Tag: Addiction

Has Internet usage become a permanent part of our lives, or is there still a chance it could be a fad? 

Isn’t there always a possibility we could reject using the Internet, or that something bigger and better might come along?  Or is networking everyone and everything, to everyone and everything else, just too good of an idea to give up?  Can anything bigger and better come along, other than an ESP hive mind?

Over the recent centuries, there have been many back to nature movements.  None ever caught on with the public at large, but these movements have been big enough for thousands of people to retreat to living in the country hoping to find a more fulfilling life.  Both the 19th and the 20th century had fairly large communal living movements, and Henry David Thoreau is still very appealing to people today.

I guess the question to ask is:  Does the Internet make people happier?  Billions certainly have flocked to it.  And it certainly gives the illusion that the world is much smaller, and it’s possible to know far more people.  I assume people are happier, because most net users spend hours each day on the web, and billions of smart phones have been sold.

I guess the next question to ask is:  How would you live without the Internet?  (Just, in case it went away.)

My immediate answer is I’d read books and magazines, watch TV, and listen to CDs.  That’s what I did before the Internet came along.  And I think that answers the title question.  Everything we liked before the Internet was internet like.  We cherished technology that brought us news from around the world, that let us keep up with other groups of people, to share ideas, to feel part of a bigger world.  Retreating to living on a commune in the woods sounds very isolating and lonely, but I could probably do it if I at least had a nice selection of books.

I really can’t imagine people rejecting the Internet, other than maybe religious extremists.  Sooner or later, fundamentalists may reject the Internet because it’s like the teaching of evolution, something that will undermine their beliefs.  I can picture some fundamentalists giving up the Internet like the Amish gave up modern technology.

I guess it might be possible for some people, Internet addiction could be so bad that they will reject it completely, because it will be an all or nothing affair for them.

And finally, there might be some people, like those who have given up television, because they are so focused on their work, art, sport, hobby, etc. that the Internet will seem like wasting time.

For most people, I think our addiction to the net will only grow.  I get a lot of my television from the net now, and nearly all my music, and I subscribe to a service for magazines over the net.  I download audiobooks and ebooks, and read them on Internet connected mobile devices.  I participate mildly in social media, mainly the old fashion kind like Yahoogroups for book clubs, and blogging.  I keep my photos online, and my documents, and all my ripped CDs.  When I want to learn something new I turn to the Internet.  For example, when I wanted to peel a mango I studied it on YouTube.  When I check out a library book, I look it up online and put it on hold.  When I shop for clothes or new gadgets, I shop online.  Now that I’m retired I spend a fair amount of my social time online, rather in person.

Damn, I’m addicted.  Maybe I should give it up.  Why should I?  I don’ think there’s a real reason.  But could I?  Know what’s funny, the hardest thing I’d have trouble giving up is Audible.com.  I’d painfully miss Rdio.com, but I could go back to CDs.  And my pocketbook would miss Amazon.com, but the only way to get audiobooks cheap is via Audible.com.

If I could walk more I might do more “real” things.  One reason I don’t feel my spinal stenosis as a burden is I love living on the net.  I can’t walk for exercise, but I could bike.  I could go see more people.  I could get some dogs and cats.  I could garden.  I could take up guitar playing, or chess, or wood working.  There’s endless amount of things to do off the net.  I’m just as addicted as all those kids who live and breath social media lives.

For me, if I had to live without the Internet, I’d spend my days writing like I do now, but I’d write essays or stories to submit to magazines.  I think periodicals were the Victorian age’s Internet.

I’ve got to assume the Internet is here to stay, and its where I’ll live until I die.  I asked my wife just now if she could give up the Internet, and she snapped back, “Are you crazy?”  She freaks out if she gets out of reach of her iPhone.  She watches television with her laptop on her lap.

I do wonder if the Internet could become any more addictive?  What features are left to add that will fill up the rest of our real lives?  No, the Internet is not a fad, it’s become a way of life.

JWH – 2/19/14

There’s two films showing at Sundance this week about web addiction.  Web Junkie from China is about teens going through rehab for internet addiction, a condition that China deems a psychological category for severe treatment.  Then there is Love Child, about a Korean couple who let their real baby starved to death while obsessively caring for a virtual baby.  A while back there was a spate of articles stating that 45% of Japanese women 16-24 were not interested in sex.  Then there are all those stories about Japanese children never leaving their bedroom – it even has a name, Hikikomori.  And the long term trend in America is to live alone.  Any many young women today claim their boyfriends would rather play video games than have sex.

Now I imagine there are parents in America who would love to send their kids to camps to get them away from their computers, but I’m not sure we think of compulsive internet use as an addiction.  When everyone is a pod person, it’s hard to know there’s another way of life.

How much is too much of anything?  When does something become an addiction?  Are bookworms who read all day book addicts?  Lots of retired people spend their entire days watching television.  Are they TV addicts?  Of course, people who work 60 hours a week are sometimes said to be addicted to their jobs, and called workaholics.

Evidently, there’s an assume dichotomy:  normal life and escapism, so if we spend too much time away from normal, we’re addicted.  But what if living in front of a computer becomes normal.  I was a computer programmer, and often spent my entire work day in front of a monitor.  And, then I came home and spent my evening in front of a computer writing.  Was I addicted?  Or was that just life?

I spend a lot of time at my computer desk.  I don’t play games, and I don’t stream TV and movies.  I do write, listen to music and read news stories, all of which I did before computers and the Internet, and what I would do if I didn’t have the Internet.  A couple years ago I lived three days without power and in the evening I’d write by pen on a yellow pad, listened to books and music on my iPod touch, and played old radio show tapes on an ancient Sony Walkman, all by flickering candlelight.

I know what they mean about addiction.  Younger people do spend a lot of time on the net.  But women my age spend a lot of time on their smartphones, and panic when they don’t have them.  And more people than ever seem to love living alone, often with their TV, computer, and game console.

Is the real problem video games?  Is the main worry that video are games more appealing than day-to-day living?  In the film clip above one young guy says he played World of Warcraft for 15 days straight.  Now, maybe that is an addiction.  However, if you have lots of free time, isn’t a computer game a higher form of stimulation?  It’s certainly more engaging than reading or watching television.  We live in a world of growing unemployment.  A good portion of our population is without engaging work, so why not turn to the Internet.  It’s better than drugs – where the original meaning of addiction comes from.  And what does it say when video games are more appealing than sex?

And there’s one more thing to consider.  Humans are self-aware beings living inside a skull of an animal.  We have five senses bringing data in from the reality outside of our body.  Could the Internet be our sixth sense?  Or an extension to our sight and hearing?  Doesn’t the Internet just extend the range of our body’s normal senses?  Can living alone on the Internet be considered the beginning of a hive mind?

Is hearing a real tree fall in the forest different from hearing a virtual tree fall in the forest?

JWH 1/22/14