ENOUGH is enough. I simply refuse to believe that Internet addiction is an
emerging clinical disorder. Yet Kimberly Young, an assistant professor of
psychology from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Pennsylvania, has
posted a paper on the Net on just this subject. Anecdotal evidence, says Young,
suggests that online users are becoming addicted in much the same way as drug
addicts and alcoholics.
Young should spend a little time in a detox centre before penning such a
line. True, she supports her argument by taking the definition for substance
dependence from the American Psychiatric Association. But I鈥檓 not convinced. If
you think you spend too long with Lycos and Yahoo, and Young鈥檚 notions tempt you
to fork out for a bit of therapy, my advice is don鈥檛 do it. You鈥檒l end up paying
the therapist far more than you do your Internet provider.
Instead, indulge a little. Choose you favourite search engine and type:
鈥淚nternet and addiction鈥�. Amid the deadly earnest output of the therapists you
will find some humour. 鈥淵ou are addicted,鈥� claims one waggish site, 鈥渨hen all
your daydreaming is preoccupied with getting a faster connection to the Net . . .
and even your night dreams are in HTML.鈥�
Advertisement
After scrolling through Young鈥檚 paper and Yahoo鈥檚 humour category, I wasn鈥檛
sure whether to be incensed by the therapists or amused by the humorists. There
was only one thing for it鈥攖o sink more deeply into my own addiction. Just
one more click, I thought. But then I couldn鈥檛 stop. All that mattered was the
next Web site. Eventually, I found a paper from the University of Western
Ontario. Perhaps this would help me to understand what was going on.
I read: 鈥淲hen people log on to the Internet for prolonged periods of time
they are escaping reality, they are delving deep into a culture that has no
boundaries and has no real existence.鈥� I looked uneasily at the books lining my
room. I remembered how often I鈥檇 stayed up till 3 am, feverishly turning pages,
and my haggard expression the next day. These books created a world for me
without boundaries in space or time. Should I seek help?
Perhaps, I thought, the section on psychology and Internet addiction would
help to resolve the issue. Here I learnt that much of addiction may have its
roots in childhood. The author explained the familiar and important argument
that in adulthood, abused children often become abusers themselves as a means of
assuaging their childhood feelings of helplessness. Then the author writes:
鈥淭ransference occurs when this person as an adult demonstrates anger toward
his/her computer when it does not behave the way they want it to.鈥�
The next paragraph appears to contradict the argument being developed above,
though I have to admit I鈥檓 not quite sure what the argument is. Never mind, what
I learnt in the next paragraph was that, 鈥淎s an adult, a computer possesses the
qualities wanted in a parent. For example, predictable and nonjudgmental.鈥� Even
taking what I presume to be the intended meaning, namely that as adults we
might, if we have been abused, see computers as reliable and predictable
parental figures, I was not sympatico with the author.
Having read the paper, I decided that the humorists were much better
contributors on the subject of the Internet and addiction than the therapists. I
also came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as Internet
addiction.
I am happy to believe that some people spend hours glued to their computer
screen. I accept some people are painfully shy, eccentric, antisocial even, and
that they find solace on the Internet. But then, what鈥檚 wrong with being
eccentric? I doubt it warrants a session lying down on a psychiatrist鈥檚
couch.
But then, perhaps I鈥檓 wrong. Perhaps I鈥檓 in denial. And what should one
conclude if (and thanks to http://www.techheadnet.com/jokes.htmfor this),
鈥淵ou pick up the phone and manually dial your Internet provider鈥檚 access number.
You try to hum to communicate with it. You succeed鈥�?