Something I’ve been hearing about – both in from the people around me and in articles – is internet / computer / mobile phone addiction. Internet addiction is defined as, “excessive computer use that interferes with daily life.” … Yet, perhaps the line between what is good and what is too much becomes blurred when the internet (and computers, mobile devices, etc.) are part of daily life. How much time does the average adult or child spend in front of a computer screen? Is this for work, for pleasure, for socializing? How would you feel if you couldn’t get online for 1 hour, 1 day, 10 days, 100 days? How much time do you spend in the company of your mobile phone? How would you feel if you lost it?
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Jun 23, 2010 @ 14:37:32
I have very concrete evidence of this: I made my students keep media diary for a day, about their media use, as an exercise in autoethnography. They were actually shocked to find out that they were hardly ever offline, offphone; but instead, constantly multitasking. I believe the University of Maryland has specialised in Internet addiction (and its researchers have found that when deprived of online access, students suffer from typical withdrawal symptoms: irritability, anxiety and so on…).
See also the recent NYT reportage ‘Hooked on Gadgets and Paying a Mental Price’ (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?scp=1&sq=hooked%20gadgets&st=cse). Enlightening comments from the readers (almost 500) — would already make an interesting study to analyse them…
Jun 23, 2010 @ 18:22:33
I’m addicted. If I have access to a computer, my addition kicks in. If I’m away from it (i.e. out of the house), I’m okay and don’t feel an urgency to get back online. My mobile phone is just a phone – I don’t do Internet or email on it.
Jun 30, 2010 @ 09:03:21
Here is a related editorial from the NYT:
“We don’t yet really know the physical and psychological impact of being slaves to technology. We just know that technology is a narcotic. We’re living in the cloud, in a force field, so afraid of being disconnected and plunged into a world of silence and stillness that even if scientists told us our computers would make our arms fall off, we’d probably keep typing.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/opinion/27dowd.html?hp