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Could You Be Addicted to the Internet?
Journal written by Billosaur (927319) and posted by
Zonk
on Fri Sep 22, 2006 05:53 PM
from the all-part-of-the-job-description dept.
from the all-part-of-the-job-description dept.
Billosaur writes "Over at The Register, Dr Stephen Juan has this interesting article on Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD). Apparently this has been around since at least 1995 and there are those lobbying for it to be included in the DSM-IV. While some people use the Internet a lot for work or to keep in touch with family & friends as well as banking and bill-paying, it's interesting to thing that some people actually become addicted. There's still a lot of controversy over the diagnosis, whether this is true addiction or not. There is more detailed information available in this paper from Viriginia Tech."
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Is Internet Addiction a Medical Condition? 227 comments
PreacherTom writes "Arising from such cases as a recent lawsuit with IBM over employee termination due to online sex chatting at work, recent debate over whether Internet abuse is a legitimate addiction, akin to alcoholism, is heating up. From the article: 'Attorneys say recognition by a court — whether in this or some future litigation — that Internet abuse is an uncontrollable addiction, and not just a bad habit, could redefine the condition as a psychological impairment worthy of protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.' The condition could even make it into the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, making it a full-blown neurosis. It wouldn't be a huge surprise, with a recent Stanford study showing that 14% of people state it would be 'hard to stay away from the Net for even a few days in a row."
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Internet? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
""Internet Addiction" is just another way to bash the net as an evil place by those who either don't understand its utility, or don't want people to understand its utility"
no, internet addiction is when people turn to the internet even to the point where it is harmfull to them financially or socially.
Why would you think the internet would be an exception to everything else when it comes to addictions?
is the title a rhetorical question? (Score:5, Insightful)
The answer is so obviously "yes" in this audience. Was there any doubt? Why even ask?
I love it... (Score:4, Insightful)
I know I am (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because you use something often doesn't mean it's an addiction.
Re:I know I am (Score:5, Insightful)
Ditto for e-mail, browsing fark,
And you actually can get addicted to something like walking, running, biking or driving. Just because you aren't does not mean that others haven't been addicted.
Let's look at behaviour. (Score:4, Insightful)
The Internet - Guys (since most of you are), how long would you have to go without email before you'd have sex with another guy for $5 so you could use an Internet Cafe? (That's if you wouldn't do it for free, anyway.)
Okay, so the Internet is NOT addictive the same way as drugs are.
Cigarettes. Those are addictive. Now, apply the same behavioural process. What would you do for money to buy cigarettes that you would not do for money to buy a CD?
Would you do the same thing(s) for 30 minutes of Internet access?
Okay, so the Internet is NOT addictive the same way cigarettes are.
And so on and so forth. Until you get to the point where the Internet is no more "addictive" than telephones or television or radio.
Help! I've got Addiction Addiction (Score:5, Funny)
I'm addicted to calling everything and anything that people enjoy doing an addiction. I get wads of cash for treating these so-called addictions, and I have a powerful co-enabler called the pharmaceutical industry telling me it's all okay and I should keep doing it. What should I do?
Signed,
I'll take 'The Rapists' for $500, Alex.
(Please, if there are any psychologists or psychiatrists who read Slashdot, don't have me committed. It's a joke, m'kay?)
Re:I know I am (Score:5, Interesting)
To be diagnosed as having foo Addiction Disorder, a person must meet certain
criteria as prescribed by the American Psychiatric Association. Three or more of these
criteria must be present at any time during a twelve month period:
2. Two or more withdrawal symptoms developing within days to one month after
reduction of foo or cessation of foo (i.e., quitting cold turkey) , and these
must cause distress or impair social, personal or occupational functioning. These include:
psychomotor agitation, i.e. trembling, tremors; anxiety; obsessive thinking about what is
happening with respect to foo; fantasies or dreams about foo; voluntary or involuntary
imitation of the movements characteristic of foo.
(the mere act of thinking about foo while not engaged in foo presumably qualifies as "fantasies")
3. Use of the Internet is engaged in to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.
(if thinking about foo qualifies as withdrawal, then engaging in foo qualifies as relief of withdrawal)
5. A significant amount of time is spent in activities related to foo.
By this standard of addiction, any activity which one both considers ("fantasies") and practices, and which occupies a significant amount of time (even if it's simply liesure time), qualifies as an addiction.
Seems like a pretty broken definition to me.
Re:I know I am (Score:5, Funny)
Symptoms list is s/alcohol/internet (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't that last one just teh stupid? It's cribbed word-for-word from a typical symptom of alcholism, as are the rest.
Even if there are still ISPs in the world that charge by the MB, it just doesn't fly. Now, if they were talking about "unexpected" credit card charges, maybe... but pr0n addiction
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe yes, maybe no... (Score:5, Funny)
"Fetal Internet Syndrome" (Score:5, Funny)
My friends new Windows box is addicted, and it was never exposed, new from the store... computers with this syndrome have serious mental lapses if they can't get on the Internet to chat with Microsoft in the first thiry days after being turned on, and on a regular basis after that.
-- Terry
One sign of addiction (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One sign of addiction (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One sign of addiction (Score:5, Funny)
Can't ANYTHING be addictive? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean really, if addiction is defined as depending on the chemicals that are generated when we feel "good" wouldn't an excess of ANYTHING that makes us feel "good" be a candidate for a cause? And wouldn't it be expected that potential causes of addiction depend on the individual? Some are obvious and would impact virtually anyone (chemical manipulation) but other behaviors which don't directly alter mood via chemical means I would intuitively expect to be more subtle.
Heh, maybe anti-social people (not the angry, dangerous wackos but those who are just indifferent to and/or dislike social situations) would argue that the rest of us are addicted to social interaction.
Anybody with a medical degree around here that can point to some definitive definition of the word "addiction" and what it means, medically?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
- Jumping off of very tall cliffs
- Swimming with hungry sharks
- Watching "Dancing with the Stars"
Especially the last one; eventually I would have no choice but to poke out my eyeballs or go
Less of a "disorder" than 75% of americans (Score:3, Interesting)
Like my friends who take drugs say. (Score:5, Insightful)
I just dont want to, and you arent going to convince me to stop.
No. (Score:4, Informative)
And, perhaps the crux: "(VII) Internet use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical, family, social, occupational, or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by Internet use (e.g., sleep deprivation, marital difficulties, lateness for early morning appointments, neglect of occupational duties, or feelings of abandonment in significant others)"
I'm not saying there aren't people out there with problems, but you don't create a new disorder for every new communication/information tool. Do we have telephone addiction disorder? fax machine addiction disorder? television addiction disorder? Hey, I know, lets make a myspace addiction disorder and a friendster addiction disorder and a slash-- er wait.
sleep dep, maritial difficulties and the like are signs of other disorders, like depression. (or just a general state of distress).
The 'article' linked by the submitter is fluff, there is nothing empirical in it. It is also missing nearly 9 years of critiques of IAD. Why did this submission happen?
I learned it from watching you, Dad! (Score:5, Funny)
Winstons taste good (Score:4, Funny)