The first treatment center for Internet addiction recently opened near Seattle. I took a look at the center’s criteria for Internet addiction and it’s striking how similar the language is to that of alcohol or drug addiction. I’m still not convinced that anyone can truly be “addicted” to the Internet. It’s seems to have become a shorthand description for a more complex phenomenon that encompasses isolation, depression, social anxiety, and maybe a degree of obsessive compulsiveness. Heavy Internet use may be an indicator of these problems, but it doesn’t necessarily have a causal relationship.
These sorts of worries seem to accompany every new iteration of technology. I remember a lot of hype about television addiction when I was a kid. In fact, my parents seemed much happier when I turned off the television in favor of playing on my computer. Of course, this was long before blogs, Facebook, multiplayer games, and pr0n. The adolescent version of me, plopped into the 21st century, might easily have been one of those kids who had his laptop confiscated until I brought my grades up.
How good it is to be “addicted” to something wich doesn’t cause any chemical intoxication!
People will always seek their own pleasure…as long as you love to do something, an activity that gives you joy and doesn’t harm others and doesn’t harm your body and mind, it seems OK.