill I go to sleep. But I spend maybe 3 hours of that time actually behind the pc, sometimes more, sometimes less. The rest of the time I leave commander SETI in charge. Does that make me an ultra-addict, or not one at all ? Although normally (currently I'm studying for exams) I do something like 5 hours a day. I once reached an 8 hour day, over a classic modem. Weehee, did my head spin around after that one. Oh, you're wondering what I did that day ? I have to disappoint you. I was only downloading some mp3's. OK, a lot of mp3's. So ?
Myself, at least 1x per day. How about everyone else?
They're great at putting labels on people, but who are they to declare what's "normal" and what's not? Even they'll admit that "normal" is a moving target. Seems better just to live one's life the way one chooses, provided others don't get hurt in the process. Last i checked, no one's been injured by my Internet "addiction."
I could believe that on the basis that individuals who are doing "nothing" are usually having several things within short term memory as well as possible day dreaming. This base activity is lessened when any task is occuring and so would make it less all around.
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
And what about those of us who use the internet 8+ hours a day at work? Does this qualify me as an addict? I think not.
How about for your job? Web developers? Are they addicted or have problems??? Simply an idiotic notion.
The internet is a complicated communications matrix. To compare it to gambling, drug addiction, etc. is to compare apples and oranges.
I use the internet 3-8 hours a day at home and work. Why? Because it works. I suppose I'm a hopeless addict of making social connections, research, and doing my job.
Poor me.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
Previous Story:
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But seriously, although the WWW really stands for World Wide Waste of time, I'd rather see people addicted to something who's sole purpose is to make information available, than seeing their minds wrecked by substance addiction.
Hmm...get home at between 5 or 6...get online around 6...online 'til midnight at least...sometimes until 2...whenever I go to bed anyway, let's see, that's 6-8 hours a day. Hi, I'm WolfShades, and I'm a 'Net-aholic....and I love it.
Man, I do like 8 a day
I dont have a job dont have classes taking the summer off first summer i had to myself for 5 yrs have two more quaters left for my Assoc. Degree.
I spend 12+ hrs/day and when i had a job and school i spent a good 4-6hrs online/day im not an addict im a fiend.
The Belgians are the butt of *quite* a few French jokes. The Dutch and Belgians both have quite a "feud" too. Hehe... Belgian joke: How can you tell when you're flying over Holland? When you see toilet paper hanging out to dry (making fun of how they recycle *EVERYHING* [like land]). There was a good Dutch joke about Belgians but I can't remember it.
This is hogwash. I thought everyone was over the whole 'net as a drug' thing. First of all, where the heck does four hours come from? Any study that gives a specific number like that is just flat out wrong. Every person is different. It's like saying 'If you drink four beers you will be drunk.' True for some people, but not for others. It would be silly to diagnose someone as being a net addict and treat them as such, because that's not the real problem! I think 'addicts' are people who have preexisting mental conditions (depression, social anxiety, etc.-- and by conditions I am NOT implying these people belong in a hospital...many normal people have these problems). In other words, if the person learns to control these other problems, then they don't have the 'addiction' any more. The Internet is not the true cause of the problem. Psychologists who say otherwise are just trying to get published.
Umm.. what do they actually mean with online.. The workstations I use are continously connected to the internet, and I read mail as I receive it.
Websurfing and news is usually confined to before and after the work.
Am I a netaholic?
Last January my bios was fried and I was without a box for a little over two weeks and as sad as it sounds those two weeks were a god damn living hell. My box hasn't been completely off for more then five minites since. God I love you computer *hug*
So, if someone goes to work for 8 hours a day, they are addicted to it? I think that the phsycologist is perhaps on crack?! I am on the Internet for about 8-14 hours a day. That is how I make a living. My research, my job and many social acquaitances are on the Net. It is a different medium for communications. I find it much more disturbing when my wife talks on the phone for 4 hours at a time.
This is ridiculous!
I'm an adict. I have been for the last 5 years. I now have pretty much my dream job: I work graveyard, and have two T1s and 6 fast computers to play with. When I go home? I only sleep for 4 or 5 hours at a time so I can keep up on my discussion lists. So? I don't watch TV, it's boring in most cases. I don't like to get drunk or stoned, although a little sugar high always helps my quake game. No, more than anything I'm adicted. Call the FDA!
Hmmm, yep I guess I must be addicted then. I dial up first thing in the morning before I do anything else, then on and off at work, then back on when I get home... And yes, after a day or two without access i get withdrawal symptoms..but they go away if I can find something better to do...
Well that's my 2 cents worth...
David de Groot Snr Systems Engineer
If there's no nice ones waiting for me, :-), it's absolutely different with kind of addiction
If there's no spectacular news,
If the phone bill has reached the roof,
If talking to machine is getting bored,
I can leave anytime, I'm not an addict,..................I just want to spend my time usefully (to learn abt something) or to entertain myself
I'm currently evacuated from my house because of Hurricane Bret. What was the one thing I threw in my car before I left (other than a bag of clothes)? My PC. What was the first thing I did when I got in my hotel room? Plug said PC in so I could get my email. Heh.
Get fragged @ Lone Star Quake II
The BBC article references a different study than the yahoo uk article does. The BBC talks about Dr Greenfield's study, which I has the *fortune* to see as he presented. I generally discuss my reaction to both of these in a new thread (which does not appear to be up yet, or i'd show ya the quik way to it)
When people lose their moral compass, chaos ensues. Nothing is more confusing to people than the torrent of unedited bilge that passes for "information" on the internet. All manner of libel, slander, defamation, conspiracy theorizing and hate mongering have replaced, for some of our most educated and affluent households, the cohesive, well edited and carefully considered opinions and stories of traditional mass media outlets.
Naturally, many so-called "nerds" or "geeks" seek refuge from their social handicaps in a cyberspace of information content edited to their own preferences, just as they replace physical relationships involving real people with the digital images of the pornographic fantasies. It is all hyperdimensional masterbation -- by those who can no longer deal with the the challenges of a world in which rapidly changing roles and attitudes leave the unfortunate emotional cripple by the wayside.
Gradually, insideously, they diverge from the rest of society until the deadly combination of alienating self-indulgence meets with information resources never before available to those jealous of the sexual attentions of men more attuned to the needs of women -- and the result is predictable:
Women and children are killed.
For everyone's sake, we should have more compassion for these "geeks" and "nerds" who suffer subconsciously their moronic emotional IQs. If necessary, executives of corporate America should seek them out in their cubicles, and see to it that the chicks with the biggest boobs in the corporation beg the "geeks" and "nerds" to spank them like the naughty concubines they are.
Seastead this.
The most enjoyable of all jokes are Anti-American jokes by Americans..
... If anyone's keepin tabs, I avg 15 hours a day online.. Just enough time for eating and sleeping!
Anything less is about as enjoyable as these ide0 resets on my 486's 300mb hard drive... Good thing it's only a test(CoughCrashCough) box...
How do you blow up a pickup truck with a Kentucky liscence plate?
-throw anything at the back window. at the back window there's the obligatory gunrack with the obligatory Civil War musket that likes to fire for no good reason. Hit it and you're sure to shoot out the gas tank and watch the truck explode...
(and just to act on topic)
Such is the life of the on-call techie with too many sites to maintain...
.... um, i lost you after "0110100001101001".
Like other /.ers my work causes me to use the Internet for at least 6 hours a day, during the week. The weekend is my only chance to download MP3s, other than that I'm glad to be shot of the thing.
For people that use the Internet for work it's like saying we're all addicted to breathing.
Kris.
Win a Rio (or join the SETI Club via same link)
In France, they tell belgian jokes.
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
>> they generalise to much for my taste
Well, that's it exactly. After posting, I remembered about when I got my first PPP connection with Netscape. Wheee... it was new, it was engrossing, it kept me up all night. And that's the syndrome that this researcher identified.
But a few years later, the 'net is just a way to get the info I need. I don't even think of it as a separate thing anymore, it's just another resource like the telephone.
A K6-2 300? Please! Your not risking much. How about a P3-600 or K7-650? Wanna put that on the line?
YOU'RE A REDNECK IF..
Your house still had the "WIDE LOAD" sign on the back.
Taking your wife on a cruise means circling the Dairy Queen.
You think God looks a lot like Hank Williams, Jr., and heaven looks a lot like Daytona Beach, Florida.
You think the last words to The Star Spangled Banner are "Gentlemen, start your engines."
Your father executes the "pull my finger" trick during Christmas dinner.
You believe dual air bags refer to your wife and mother-in-law.
You've got more than one brother named 'Darryl'.
You think the OJ Trial is a Sunkist and Minutemaid taste test.
You were acquitted for murdering your first wife after she threw out your Elvis 45's.
You think watching professional wrestling is foreplay.
Your front porch collapses and four dogs git killed.
The people on Jerry Springer's show remind you of your neighbors
You've been married three times and still have the same in-laws.
Your sister is the third generation of women in your family to conceive a baby as a result of an alien abduction.
You carried a fishing pole into Sea World.
You lit a match in the bathroom and your house exploded right off it's wheels.
Your huntin dawg had a litter of puppies in the living room and nobody noticed.
You think safe sex is a padded headboard.
You think subdivision is part of a math problem.
You think there's nothin wrong with incest as long as you keep it in the family.
You can get dog hair from out of your belly button.
Greenfield, though, argued that his estimate is conservative. He added that, just as a drug is most addictive when absorbed directly into the bloodstream, the Internet's potential for abuse will grow with modem speeds and ease of access.
Faster modems, more addictive internet use! Now if only I could find some way to tie this in to the drug thread.
4 hours a day is addition. Ok, what if you have the InterNet as PART OF YOUR JOB?
Yeah, yeah...and at one point, the Earth was flat and the center of the Universe, taking a bath was hazardous to your health, and the Moon was made of cheese. Some day we'll look back and laugh at how backward we were (hopefully on more things than just this study!).
I find it funny all these studies talk about this addiction or another. Folks, humans have addictive habits. If there is something we like, we do it because it gives us pleasure. Lets name a few
- sex
- food
- dangerous sports (canyoening, etc)
- talking on the phone for hours
- watching TV
- playing video games
You get the picture
Ok, I will concede that if the habit influences the person such that they become violent or "bad" then it needs treatment.
But I think there are worse habits. Lets worry about those first...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Maybe if you lose the gut you could. Take yoga lessons or something.
Okay, so some people have problems. Does that mean it's a wide-scale societal problem? No. People get addicted to lots of things. So what?
Switch the . and the @ to email me.
whacking off" *smirk* If you doing that for more than 4 hours a day then you REALLY need a girlfriend.
You probably also need a band-aid!
Ouch!
Iamnotaddictediamnotaddictediamnotaddictedi...I DO NOT USE THE COMPUTER 10 HOURS A DAY!!! I NO! NOT! NONONONO! THAT PROGRAM ONLY TOOK 5 MINUTES TO MAKE! NOT 5 HOURS!!! NONONOONONOONONO!!!! YOU CANNOT MIX CODING AND DEBUGGING TOGETHER!!! STOP IT!! YOU KILL MY FrIeNddddddd.....no............why.......
Well, I spend most of my work-time on the web, so that's like 6-7 hours a day...
But I'm not addicted to surfing, I'm addicted to easy-access information. I live in Austin, see? #3 in the most wired American cities--if your business doesn't have a web presence here, it practically doesn't exist. Hell, there are even stores that are shut down that maintain a web presence! When I leave Austin, I'm going to really, really miss knowing what's happening around town all the time, any time. Is it addiction? Maybe. Do I think it's bad? Hell no-- every city should support this addiction!
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
My computer is on the internet 24 hours a day, but I pay no attention to the internet except for my ICQ list most of the time, so I guess I'm not addicted to the internet.. compiling stuff, now THAT is antoher story.. I'm addicted to compiling and recompiling and recompiling :) Seriously though I swear I spend more time tuning and tweaking my system than actually using it..
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Is this for real!? I swear this is from The Onion!
I don't know about Slashdotters but I have a hard time leaving the net for days at a time. I have a lot of online friends on IRC and it really makes me lonely and bored to leave...
I don't know... just think its not something to really joke about. It may be pathetic but some people really rely on the net for their happiness...
Josh
Ok, so I admit beeing online for more than 4 hours a day - sometimes up to 10 hours. I just don't think beeing an Internet-addict is as devastating as beeing an alcoholic or drug abuser ;)
... there are three types of net-addicts out there (and yes, I've posted something similar to this before): those addicted to convenience, those addicted to information, and those addicted to fantasy.
The first type is the impatient I-want-it-NOW sort of person. Probably s/he's also got a cell phone and/or a pager, and gets real unhappy if the SO isn't in constant contact, or if the circle of friends isn't heard from at least twice a day. Mostly does things that s/he would be doing anyhow, but does 'em all online because it is (or seems) faster than more conventional methods. If the net connection goes down, they turn to the phone. If the phone is down, they might well drive out to see the people they maintain constant contact with.
The second type (and I am admittedly one of them) probably has an obscure interest or several, and definitely has a lot of intellectual curiosity. If their net connection dies, they might get a little twitchy at first, but will probably search out a large bookstore or some other non-Net source of info. (And hey, I've been offline for 15 days because I was at Pennsic. No Internet hookup there! Didn't bother me much, but now I have to clean out Ye Olde Inbox.)
The third type tends to be sort of the stereotypical net-junkie who lacks RL social skills. I also saw this a lot with gay and bi friends who were not comfortable being out of the closet IRL, and pagan friends who weren't comfortable with being out of the broom closet IRL. The 'net is a security blanket, and an excuse to avoid a reality perceived as unpleasant. They are the ones who are really lost if the plug gets pulled.
To my way of thinking, the third type is the most self-destructive (though occasionally, the first type has other problems like being a controlling and even abusive mate).
The main problem with type 2 net addicts like myself is that occasionally productivity goes out the window if we're off chasing after 17th century poetry or whatever (or reading
:)
"Somebody exploded a letter-bomb today
I'm definately addicted to the internet. When I'm away from my computer (always on the internet for my home/business network...) I start to get antsy and I'm easily distracted. I spend way more than 5 hours online every day. It's pathetic.
chris
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. With a 24 hour/day connection, it's just there, all the time. It's not a matter of "going online".. You're always online. It becomes another thing in the house, like television. You can't imagine being without it.
I was like that until I moved and lost my permanent connection. I need another connection.. ARGH! Losing it is like losing an arm. You never notice how important it really is until you don't have it anymore.
---
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
So, I used to be an (active) heroin addict - been inactive 4 years.
All I can say is this: I used to wake up and go immediately to the bathroom - do my biz - look in the mirror and ask mysel "what do i need to do today to do what i need to do today?"
These days I wake up and lay around for at least a half hour. If I have more than 4 hours of mork to do on my box (which I do at leat 6/7 of the time) I put it in. More often than not I find myself staring at a tube at least 8 1/2 hours a day. But guess what?! If I don't feel like it or don't need to.. I don't. I wholeheartedly encourage these researchers to spend 3 weeks straight on an opiate or some kind of meth and then pull out before they start throwing numbers around and talking about addiction.
putting this into perspective, i bet a lot of people would say "doing xyz for more than 4 hrs. a day implies addiction".
TV, listening to music, whacking off, reading, surfing, bible study, eating, mowing the lawn, doing social studies relating to addiction.
If you pick say three of the above, and mix it up a bit during the week, i bet you're safe.
This just sounds like another attempt to blame something else for peoples' behaviour.
Regardless of how much time someone spends online, the real point comes down to the rest of their behaviour. If their online time takes away from their responsibilities, then that's the problem, whether they spend 15 minutes online or 15 hours.
It's time to hold the individual responsible for their actions (and the results thereof), rather than looking for scapegoats in an effort to avoid the real problems.
Not to say that addiction can't be a problem, but addiction should be addressed by focusing on making sure the individual is taught how to deal with it, not by myopically focusing on the subject of that addiction. Some people will become addicted to something, and many won't become addicted to anything. Addiction is in the person, not in the object that they may be addicted to. To say that anyone may become addicted to something based on some fixed amount of exposure is foolish and misleading, and diminishes the efforts of those trying to fight real addictions.
Nunc Tutus Exitus Computarus.
That's right. I'm not an addict. I can quit anytime I want.
I just don't 'cuz nobody likes a quitter.
VENI! VIDI! VICI!
Hoo-rah.. more psycho-bullshit by the people who understand nothing about the internet or about computers in general (or about psychology, it seems...)
They might as well say that newspapers or nightclubs or video games are addictive like alcohol.
Heck, let's go back to puritanism and say that anything fun is from the devil.
What a load of shit.
I can still remember when I used to spend on average 6 hours a day on the net.
Then I got bored and did other things.
2
Don't be so quick to dismiss their findings. Consider for a moment that there might be some truth to what they are saying.
The history of recorded human communication goes back about 6000 years. Almost the first 5900 of those, the primary means of communication was face to face (and letter writing, but, it took a long time to send and receive a response.) In the last one hundred years the technological advancements have given us other options in communication.
Large scale usage of the internet (email, chat-rooms, newsgroups, Slashdot, etc...) as a medium to communicate has only been around for less than 10 years. This has dramatically changed the way people communicate.
Initially many social scientists thought the internet would be a wonderful advancment that would greatly improve how humans relate to each other. They thought that the internet would provide the means to improve social interaction thereby improving a persons overall hapiness and sense of self fullfillment and self-worth. They have been surprised because just the oposite has occurred.
They have begun finding that those who are spending a large amount of time on the internet are becomming less social, more depressed, and less able to carry on normal relationships with real people.
Think about it. Communication on the internet is very shallow. You don't really know the person that you are communicating with. You tend to "let your guard down" when on the internet which can help create a false sense of intimacy. You end up telling complete strangers things that you wouldn't even tell your own husband or wife.
The internet is very powerful and can be used for great good in our everyday lives, but, without self-control, it can become an addiction...an escape from normal healthy communication that involves real people (not their internet personas).
I thank God (rather than Al Gore) for giving us the internet because it can be used to help us in many many ways, but, without self-control I also see the internet as one more way that we can escape reality and escape the things that are really important...God, family and friends.
In conclusion I would say, send email, chat to some friends, post in a newgroup, but...by all means make sure you leave that box that seems to suck up all your time and go read your kids a bedtime story, invite your neighbors over for a beer, and actually kiss your wife and maybe even actually talk to her a little before you go to bed at night. Some things are a lot more important and meaningful than Chat rooms.
I don't think one single person on their deathbed who is recapping how they lived their life, will say "I wish I had only spent more time on the internet."
My business is virtual but the money is real. I work 18 hour days, weekends and holidays quite often cranking out code, doing web updates, doing research, and giving tech support for my software. I took a 6-month sabbatical about two years ago where I turned off my computer and started reading books, taking walks outside and generally enjoying myself without my computer. So am I addicted to computers, The Internet, to a successful business or am I addicted to doing something I find pleasurable?
Here's someone who read "How to Get Rich Quick Off of Internet Morons" and decided to go from a
Psychologitst to a P$YCHOLOGI$ST!
20 years ago this when this psychologist was a kid was having the time of his life in college, drinking, smoking, partying on wednesdays, etc...while the engineering and science students (and a few other tough majors) spent their time studying and *praying* for an ounce of time for fun on the weekend. Now finally after probably eleven years of schooling (thats the amount of time required for anyone majoring in *just* Psych to be taken seriously) he or she's grown tired of working for Barne's and Noble and realizes...HEY! I can call this Internet thing an ADDICTION! I can falsify a bit of information, conduct a completely biased study and then write a real quick paper this weekend, and still have enough time to go partying. It'll be JUST LIKE COLLEGE!
The sad part is that a lot of people will buy into this...Mostly other people with liberal arts degrees, and force their husbands, wives, or children who have a *slight* intrest in technology to go pay for some "treatment" (sessions with a therapi$t or drug$) rather than actually spend time with them or redirect them towards other hobbies as well...
You say you want a revolution?
What point are you trying to make? I think watching TV for 4 hours a day (1/6 of your life!) qualifies as unhealthy also.
This is an interesting "mental illness." I'm still trying to figure out how they determined that four hours a day or more constitutes addiction.
In my case, I'm in charge of documentation, training and publications for a small start-up company. Part of my job is being on the Web for at least four hours a day on an average day, including reading Slashdot, in order to keep track of what's happening with Linux and report on it in detail to the rest of the company. But with my free time, I'm doing other things: hanging out in cafes, writing short stories, enjoying the natural beauty of North Georgia, and sometimes stirring up trouble. And of course, I play with Linux and crypto an awful lot. It's not a cheerleader-level social life, but it's fairly healthy, given the circumstances.
And yet, despite this, it seems that my four hours a day of Internet activity is enough to get me scheduled (sp?) for therapy.
I suppose its easier to write up a new mental illness with a cookie-cutter diagnostic method than to take a look at the life that a patient is leading, and lead them on to a new, healthier life. Unfortunately, it doesn't necesarily mean that people's lives are going to improve any.
Finding God in a Dog
Using the same logic, when psychologists think/talk/breathe psychology for more than 4 hours a day then this also indicates addictive behaviour. Would they agree that they should be treated for this affliction, likewise?
The only thing that their prognostication indicates is that they don't understand that the Internet is the medium in which we exist. It's no more an addiction for us than it is an addiction for a fish to stay most of the time in water.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
I have a choice of vedging in front of tv watching the sci-fi channel, or spending time on the Internet doing something constructive. Actually, I spend about 12 hours a day on the internet (a modest estimation), but then, I'm running an ISP - good excuse. Psycological withdrawal results mostly in anxiety - but since my job depends on my being on the internet, it's an acceptable addiction in the eyes of the public, much like an addiction of programming and hacking is acceptable when applied to programmers. But God help me if I have a regular job and I spend all this time on the Internet - they'd say I was bonkers and try to rehabilitate me. So, it's all a relative thing. For me, I'm happy researching and developing and it doesn't disrupt my personal or work life, so it's a beneficial addiction. (I don't have a computer at home, so when I leave, the internet stays at the shop - keeps my wife happy - but now she's wanting a computer...)
Addiction of things like cigerettes, and cocaine are caused by nicotine and dopamine (respectively) through a chemical/molecular process. Addiction to gambling is like being addicted to rollercoasters, except with destructive consequences. If casinos were responsible and checked IDs at the door and restricted those that had been requested not to be allowed to enter because of "addiction".
Internet use has very little to do with dopamine levels, the shrinks just want a whole new group of unnecessary patients. If dopamone adjustment resulted from computer use, like cocaine, then more and more computer use would be needed to satisfy. While in some cases this might be true, a vast majority of those online 4 hrs a day aren't in this category, even if those in work are disqualified.
Does it matter how we loose ourselves, online, in books, in a crowd or by watching TV? When we don't pay the bills we will still end up homeless. The number of ways to escape is growing day by day. With every one of them there is going to be a majority of people that will be just fine.
Some are not. Some people will flunk school, get fired and evicted because there's something taking up way too much of their time. Some people just need to loose themselves for whatever reason.
I have a friend who uses drugs and I myself sat locked up in a musty apartment for two years with a 14.4 modem. By choice.
She hasn't found a reason to quit poisoning her body and I didn't find any reasons to go for a walk in the park.
Some people have a need to loose themselves. It isn't until that need subsides they end up with and addiction they will want to get rid of.
If your habits are stealing time from other things you'd rather do, if your habits prevents you from returning books to the library, if your habits are hurting you and others then you are probably addicted (and miserable), and you should seek help if you can't break your habits yourself.
The Yahoo article seems to be a very crude simplification of the findings of those psychologists. To establish if a person is addicted to something you need to know more than just the usage (of the something). How many hours you are connected to the Internet is just a tool to indicate a possible addiction. It is not what determines the diagnosis.
It's the reporter that needs to be put under scrutiny rather than the psychologists. The language of the article is rather provocative (kind of like the author is trying to ridicule them psycologists).
Tina.
Sattinger's Law: It works better if you plug it in.
The shrinks had to get in on the Internet "craze" somehow. Make sense that they would "invent" a four hour timeframe as proof of addiction - it's short enough that they can claim anyone who works in the IT field is "addicted".
:-)
I'm "online" at my computer(s) in one capacity or another for at least 8 hours a day, and usually more. But when I'm out with my friends or off running an errand, I'm not thinking about how long I'm away from a 'Net connection, or when I can next go online.
These researchers should get a life, instead of studying other people's. Belgians - like they've got useful ammounts of bandwidth!
-- Perry Ketter, a.k.a. IceStorm
I'm online far more than 4 hours per day.
... ;)
... admitted we were powerless over packets ..."
But I can quit any time I want to.
I just don't want to
LankyGeek
***********
"
... an unabashedly undaunted newbie
3.14169
After 15 hours a day of sitting in front of a computer, i cant even look at one outside the office without feelling sick.
If my computer isn't networked to the internet, I go insane. If I get any news from the outside world it's usually through the net than from the TV or newspaper. It's just a big information stream where I know where to look for everything and there's always something to do on it. If I'm on vacation I do go into withdrawls because it's just a damn lot easier to look up hotel information and maps through the internet than to trek down to the Chamber of Commerce to look up this stuff. And most of the time there's someone I have to meet up and when I'm late or have some other important message to send to them, the internet is easier and cheaper than a long distance phone call (if you haven't arrived yet).
I rely on it too much to give it up and perhaps it is addiction and maybe not. There is a lot of information out there that I use on my convience. If I need specs on a NIC, I can find it. If I'm troubleshooting and ran out of ideas, there's OpenSource net and people I can ask. Travel information is also handy to find here too. I don't think I can live like the way I did before I hit the internet.
~~~NO CARRIER~~~
i think it depends on exactly what you're doing when you're online.
aimless web surfing? surfing for warez/mp3's? maybe those two aren't so good.
reading online documentation/literature? well, i'm sure no one would say you have a unhealthy addiction if you read a book four hours everyday.
chatting with friends online? is it an addiction to talk to your friends?
surfing aol chat rooms for some 18/f's to cybersex? maybe that's not so good.
of course, most people's online experiences are a mix of these things and others. like all generalizations this one isn't completely correct. it's not necessarily bad to "addicted" to something, or at least the word "addiction" gets thrown around in the wrong way. everyone is "addicted" to breathing but we wouldn't say it like that. we need/like to breathe and it doesn't do anything negative.
an "addiction" is only harmful or only a real addiction when the person can't stop it even though he knows it's ruining his life. for example, some would say that a $1,000 a week gambling habit is an addiction. but if it's bill gates doing it, losing $1,000 a week isn't going to hurt him and shouldn't be called an addiction.
being online for 4 hours a day has the possibility to ruin aspects of your life, certainly if you're married and you're surfing for cybersex (which it seems a lot of people are). or maybe you could ruin your marriage doing something more innocent online, like playing quake. or maybe doing something that has nothing to do with a computer.
anything can be an addiction. so, hey why not write an article about the internet as an addiction. it might even got posted on slashdot!
i guess i can add the internet to the things i'm addicted to.
If /. goes for more than an hour or two without a new story or posting... I get pissed!
/. doesn't get updated much between 1 and 5 AM!... urg.
What's really annoying is that
I think that you guys who spend more than 4 hours a day on computers are engaged in a healthy activity. If it is an addiction, it is a lot better than drinking or drugs or gambling, because the alcoholic and the drug user and the gambler are left penniless and destroyed, whereas the computer addict ends up with good computer skills, and will probably enhance his or her life.
But I suspect that quite a few internet addicts spend their whole time in pointless chat communities, or viewing pornography, or whatever else, and are definitely not aquiring skills like how to program in Java, or how to create dynamic web pages, or other activities that sharpen the mind. I think that this is the kind of person that the article is talking about.
Also, even for true computer hackers such as yourselves, if you have a wife or family, you have to control yourself, and make sure that you have real relationship time. But that would apply to any other activity (flying, golf, work, etc.).
Psychologists and Psychiatrists suffer from the delusion that everything and anything seen, said, done, eaten, thought, shitted by human beings and their pets (don't laugh, you can get prozac for your dog) can be analyzed, catagorized, explained, downplayed, made fun of and used to bill $200 an hour. Treatments for this neurological disorder (commonly referred to as psychobabbleosis) range from the simple (wearing headphones and ignoring them) to the extreme (3 foot wedgies combined with a mandatory mellow-out joint) and should be well prescribed in advance. Note: Telling one you don't have any medical insurance has been known to induce immediate mouthshutitis, but risks the side effect of nevertalktoyouagain syndrome. Use with caution and not on close relatives or true friends. Use due caution. Further Reference: Anyone who has almost been committed to an institution.
is this 4hrs in a row or 4hrs out of 24?
anyways what about people that watch tv, play sports, read, sleep for mroe than 4+hrs, are they all addicts too.
3
I'd like to see a poll on how many hours we spend actively using the net each day. Constant connections don't count. Only time that you spend actively using the net. Sitting in front of the computer would be good criteria.. after all.. even if i'm watching my 100 meg file download.. i still consider that using the net. If I set it to download, then walk away however, i don't (for this context anyways). I probably spend 10 hours a day at least in front of my computer. maybe more. I work with computers, I go to school where i take mostly computer related courses. My girlfriend recently moved to another state, so we communicate mostly through the net.
-- "I feel a strong disturbance in the for.."\*Segmentation Fault*\ (core dumped)
Many people use the 'net in the course of a day in their workplace, to accomplish something related to their jobs.
To say that more than 4 hours per day online is a sign of addiction is a foolish blanket statement to issue.
What they *should* say is "more than 4 hours per day for recreational/personal purposes...." instead.
Computer-addicts Anonymous here I come.
oo, oo! wait for me!
Insert mind here.
Unless it interferes with your ability to function in society you can call it whatever you like, it's just nobody's biz. If you find yourself losing jobs, family members or watching your finances go to pot, then maybe it's a problem. But if you wanna inet all day long and it isn't getting in the way of anything who the hell cares. As for escapism...like I said, as long as it doesn't get in the way of being a "productive member of society", who cares. We ALL find some form of escape from our work and even family, it doesn't make us criminals.
So I guess if you sleep more than 4 hours, your an addict. Or maybe if you work more than 4 hours? Sounds like people have a lot of addictions. The only reason psych's don't call these things addictions because to do so would be immediately recognizable as ridiculous. The only reason they are saying this is that they're looking for more ways to make money. As far as I'm concerned, it does not matter how much time I am doing one thing, as long as it does not take away from my responsibilities or adversely affect my health
I probably average around 4h/day (including surfing from work), but I would have been the last person to think/admit this could be a problem.
I moved to a new apartment last weekend. The computer was moved, but the cable modem wasn't hooked up yet. Without the internet connection I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do with the computer anymore, even though I used to use it a _lot_ without the connection. (came from a small town without 'net hookup)
I didn't want to watch T.V. I wanted to read Slashdot, and update my CVS of Crystal Space, and download VMWare, and upgrade my old version of Enlightenment...
Maybe this isn't healthy. Or maybe I've just grown used to something a little more intellectually stimulating than sitting in front of the T.V all the time.
I dunno...
There are those who are addicted, and there are those who just know the value of a good communications medium. I have a friend who *is* addicted, and she's almost always in some chat room or another. in fact, that's how she and I met. That was seven years ago.
Then there are folks like me, for whom life online is simply part of life. I communicate via the net, do research on problems and items of interest, keep up with the news, and so on.
It would irritate me to lose my connection, but I'm not going to become depressed or suicidal or homicidal because of it. I do have a life, and lots of other stuff to do.
Besides, I went through the no logon shakes fifteen years ago (grin).
Mark Edwards
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request
Seems psychology is once again missing the mark. Its no wonder, its a "science" founded moreso on authoritive opinion then a systematic understand of the actual workings of the mind, man, and life. Of course, I'm spewing my own opinion. I guess that makes it immediately valid in their circles? ;)
... in the "this is the gayest thing I ever heard" category. I mean, come on. I'm "online" probably 12 - 20 hrs per day. I don't see how it qualifies as "addiction" since when I don't do it I don't have any kind of "withdrawal." Do I want to check my email all the time? Sure. Do I go into convulsions if I don't? No. Why do I want to check my email all the time? Because phone rates are ludicrous. This is how I communicate. If a lot of your friends are 4 states away, how else are you going to communicate with them? So, what, am I addicted to communication? Addicted to friendship? God forbid the world has more communication or friendship. Who came up with this gay idea? Yeah, there are people who've become addicted to the Internet, just like there are people who are addicted to sex, or addicted to any of these other stupid things taht you can now legally be addicted to, but does that make everybody who uses the Internet a lot addicted? Do people who drive hundreds of miles a day get "addicted" to driving? Do people who call all over the place (eg telemarketers) get addicted to talking on the phone? No. This is the gayest thing ever. Well, this week at least.
Can I have the k6-2? The average is between 10 and 12 hours weekly.
Hmm.. in grade 6 I remember reading a story called "The Great Tomato Addiction." It went on and on with statistics about how 90% of the population was addicted to tomatoes. (95% of convicted criminals have eaten them, etc..) It also proved that tomatoes are really addictive too... when an addict is denied tomatoes, they invariably turn to other substitutes, such as potatoes, beef, etc. If an addict is denied tomatoes and all substitutes, they will die within a few weeks!
Now that's a REALLY serious addiction problem! If "internet addicts" are denied their addiction, at least they don't die from it!
This is one "study" I'm not going to take too seriously.
what if it's your job? does that make you addicted? or what if you're downloading 1.2 gigs of debian, does the 100 hours that i spend downloading debian count? I wasn't actually ON the internet, my computer was. These scientist must learn that those of us who are ALWAYS on the internet are probably USING it, unlike those folks who log on for 10 minutes to check their email, or who log on just to "buddy chat" on aim. When i'm not using the internet often i fire up emacs and code, i let my computer download MP3s while i'm coding, then when i do want to log on and read slashdot i don't have to have my bandwith hogged by my downloads.
Oh I guess im addicted to the internet. Damn, that is a shame. Oh crap, I think im addicted to breathing and thinking too. Better stop them, hehe. Also addicted to transportation and music.
What are their credentials? Where is there evidence? Where is their proof? What methods were used in their study? Why should we believe them at all?
... don't let people tell you what you should think. Use your brain.
I love these journalists that go spouting off about studies because they happen to fit with their own mode of thinking. They'll have all of us on some syndrome sooner or later...We'll all be victims and their will be no accountability for anyone's actions.
Sheesh. Has anyone heard of responsible journalism?
Be skeptical whenever you read anything in the press
My journal has hot
Hey, we may be addicted, but we're still running this country, so Nyaaaaah!
Now if you'll excuse me, somebody called from the Metro Area Sanitarium and said they were having problems with their OC3...
--
I'm not addicted! I can stop at any time I like....i just choose not to... Jason
We US citizens with Canadian relatives get special perks on hearing the best Newfie jokes, BTW. :-)
Remember, people in glass houses shouldn't get stoned!
8P
Geez! our stupid american pop psychology has spread over seas! I wonder if i can tell my boss this, since my job requires that I be on the internet 8+ hrs/day. Does this mean I can now start suing everybody and file for disability and also get retraining and file for Workman's Comp and not have to work at all because I am a 'victim' now?
Hmmmmmm........
If you're using the computer/net for long periods of time, remember to think about your eyes. I'm not just talking about how they make your prescription worse or something. The monitor dries out your eyes and makes it difficult to fight off infections, even when you blink alot.
My advice, if you get an eye infection, take a sick day and stay off the computer. Remember many parts of your eyes don't receive direct blood flow - which has your immune system uses as a transport.
After some time dogging presidential hopeful George W. Bush over whether he used cocaine, the press has turned its spotlight on democrat frontrunner Al Gore. Vice President Gore declined to answer questions from reporters about whether he uses the internet more than four hours a day.
in other news, it was recently revealed that Carl Sagan used the internet regularly, and in fact was secretly an avid user of an early, text-based prototype of the internet at some point in the 80s. His biographer revealed this, as well as the fact that before his death he posted several pro-internet comments on slashdot.org under the nick "Mr. X". The internet may have also inspired some of his scientific writings.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
You know, I think I'm glad most of the posts are from people who don't seem to get the point of the article. Hopefully it means that don't know anyone who is destroying their lives with freakish levels of Internet use. Back in '94 I wrote an article for the University paper about Internet addiction, when text based MUDs and MOOs were the big thing. I knew one girl who skipped all of her classes to be in chat rooms, hooked up with guys she met online and literally bathed only when she was about to spend the night with some stranger who bussed in for the weekend. Her roommate feared for her life, and the school took away the girl's Internet access. She seemed fine for a little while, but got back her account for a class and ended up flunking out a few months later. If you'd like to see the article e-mail me at mattwmiller@hotmail.com. Remember, I wrote it as a College Freshman, so I refuse to be held responsible for the quality of the writing.
Is it "addictive beahviour" to read books and newspapers for four hours a day?
If not, then why is it "addictive" to read the same material on a computer screen?
This is silly.
Eight hours each day, 5 days at work, plus the rest!!! I'me a work addict,
Please! is there somewhere I can be rehabilitated?
;)
Hell, I probably spend less than four hours a day off the Internet (except for sleep, of course). At work, I have a browser open the whole time, check my mail about once every fifteen minutes, etc. etc., and at home, the first thing I do when I get back from work is fire up ppp. Am I addicted? Hell yes! And guess what? I wouldn't have it any other way.
Surfing the net for extended periods of time is only bad if you're losing touch with yourself, the goings on in the "real world", or are otherwise sacrificing things like friends, family, personal happiness, money, etc., just to get connected and live in that "connected" state.
I'd say in many cases, being online connects you to more people, makes you more aware of the goings on in the real world, and increases your chances for personal happiness. You just have to know how to use it right, and you have to know when to say "okay, I'm turning into a vegetable, time to go do something else."
Making a blanket statement that anyone who spends more than 4 hours online has a mental illness is completely irresponsible.
You know, most people on the 'net do two things: Email and websurf. But some people websurf for the sole sake of surfing - trying to acquire as much information as possible.
/. every 10 seconds for a new article) is related.
If you're using it for work (researching), or downloading mp3s (questionable), that isn't the problem. It's those that decide to get on the 'net and surf continuously. Maybe the obsession to check email every 10 seconds (like refreshing
Some people download information like others smoke/drink/etc. It's always one more link, one more tidbit. I know, I've been one of them. (Of course, these kind of people might blab on about *everything*... from wahtever they've gathered).
I used to get into fights with my wife because she said I was spending too much time online. Then, I got tired of fighting and decided to talk things out with her. In the end, what it came down to was : You're having fun, while I'm there getting bored out of my life.
We then proceeded to find something for her to do. It was as simple as getting her a computer of her own, and hooking her up. I guess I've become her pusher. We spend alot of time online. Me working on my system, working remotely, and her chatting with far away r/l friends. We dont fight much anymore.
We have a kid. The kid was born with a computer addiction. I'm having trouble keeping him off the keyboard / mouse, and he's only 2. Is he going to grow into some kind of sociopath ? I ask the question.
Sun Tzu must have been running Linux...
- Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. (Sun Tzu, The art of war)
Marriage is considered capital punishment for the theft of a goat in some third world countries...
I design websites .... so I'm online .... I also am
.... but am I an addict?
.... or visit
::gasp:: that ever faithful
well over 4 hours a day
working on a job over the internet, until
I move.
So I'd say I'm online everyday over 8 hours
doing my thing
Probably
When I'm not on the internet, I do something
else, I read a book, or go outside
the trend-filled mall o' fake people.
It's not like I start frothing at the mouth and
have an anuerism that
ISP took a turn for the worse.
"Smile
Maybe someone should tell him it is also addictive behavior to waste more than 4 hours a day formulating horrible theories about addictive behavior. Does he also know that he is addicted to such horrible things as: breathing, eating, and urinating? They have horrible symptoms of withdrawal such as: death, suffocation, and spontaneous bladder eruption.
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Man if those belgian guys find out about the swiss army language perl then BANG! they are gonna declare is an addiction just today i said. hey why can't perl help me change my oil? why can't perl turn off the lights? why can't perl help me build a better, more loving relationship with my girlfriend? It can. http://www.perl.org
I used to enjoy sitting in front of my computer, but then I got lazy and I don't use my brain here anymore. I used to program and learn stuff all the time, but now I've forgotten all the C I knew and my mind doesn't want to absorb any new info.
I used to know tons of C, lots of C++, some perl, some shell scripting, even a bit of assembly. When I was little, I was the god of Quick Basic. But I've forgotten all of that, which is really frustrating. Now I sit in front of my puter for hours thinking nothing but "Gee, I'll check slashdot again. Nope, nothing new. I wonder if I have any mail...." I try learning stuff again, but it all goes in my eyeballs and out my ears.
I don't know if this is due to sitting in front of my puter too much or what. Anybody have a cure for brain-deadedness?
Yup. I'm an addict. :D
:)
I'm prolly on ~6-10 hrs a day. (Incl. work)
...And guess what... I DON'T CARE!
But (get this) I still have a social life! Outside of the internet!
Isn't that impossible for an ADDICT like me?!
I dunno. Humans are silly.
--KMM
=-=-=-=-=-=
Ever since I started college and got a LAN connection, I've been dependent on the net for things I "remember." Like "I think that's on hyperreal. *click* *click* *click* here you go."
Not quite what they were talking about, but something to consider, especially with the direst Y2K warnings.
I also hear that if you work more than 4 hours/day, then you are addicted to work. I think that the government should intervene in this case and subsidize you not to work so long!
Hi, my name is Jimhotep
I'm an information addict
I want to know things
Help me
I know I should vegetate in from
of the TV for hours, I just can't.
Please help me.
Maybe the govt. should GIVE me
a T1 so I can cut back on my
time online.
Wait! It's genetic, it ain't my
fault!
Just remember the first sign of addiction is denial :)
I got a summer job at my college so I could stay on the dual T3's. But can you blame me?
I work Online between 10 - 16hrs a day..
/.)
I have DSL at home and a dailup for the laptop.
I guess I'm an addict, but it makes me money. How many addicts can say that about thier addiction? I don't go through withdrals (cept for
P.S. I guess my spelling is the largest negative side effect.
Sorry man I don't controll the aliens.
The thought has occured to me that perhaps addiciton is the wrong word. Recently I was building my friends computer for him (sweet system mind you..now if he could only decide on an OS). Antoher buddy of mine made the comment that computers are like the cars of yester-year. By that i mean, remember the days when guys used to get together and work on a car and suck down beers all day? Well...now we build a computer all day and suck down massive quantaties of caffine. Yet, this is just a symptom of the greater shift. Were a new generation of america. America is even a bad word...a new generation of the industrialized world. Insted of getting together to watch a movie with a group of people...we go and play Quake2 with a bunch of people. its a new social forum. Frankly im happy that i can talk to some person from the south pacific when im from the midwest of america. its not that were addicted to the internet...were just different. We all know what kind of verbal abuse the avid computer enthusiast gets these days. persoanly, i smell an whole world load of FUD. Even governments are afraid to tackle the internet. I say...give it time...let the shift happen...and let the people of times past make their statements. I for one use the internet extensively... sometimes way more than 4 hours a day...but i also go out with real flesh and blood people. Does this make me addicted? no. It makes me a user of the times and the world. If im away from the internet...i dont got into shock...i dont break out in massive grand mal siezures either...i can live without it. sobeit...this is the way i see things...so...maybe im wrong...maybe i am addicted...Inet anonymous...here i come...otherwise...im happy...nuff out of me...
My sister is terrible...she comes home, sits in front of the computer and logs on. She is on for atleast 4 hours, and plays nothing but IRC. She gets shitty when someone wants to use the phone, we have only one phone line to *discourage* this hogging of the line by a certain internetter, but i doesn't appear to work. She thinks that since everyone at home as a mobile, calls in and out should be made thru those.
:
I on the other hand do use it for about 4-5 hours/day (usu), but if I don't use it I don't get worked up about it...although if I don't use if for 4 days I freak out because I haven't refreshed my houses on UO, or agonise what my mail is going to do to the mailserver.
As for TV, I can't say I watch much of it since my undergrad days (starting 1993) when I lived in a dorm and could never be bothered walking to the TV room. Never even bothered to watch when I did have a TV in my room. I will have to agree with something Bill Gates has said, and I quote from the book 'The Microsoft Way' pp143
If a kid is addicted to a personal computer, I think that is far better than watching TV, because at least his mind is making choices. I'm not one of these people who hates TV, but I don't think it exercises your mind much. I don't happen to own one.
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
no text
... its like saying that if you use a pen for more than 4 hours a day, then you're addicted to pens. What does this say about high-school students, for example? Authors? Secretaries?
:)
The Internet is a tool like many other things. It can be abused just like pens can be abused (And just what are you thinking now, you pervert!
I hope they are NOT coming this way... Damm! Has anyone seen may lightsaber?
Hell, since I got DSL, I don't even know what "online" means. I use my computer 8+ hours a day at work, and more at home. My computer is connected to the internet at all times. I use it as necessary. This is the beginning of the next evolutionary step for humans--we are moving from a collection of individuals to a network of individuals. Evidentally, psychologists are going to be left behind, worried about becoming addicted.
I turn 18 in less than a month.
I regret spending a large deal of my childhood infront of a screen pushing buttons.
7 hours? okay, let's look at 'the average kid's day... sleep: is 8 hours too much or too little? no matter, it's average school: you're at school by 8, and you leave around 3 or so for most schools (at least around here) that's 7 hours. ok, that's 15 hours that every kid has to spend. now, i didn't include dinner or breakfast, grooming, computer time, after school activities, homework, or anything else. don't tell me that all that squeezes into the 1 hour left. whoever told you 7 hours is average was BSing you...
Thanks for the paradox. It kept me occupied for a while.
I'm not a physicist or a mathematician, but I *THINK* that it would be impossible for your head, once inserted up your ass, ever to reach the end of the trail.
The reason being: once your head interfaces with your ass, you make a circuit. For convenience, let's assume that the circuit is a perfect circle. That means that the space on the inside of the circle is also circular, and has a measurable diameter. Now, the further up your ass your head goes, the smaller the circle, therefore the smaller thespace inside the circle, therefore the smaller the diameter of that space. I *THINK* that at the point where the top of your head gets to your lips (my, WHAT an image), the diameter of the space inside the circle is reduced to zero. One cannot create a circle with a negative diameter[1], so I believe that the process of insertion must stop at this point.
Or something. I need more coffee.
Richard
[1] One can, of course, have a circle with an infinite radius, although the diameter is still about 100 yards or so. Discworld afficionados know about this.
It took some lame report to tell us that we like computers? Hmm
Man, stories like this really are really annoying. Especially after having been online for about 16 hours straight, trying to finish up a project...
Aside from chemical addiction / dependency involving substances like heroin and nicotine, its an issue with the PERSON, not the thing that they are addicted to. (Unless microsoft has figured out how to put subliminal messages in their dialog boxes, or to tune monitor emissions to control our brains.)
I'm sure there are people out there addicted to picking their nose, or farting showtunes...
An interesting thing about the internet is it really can serve as just a conduit to information. Maybe for example, a large portion of these people are really addicted to nose-picking, and the internet is just serving as a convenient way for them to read everything they can about new nose-picking techniques. I guess we will never know.
Its just more of the same shit, more news to print that casts a negative light on technological change and those who embrace it, instead of trying to understand what might make some people want to escape their lives into their computers...
This story appeared in the local newspapaer here (in hebrew), though people here at the newspaper decided to show another point of view on the subject, and posted a story called "It's the Internet: It has to be investigated" by Dror Foyer. I'll translate the story from hebrew to english:
"In the last three years numerous articles have been published about internet addicts, otherwise called 'Netholics'.
Apparently the real addiction here is the addiction of phsycologysts and sociologists to research in the new and fashionable area: the internet. Once in a while, a physcologist claims that it's unclear why a person who reads books 10 hours a day is a scholar, while a person who surfs the net 4 hours a day is an addict, though nobody listens. Why? Because it's the internet: it's hot, it's fashionable, it has to be investigated.
Once in a while serious cases do occur, like the american woman that two years ago locked her kids in the closet and wouldn't let them eat for three days because the kids bothered her while she was surfing, but most of the "addicts" don't bother anybody, except the advertisers on TV - which appears to be the worst sin. Lock them up in a cell, they don't want to watch Allie McBeal!"
The physcologist et al should try to put everything into perespective....
--
Oren Sarig
sarig@isdn.net.il
You don't know how close to the truth you are. I know at least one person who's shy (among other problems) and he has a great number of online friends, were as before because of the above he would be more likely than not a shut-in. Isolation can be very painful.
Of course, I take part in online discussions more than three hours per day and I sometimes spend 14-16 hours every day programming and since I program on my server which is some 7 feet away from my workstation, and I connect to it using the Internet, I must be a real addict, right?
I think these so called results and decisions they've made is inconclusive at best.
"whacking off" *smirk* If you doing that for more than 4 hours a day then you REALLY need a girlfriend.
Although I don't agree with the conclusions of the report, I do feel that such a study is a Good Thing (tm).
:)
When we had the Television explosion in the 50's, nobody knew quite what to expect. Suddenly people had a new medium through which to communicate and share ideas (although it was non-interactive.) But at the same time, TV was causing "harm" to the structure of our daily lives. What scared observers of this phenomenon so much was that TV was so captivating to its viewers, and this raised many concerns as to the general use of TV. People were warned not to much too much TV, and those who did were considered "addicts".
However, nowadays, TV is a normal part of our lives, as each successive generation has adopted a greater usage of the medium. No longer is there the public concern about the usage of TV, the only concern is that of content.
The growth of the Net is exactly the same as the growth of TV 40 years ago. Just like TV was, the net is a new kind of medium, with incredible growth and many community concerns.
But instead of focussing on the EFFECTS of using the Net, let's rather focus on the CONTENT. Those who were concerned about TV and its social effects where concerned about the wrong thing. They should have been concerned about the CONTENT rather than the social effects of their children looking at the tube for hours each day.
It's quite obvious that nothing is going to stop the net boom now. But instead of worrying about people using it, lets concern ourselves with useful things such as the Commercialisation of the information. Television could have been far more useful had it not been taken over by Commercial powers. As an information tool, TV is pretty much mostly useless nowadays - its just advertising and entertainment.
If we are not careful, the net will end up in the same state as TV. Have you noticed the growth of banner ads and commercial sites? Have you noticed the increase of SPAM in your email?
I think that its a good thing that these reports bring up issues about net usage. Mainly because it allows for discussion of the CONTENT of the net. I'm not talking about Porn and Bomb-HOWTO's. Im talking about the monopoly of information on the net by commercial interests. IMHO the ownership of information by such groups is a Bad Thing(tm).
Let's just accept that the net is going to keep booming, and learn to accept that we will spend more and more time on it as the net spreads. Even if the report is correct, it would be far better that those who are "addicted" have access to free information rather than just an endless linkage of banner ads.
Just my 2c. rant
My computer is connected most of the day, but most of my time is spent afk. Do distributed.net and SETI@home count? In contrast, how about IRC addicts who have been on the internet for the an entire week without once using the web? A little bit of a difference, I might say.
sup
Sounds like a nother fictional word that they made up to explain something they actually know nothing about (the mind)
Which stirs up another question I was pondering earlier today. If the capacity of the mind were to reach 100%, would that limit us physically? Would there be any swap space remaining? Could I handle tasks correctly and such. Masturbation would have a new meaning.
heh