It has become trendy and politically correct to decry the horrors of "Internet addiction." People proudly trumpet the error of their ways and cut back on surfing the Web and reading their email to “get back to nature” or “become more in touch with the inner me.” What rot! Using the Internet your entire waking hours isn't an addiction -- it’s a tremendous benefit.
The Internet makes us smarter by enabling us to easily access information on subjects we never even heard of a few years ago. It makes us more social by enabling us to find long lost friends and relatives and to interact -- through email, VOIP phone calls, and video calls -- with strangers around the world.
The holier-than-thou former "addicts" regularly moan about how the Internet increases their anxiety level because they just can’t handle the demands resulting from so much data flooding their brains. Perhaps they should get lobotomies so they wouldn’t be burdened by all that pesky information crowding their minds with “thoughts.” Indeed, with the ability to quickly access information we want, accomplish tasks (personal and business), and contact friends and relatives, the Internet reduces -- not increases -- our anxieties.
Drinking the Kool-Aid
Even people who should know better, such as New York Times reporters, have swallowed “the-Internet-is-too-much-with-us” Kool-Aid. In his recent Times article, "I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really," Mark Bittman explains why he decided to kick the Internet habit. He realized he needed a "virtual break" when he used an airline phone to check his email and, thus, "rob" himself of one of his last “sanctuaries” of peace. A Eureka moment: He checked his email, so he needed to reduce his Internet usage.
Bittman writes with wonderment how he read a paper copy of a newspaper -- without any hyperlinks. Congratulations, Mr. Bittman. You couldn’t access text and audio and video podcasts from around the world that could have increased your knowledge and/or enjoyment of the newspaper articles. And now that Bittman is on his “secular Sabbath,” he read a novel. Imagine that! I read about a book a week, typically three to five at a time, and I don’t need to give up the Internet to do so.
He also takes walks -- without an MP3 player. Gadzooks! I admit that listening to the sounds of nature and taking in the view is glorious. But that doesn't mean you're an "addict" if you take along the Internet. I walk for miles, but I also enjoy listening to music that I find via the Internet from Pandora. Also, I want to know certain things as I’m walking. What are those colorful flowers and the name of that lake? How old is this area, and who lived here 1,000 years ago? I want to snap photos with my camera phone of the flowers, lake, and geography, and receive information. I want to increase my enjoyment of nature by being smarter -- by using wireless communications and, in the near future, heads-up displays in my eyeglasses.
Bittman concludes his paean to Internet intake reduction: "I felt connected to myself rather than my computer. I had time to think, and distance from normal demands. I got to stop." What a pity. Bittman wrongly concludes that reducing time on the Internet corresponds to increasing time to think. The Internet increases your capacity to think.
In the future, humankind will have a direct bio-electrical interconnection to computers. Read Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near to consider one possible future. It's sure to make the reformed Internet "addicts" gag on their herbal tea.
I think I read about that. Apparently, people who sleepwalk sometimes do amazing things, and that has been documented. I don't know whether you can send e-mail while sleeping, but the mind is a fascinating organ.
Personally, I'd probably prefer to be awake when I e-mail. However, if I can accomplish tasks while I'm asleep, and be no worse for it, I might not mind!
I think I read about that. Apparently, people who sleepwalk sometimes do amazing things, and that has been documented. I don't know whether you can send e-mail while sleeping, but the mind is a fascinating organ.
Personally, I'd probably prefer to be awake when I e-mail. However, if I can accomplish tasks while I'm asleep, and be no worse for it, I might not mind!
Have your heard about "zzz mailing"?? Well they say it is a new variation of sleepwalking wherein one can send emails while sleeping!!! Is that the kind of internet addiction you are advocating for??? Is it really possible that someone can send an email whilst sleeping???
I've read about China establishing clinics for so-called Internet addicts. I suspect that for-profit clinics might be more interested in the profits than whether kids truly are addicted.
I suspect that most kids' "illness" is simply poor parenting rather than any true ailment. I also suspect that a significant percentage of "addicts" have other mental problems, which the article notes, rather than Internet "addiction" being the cause.
In addition, I'm cynical about any state-sponsored or state-approved clinic in China that would treat this type of so-called addiction. I wouldn't be surprised if, for example, there might be a healthy dose of Chinese Internet policies forced upon these "addicts," such as: Make sure you don't visit Web sites we don't want you to see. That is, sites like non-Chinese news media that China tries to censor.
Bottom line: I would hate to see Internet addiction clinics established in the U.S. Kids with severe problems should be treated by licensed psychologists or psychiatrists who aren't out to bilk their patients with a mostly phony or completely phony medical condition.
So should we expect such rehab centers in the U.S. in the very near future or do you think such centers are just another digitized money making initiative???
It's a good idea to stand away from a microwave oven in all circumstances. Usually the oven is fine, but it could leak radiation and it doesn't hurt to be careful.
Who knows? Maybe we'll find some weird effects from RF. Wi-Fi "allergies," according to the news items I've read appear to be psychosomatic. But there are people who swear they are sensitive to RF. I'm not a doctor, so I don't know.
I'm still waiting for direct computer-to-brain connections, either through a jack in the base of my neck or through a wireless link. From what I've read, it will be do-able in the future.
I'm still not sure they don't have any effect in the body. Many years past before the navy figured out that standing in front of the microwave dishes in their ships wasn't good for the body... maybe it was still worth it for them (considering what they used it for)
These "diseases of technology" remind me of the fictional "Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS)" which was portrayed in the movie "Johnny Mnemonic." NAS resulted from the exposure to electromagnetic radiation from all the technology and produced a worldwide problem. It was a big part of the plot of the movie.
Today, there are people who say they are allergic or seriously affected by WiFi and other RF transmissions. A group in Santa Fe, NM wanted the city to ban a public WiFi network.
I think that Internet Addiction exists, it's just that doctors haven't studied it for enough time to consider it a real condition.
Nicole Ferraro, part-time scientist, discovered another syndrome called the SNAD - Social Networking Anxiety Disorder. Obviously is too early to have some real data, but I'm sure she is working on it.
The concept of Internet "addiction" as a disease has been kicking around for several years. I read an article about parents in Spain who sent their child to a mental institution to try to get him to become more social. I've also read articles about South Korean kids who are "addicted" and are sent to doctors.
I think the jury is still out as to whether Internet addiction is a true addiction or whether it's a symptom of a larger problem that's a real medical condition.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Jerald Block, in the article you cited notes that the computer "becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they
could experience in the real world on the computer through any number
of mechanisms: emailing, gaming, porn." I wonder what he'd think about my robot article where robots could become companions or even spouses!
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