Surrendering to Internet addiction

Computer Life column for 8/9/1997 by
Richard Gordon

In the late 70's, I'd come home from work and turn on my 13" color TV "just to check the 6 o'clock news." Next thing I knew it'd be time for Carson's monologue.

Now I spend too much time on the Net. And, yes, there have been times when virtual life has sucked me into its vortex, leaving me wondering how those Hydrox crumbs got into the keyboard.

Sometimes when the chores around the house are just too overwhelming, when the flowerbeds need weeding, the laundry needs doing, the vacuum cleaner bag needs changing, that blank screen calls out to me.

I rationalize that it's more intellectually stimulating than the "boob tube" or that I'd better stay upstairs to make sure a certain young man of my acquaintance really does go to sleep.

"9:05. Plenty of time. I'll log in for just a minute." Then twenty minutes later, or in what I'd swear was twenty minutes later, I realize it's after midnight.

There's a name for this kind of behavior: Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD).

Making the diagnosis

To the best of my knowledge, IAD is not an authorized, American Psychological Association-approved diagnosis. As a matter of fact, Walter Logeman, a psychologist from New Zealand, refers to it as the "Internet Addiction Myth" (www.psybernet.co.nz/WRITING/addict.htm).

Nancy Wesson, a California psychologist, lists several behavior patterns that she thinks are symptoms that something may be wrong (www.wespsych.com/interadd.html).

I admit I exhibit some of these symptoms. For example, several years ago I missed an exit on I-95 because I was absorbed in thoughts about my life on the Net-specifically about which of my cyber-players to put on the virtual pitch in my next electronic soccer match. But do I deprive myself of sleep to research my columns on line at 1:16AM because I'm addicted or because I'm disorganized?

Author Morton Orman, M.D., has put up an Internet Addiction Survey in his web area (www.stresscure.com/hrn/addiction.html). If you answer "Yes" to seven or more of the nine questions on the survey, he suggests that you may have a problem. (I said "Yes" only six times.)

He says that "Dealing with Internet Addiction is no different than dealing with any other type of addiction. Whether you are addicted to heroin, gambling, cigarettes, sexual deviancy, or eating Milky Way bars, all addictions have certain basic elements in common."

Logeman agrees that anything can be addictive, but adds that some things "are more harmful than others. The Internet is not all that bad compared to some."

At her humorous Netaholics Anonymous web site (www.earthplaza.com/netaholics/), Pamela Kagan invites people to submit "symptoms" of this dread disorder.

One contributor says that you know you're hooked when you "decide to stay in college for an additional year or two, just so you can have the free Internet access." Sounds like some of my former student employees!

Except for family, the only overnight guests I've had in the past six years have been electronic acquaintances from Australia and South Africa. Another of Kagan's contributors might claim that I should heed this IAD symptom: "communicat[ing] with people on other continents more than you do with your own neighbors."

A third contributor indicates you've got a problem when you "buy a pager so family and friends that really need to get through can beep you to return their call." I only have voice mail so people can leave messages while I'm on line. However, I do know one AOL-addicted, Newport family whose voice mail "busy greeting" does list their beeper number.

It really can be addicting to get soccer coaching advice from someone in New Zealand, flirt with someone in California, discuss politics with someone in Finland.

I sold that TV in 1978, living happily without one for three years. But I'll never willingly go without a modem. Ever.

Copyright © 1997, The News Journal Company

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