I have been reading quite a few articles lately debating the reality of internet and/or gadget addiction. (Here's one for example).

I am generally skeptical of all of the various sundry addictions, afflictions and modern day maladies people claim to be victims of -- More often than not, I believe a bunch of that crap exists only so that some pharmaceutical company can make and sell a pill for it.

That said, I think people can be addicted to gadgets, games and/or the internet. Just yesterday I was standing in line at Qdoba trying to get some lunch but the lady in front of me apparently couldn't get off of her damned cell phone long enough to order.

Is that addictive behavior or just bad cell phone etiquette?

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In the particular instance of the person in line being too busy talking on her cell to place her order, I think that is probably poor etiquette... however, I do believe that at least to some extent Internet addiction is a real malady. I mean, how many of us have not gotten the shakes when the Internet connection is down for five or six hours? How many stories do you hear about people forgetting to eat because they are absorbed in an online game?

News - Child dies as parents play WoW // PC /// Eurogamer

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Internet addiction is very real. It's not even hard to fall into. People get addicted to connectivity, the ability to get information and communicate instantly. I know people personally who nearly go into convulsions if the first thing they do when they get home is to get online and check their e-mail.

Anecdotal evidence aside, there have been some studies done about internet addiction. You should check out scholarly journals, I'm sure you'll find something. I did a term paper on it a few years back and if I can find my sources I will post links here.

Mike

I'd mostly say bad etiquette. If the server had any sense, they would have politely ignored her and taken others' orders until she hung up the phone. If she got bent out of shape, then politely ask her to leave, explaining why. Just my $0.02.

Lyle

The internet, gadgets, games are all just another vice that many suffer addictions to. Just like television, smoking, and drugs. It is something that they can do that makes them feel good about themselves, even if only momentarily, or good about life, even if only momentarily.

The fact that people are dying due to issues such as the parents in the article wige poste, or the Korean that die after 50 hours of game play (BBC NEWS | Technology | S Korean dies after games session) prove that it can be an addiction.

Dictionary.com (using the American Hertiage Dictionary) defines an addition as such:
The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

In that case, how many people get up in the morning, check email, check the online weather, check the online traffic report and then go to work only to get online there? And then come home to get online, text message or chat on the phone? Play a game until midnight or 1 am while they have to wake for work at 5:30 am?

There must be a balance - one thing I have noticed in the town I live in, there are a plethora of activites all summer long that get people out and doing things with other people. The swimming pools (the town has 4 or 5 of them) are always packed during the summer, there are mini-concerts every week by the river walk and just things that get people outside. Couple that with a large reservoir and the mountains close by, it makes leaving technology, Internet and gadgets behind much easier.

For me personally a good long day of paintball with some friends is the ultimate in exercise, outdoors, teambuilding and plain old fun.

In your case Mike, I think someone was just being rude - which is a whole other aspect of the Internet, cell phones and such that could have volumes written about it.


Reference:
addiction. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: addiction - Definitions from Dictionary.com

It has surly be argued that the addiction is not the Internet directly but the impact the Internet has. That is if it releases Endorphin, (happy drug), which act like a drug, and it's this drug that people are addicted to.

i.e,.

For webmasters I get a ton of Traffic=happy.

For Programmers I solve that bug=Happy

For a Game Player, a win=Happy

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It is hard not to be addicted.

I am bidding on some software on eBay and it closes at 1AM Sunday night. I set the alarm on my iphone to 12:55, it vibrates and wakes me up (thank g-d it didn't wake up the girlfriend), I check my text messages from eBay, raise my bid 2 or 3 times, win the auction and roll over and go back to sleep all within 8 minutes.

Is that using technology to better my life or am I addicted?

Arthur

On second thought ... has my life just simply turned into a pathetic mess?

My two cents: depends really on where to draw the line on addiction, either: 1) doing something to the point of self harm. 2) doing something for far too long, to the exclusion of other, more meaningful activities.

I think it's pretty hard to say internet is an addiction like herion or alcohol - it simply doesn't have the same scale of health risks.... I mean the DT's can kill, as can heroin withdrawal. That said, there are plenty plenty plenty of examples of 2) people wasting hours and hours on nothing in particular online..... which reminds me, shouldn't I be working!!!


Joel

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Hi, I'm bj (hi, bj!) and I'm a Webaholic.

I found that out recently when a bad thunderstorm took a tree out in our backyard, which, during its fall, ripped ALL wires off our building-- no phone, no electric, no cable for anyone. Two days later I finally got everything turned back on.

In the interim I was camped out either at a friend's house surfing on her wifi network, or at one of the local coffee houses with a hotspot.

Not my idea of a fun time, but at least I had good backups of my work, and a wifi enabled laptop to work on in a pinch.

But the bottom line is that I found out that yes, I am indeed a Webaholic.

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Many years ago I was 'addicted' to amphetamines, and once I decided to give them up, I did--I only had to want to give them up badly enough to endure the considerable suffering it cost to do so. I think the problem is the word 'addiction' itself and that we ought to just trash the word. I now have an out of control dependency on a computer-related activity that, altho it's a long way from drug dependency, keeps me suffering perpetual eye strain and interferes with my life. Is it an addiction? I don't know. What I do know is that it is a problem, and I am thinking that when the day comes that I want to give it up more than I want to do the activity, I will. So I prefer the word 'problem' as more applicable to many dependencies we call addictions. We can all agree that the woman in line has a problem, and I don't think calling it an addiction is useful in any way.

In the 70's it was sex, drugs and rock n roll. What happened?

I am proud to say that I am a mouse potato. Which must be better than a couch potato. At least I am exercising my fingers.

Its more likely Work, McD's and R n B. Altho I know what term I prefer.

Oops, I am showing my age.

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bad cell phone etiquette!

Some people just think that cell phones give special rights, while all it does is bother the *&(#(*&# out of people that have no choice but to listen.

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Nothing!

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The ones that are on Bluetooth make me die in the street laughing. Its just a cover-up. They're really talking to themselves!!

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DHarrisson LOL well you can tell a heroin junky by his itchy twitches, an alchy by how he licks his dry lips.....and an internet junkie is defined by the huge muscle running from his mouse finger up his arm.
If you should happen to come across an internet junkie, please don't try to remove any wireless devices from His person....as you are likely to pull back a bloody stump
Speak calm words to him and let him stay in place until his bateries start to die. This will put him into an agitated state so it is time to put him on the "methodone" treatment for "Netties" hand him a Rubiks cube and while he's spinning the cube quietly take away his wireless devices.
At this point you need to thing about restraining him as the rubiks cube is not likely not to hold is attention. If your Nettie is a text messaging user beware the thumbs....they are deadly.

There is little help for the Nettie...although play episodes of Jimmy Neutron have seemed to have some temporary mitgating effects

But on the serious side.....Addiction in a product of the mind, not the tool, and the addictive personality will latch onto whatever it will.

My life is incredibly entertwined with the internet as it is my profession as well as my hobby. I met my wife online back in 1990 when the internt was almost not the internet...(way before Al Gore Invented it)
It's my number one source of information....but I still go camping and leave the lap top behind....and I am frankly too old to see most hand held devices so it has a place in my life....but my life does not have a place in it.

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When you talk to a Dr. about addictions and drugs whether prescribed or otherwise, the definition is usually something like, if it enhances your relationships and life in general then it's not an addiction. In other words, if the 'net, web, cell phone, drink too much or scratching your ears is a barrier to relationships, then I would say, yes.

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Talk about internet addiction, my kids are hookup with MSN chat, friendster, etc. It is kind of like they can't live without it. They can spend hours and even go without food for the entire day.

Something I do not know whether Internet is good or bad for children. In my time, my past time activities were playing football, flying kites, marbles, running, etc. Now my children activities are just computers and internet.

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Regarding the rude phone behavior, it's simply an example of a self-centered person. The same with idiots that hold lengthy cell phone conversations while driving. If it is brought to their attention, they usually will become very hostile. They can't understand that when they inconvenience other people, they are the rude ones.

Now, on to games and gadgets. They are often just used as an escape mechanism. I was never one to really play much with video games, but I did play Tetris long ago. I found that game mesmerizing. When not playing, I still would look at the world as patterns to be filled with falling blocks.

After some time, I realized this was not healthy and felt that the game was syncing with my alpha brainwaves. I stopped playing and will never play it again.

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Being absent-minded, rude or dumb is not an addictive behavior.

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Actually most addictions exist because we human beings are weak. We think we are dependent, and therefore we are.

Some might argue there are physical and mental dependencies, which there most certainly are. However, if you make up your mind to quit anything, you can. People do it every day with alcohol, drugs, food, you name it; you simply have to decide you want to quit.


Are people addicted to the net... absolutely! I'm one of them!! Don't have cable, I can find everything I need for news on the net, I can find all the entertainment I want on the net, I can find all the educational material I want on the net. I can intereact with others half a world away on the net, without ever leaving my house. It's really cool!! Personally I'd much rather be on the net, than sitting on the couch watching TV. And, I refuse to pay $50 - $60 a month for something I don't watch but an hour or two a month.



That's just plain rude!! She's a self centered egotistical &!+(#, thinks she's better than everyone else in line, and that you should all wait on her to finish her conversation. Has absolutely nothing to do with addicition!!

You should have whipped out your trusty pocket tazer and zapped her cell phone!

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The Internet is too big and broad and general and vital, to be an 'addiction'--

Unless you're talking-up one website or Internal-style substitutions like play-gambling, or the act of talking-about-the-Internet... the utility is too utile, to be a stuck-on ad-diction.

Just imagine the next-generation of Internet, when people have HDDV-synapse-inserts direct-connecting the brain and the Internet (technology proven on monkeys) ... 'oh' the gigabytes that'll chew, visiting everywhere!-- then getting stuck on one website will be a 'mindblock' of an ad-diction ... ad-dictation... ad-nection... ad-lynxion... ad-ebriation....

Ray.

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I agree that the net is addictive, just like texting (here in South Africa the kids are hooked on MXiT, a data type text messaging service that costs a fraction of a normal text) sometimes for the younger generation. I guess social sites like Facebook and the likes are to us what the texting is to the young generation. We have free access to the net and want that information, in real time on what our online assets' status is. So much for web analytics, we want to know immediately at any given time what's happening. I'm posted here many moons ago about my hunger for information and how addictive it is to want to learn more and more about what I do. I guess it's ambition, so maybe it's not that bad

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The cell phone abuser was just that - hard to say if folks are addicted. "They" like to distinguish between dependency and addiction (got that from a rehab website I designed).

I think we have become so dependent on the tools available today to stay connected. When I was a teenager, we spent HOURS on the phone talking. Now it's text-messaging. I don't see a difference except in the bills!

I am a voracious reader and have been since I was four. I've been known to stand at the stove stirring something with a book in my hand. But since it's a BOOK, I've never heard the term addiction or even dependency associated with my behavior.

I depend on the internet for my livelihood, but if my connection goes down for some reason, it's a great excuse for me to go kayaking, hiking or even get some yard work done. It is not the end of the world, it's a break.

Nothing's really changed since the 1970's, or the 1870's for that matter: anything that can enrich our lives can also be abused, causing detriment to our lives. Like your mother always told you, "Be Responsible!".

Jaan, I buy that and will add that she and Mike take themself, too seriously.

There is a Norwegian saying:

Ingen er så stor
hun / han tror
vi andre tror.

Nobody is so great,
(s)he believes
we other believe.

Sorry for saying my meaning. Mike, revenge for you manipulation my picture. How will the next picture look like

I knew, I would get the opportunity.

I would have gone around her and ordered my meal. What if it was Mike Tyson and not WPW Mike?

By the way regarding addiciton. I have heard, that you should differentiate between

• Physical addiction. The body must have it.
• Psychological addiction. You like to drink, too often, with "friends". You like it.

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What if it was Mike Tyson?

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You don't mean pils (Norwegian beer)

That is my addiction.

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Let me tell you a story . . .

A few years ago I met a wonderful gal, fell in love, and looked forward to a little happiness in my life. If I ever find Murphy, his ass is dead!

Now, she has such an addiction to the Internet that we rarely sleep together any more. I cook most my own meals, wash my own clothes, and do most of the errand running necessary for the household. I also work an average of 12 hours per day, she doesn't work.

I've discussed the issue with her, pleaded with her, and even argued with her. In one ear - out the other. I anticipate the only cure will be my walking out the door and not looking back.

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sofakingdabest1: "In the 70's it was sex, drugs and rock n roll. What happened?"

We all grew 25 years older, I guess...

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I am addicted to the internet and computer video games.

when i get a new video game title, I play it till I drop.

The addiction is real, the most addictive games I have played are the GTA franchise and The elder scrolls - Oblivion.

The only reason why I am able to get some work done is because my pc has gone for repairs.

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Have fun and hopefully make money. Best drives I know of.

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Are we addicted to this post?

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4,923,847

maybe you are stuck to this post but I feel like I should be somewhere else… and it is just twelve steps away... well we could skip a few steps.

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Except number 9.

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I'd have tazered the cell phone and bit his ear off!

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Is Addiciton a real word ?

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You all talk like this is something new! I was addicted to the ARPANET in the 70's. Hmmm, dial-up, 300 modems, decoders, and just who came up with this DOS thing!!? Sorry...flashback.

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It's not the Internet that's the problem. It's what it's being cut with. You don't want to OD on Spam, do you ?

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Internet Addiction Gaining Credibility


American Journal of Psychiatry addresses the issues of Internet addiction. Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, said there are symptoms users experience.

Internet Addiction Gaining Credibility | WebProNews

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