[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
It's Official...
The ganglia, as they say, twitch...
Cheers,
Bob Hettinga
--- begin forwarded text
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 10:20:16 -0400
From: rah-web <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Robert Hettinga <[email protected]>
Subject: It's Official...
http://www.techweb.com/wire/news/aug/0813addict.html
<snip>
August 19, 1997
It's Official: Net Abusers Are
Pathological
(08/13/97; 7:00 p.m. EDT)
By Evan Schuman, TechWire
CHICAGO -- Another yardstick of
success will be achieved by the
Internet community on Thursday: It
will be awarded its first official
mental health disorder. For Related
Stories:
The newly identified disorder will
be dubbed Pathological Internet Use Fatal
(PIU) and will be christened during Distraction? --
the presentation of a major medical Learning The
paper at the annual convention of Signs Of Online
the American Psychological Addiction--HomePC
Association in Chicago.
We're Becoming
The term is being coined by Dr. Cyber
Kimberly Young, an assistant Junkies--Electronic
professor of psychology at the Engineering
University of Pittsburgh at Times
Bradford, in Bradford, Pa. With her
paper's presentation, the APA will
classify excessive Internet use as
addictive, in the same way that
drugs (including alcohol), gambling,
video games, and some types of
eating disorders are today
officially considered addictive.
Like those other ailments, Internet
addiction starts when the rest of
the person's life starts to fall
apart, the paper stated. The
Internet is a fine hobby or work
tool, until it causes problems with
social partners, work, or school,
Young said.
Young studied 396 cases of
PIU-afflicted people and drew some
overall conclusions.
Net marketers need not fear, as
traditional Web surfing accounted
for only 7 percent of the Internet
addicts and even more
information-oriented tools (gophers
[Image] and FTP[Image] sites, for
example) represented only an
additional 2 percent.
"Upon examination, traditional
information protocols and Web pages
were the least utilized compared
with more than 90 percent who became
addicted to the two-way
communication functions: chat rooms,
MUDs [Multi-User Dungeons],
newsgroups, and E-mail," Young said.
"This makes the case that database
searches -- while interesting and
often time-consuming -- are not the
actual reasons Dependents become
addicted to the Internet."
Young said one surprise in the
results was the lack of high-tech
people among the addicted. "While it
is a common perception that those
addicted to the Internet are
computer savvy individuals, these
demographic results show that only 8
percent came from high-tech jobs,"
she said. "Compare this to the 42
percent who indicated having no
permanent jobs and the 39 percent
who worked in low-tech fields. It is
typically newbies who become
excessive Internet users."
Among the jobs that she classified
as low-tech were secretaries, bank
tellers, teachers, advertising
executives, and journalists.
The report said that the attraction
of the Internet revolves around its
perceived anonymity, where people
feel comfortable acting out in ways
they would never consider in real
life.
"The ability to enter into a
bodiless state of communication
enabled users to explore altered
states of being that fostered
emotions that were new and richly
exciting," Young said. "Such
uninhibited behavior is not
necessarily an inevitable
consequence of visual anonymity, but
depends upon the nature of the group
and the individual personality of
the online user."
"For those who felt unattractive, it
was perceived easier to pick up
another person through cybersex than
in real life," she said.
But beyond sexual issues, newsgroups
and chat lines allow people to
literally create and secretly test
new personalities before trying them
out in the real world. "Beyond
amusement, reinventing oneself is a
way to fulfill an unmet need. The
loss of a social identity online
allows one to reconstruct an ideal
self in place of a poor
self-concept," Young said. "Those
who suffer from low self-esteem,
feelings of inadequacy, or frequent
disapproval from others are at the
highest risk" of becoming Net
addicts.
She quoted one participant in the
survey as telling her, "By day, I am
a mild-mannered husband, but at
night I become the most aggressive
bastard online."
The addiction can become a problem
when the new emotional creation
makes inroads into real lives or
when the time spent in the virtual
life takes away from
responsibilities in the real life.
The addicted Internet user will
spend an average of 38 hours per
week online dealing with
nonemployment/nonacademic efforts,
compared with "nonaddicts" in the
survey who averaged eight hours.
Almost half of the participants
diagnosed with PIU reported that
they get less than four hours of
sleep per night due to late log-in
sessions.
Another reason for some of the
addictions is the sense of community
that some newsgroups create. "With
routine visits to a particular group
(chat area or newsgroup, for
example), a high degree of
familiarity among other group
members is established.
Like all communities, the cyberspace
culture has its own set of values,
standards, language, signs, and
artifacts, and individuals adapt to
the current norms of the group,"
Young said.
"One can easily become involved in
the lives of others almost like
watching a soap opera and thinking
of the characters as real people,"
she said.
Young's report said that this is
especially attractive to people who
might find it difficult to establish
other social circles. "Homebound
caretakers, the disabled, retired
individuals, and homemakers have
limited access to others," she said.
Internet addiction centers have
already been created at facilities
ranging from the University of
Maryland at College Park to Proctor
Hospital in Peoria, Ill., to Harvard
affiliate McLean Hospital.
The test group broke down into 157
men and 239 women; the average age
for the males was 29, and the
average age for the women was 43.
[end]
WHAT CONSTITUTES PATHOLOGICAL INTERNET USE?
Do you:
1. feel preoccupied with the Internet (i.e.,
thinking about the Internet when offline)?
2. feel a need to use the Internet with increasing
amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction?
3. have an inability to control your Internet use?
4. feel restless or irritable when attempting to cut
down to stop Internet use?
5. use the Internet as a way of escaping from
problems or of relieving a poor mood (i.e.,
feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, or
depression)?
6. lie to family members or friends to conceal the
extent of involvement with the Internet?
7. jeopardize or risk the loss of significant
relationship, job, educational or career
opportunity because of the Internet?
8. after spending an excessive amount of money on
online fees, often return another day?
9. go through withdrawal when offline (e.g.,
increased depression, anxiety, etc.)?
10. stay online longer than originally intended?
Individuals who met four or more of these criteria
during a 12-month period were classified as dependent.
Take the full survey, and find out if you're addicted
to the Net.
source: the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
Search for more related stories:
[Techsearch]
Search TechWire & CMP Archives
[Image]
C M P n e t S P E C I A L R E P O R T S
� Can't find a 56-Kbps Internet service provider? [Image]
Here's help for you.
� Internet Explorer 4.0 got you perplexed? Ask Dr. 4.
[Image] [Image]
� There's an intranet for every company, but not the same
one for everyone.
[Image] � How come Internal users don't like Sun's JavaStation NC?
[CMPnet] [Image] [Click Here To Visit Canon!]
[Image]
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert Hettinga ([email protected]), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/