Are you addicted to the internet?
17th Oct 2004
My name is Blair and I'm an internet addict. I realise I'm addicted but I no longer have control over my actions... please help!
Only joking... or am I?
What would you think if I was serious? This isn't a real cry for help (honest). I don't regard my enthusiasm for the internet (or more specifically web design) as a serious problem because I'm aware that it's a problem... albeit a small problem that I have under control. I can stop/cut-back whenever I want/need to. I recognise the symptoms and know where to draw the line. If you're now asking yourself if you're addicted to the internet, you may also be reassuring yourself that at least it's not as serious as, say, heroin addiction... but is it?
Ok, I don't want to get too heavy here; this is meant as a thoughtful look at how web designers, software coders, digital artists and other internet users manage to cope with their own personal addiction to their computer use. With limited first-hand experience of any serious type of addiction other than my own enthusiasm for running I'm no expert in the field but here's my thoughts anyway.
A few years ago I used to do an awful lot of running: I went out training every night; I was away at the weekends racing; I planned holidays round races; I tried to get my partner to start running (even though her knees couldn't stand the pounding from the pavements); I changed my diet to improve my fitness, endurance, stamina and overall speed... basically running took over my life. Only incessant injury made me realise I was addicted to running. When I got injured I would be furious with myself for being so careless. All that fitness I'd spent months building up would be gone in a matter of weeks. I used to worry about my health and weight-gain because I wasn't exercising. I used to get so upset when I couldn't go out for a run it started to affect my day-to-day life. I would be irritable, edgy, tired, snappy... not a terribly nice guy to be around. Where once I satisfied this cerebral craving for stimulation or a focus by going out for a run I was left feeling empty and bored. Sometimes an injury left me out of action for 3 or 4 months at a time. (You may be asking how I managed to keep injuring myself? Well, it wasn't bad training per se, it was more to do with the type of running I partook in: hill running. And with hill running came uncertain terrain, which made for tricky descents and turned ankles). I didn't realise I was in a void that needed filled at the time but maybe that's why I took to web design so readily; it gave me the opportunity to maniacally focus my attention on something again (and I wasn't likely to twist my ankle sitting at a computer!).
Unaware of what I was getting myself into, I never once considered the long-term effects of "taking up internet use". Can you imagine the Government Health Warning slapped onto the side of computers like a cigarette pack? I suspect most smokers didn't consider the effects of nicotine addiction before they took their first few puffs. Addiction isn't immediately apparent... and the symptoms don't immediately sing and dance for your attention. Importantly though, the effects of addiction will eventually eat into your life causing lots of problems to yourself and others around you... yes, this includes being addicted to the internet.
When did I realise I had a problem with my computer use? Was it sitting for more than 12 hours in front of a computer screen without a break? Was it my incessant yawning and stretching at work due to having 6 hours of sleep a night for the previous two weeks? Was it the act of turning on the computer first thing in the morning to check my site stats/email etc.? Was it continually working on the latest "re-design" of my personal site? Was it when I heard myself saying "Just another ten minutes fixing this bloody foobar... then I'll go to bed". Was it the effects of burning eye syndrome? Was it when my girlfriend threatened to leave me? Only kidding, that last one never happened... but I pre-empted it and made sure matters never reached that stage.
Of course you may experience other symptoms. You could go days without speaking to another human being... your only human contact being through the internet? The only physical exercise you partake in is walking to the kitchen to make some coffee? The only books you buy are from Amazon (or another online book retailer) and are usually internet/computer related? You spend time at (your paid) work thinking about and working on your own personal projects? (naughty!). Your lack of active routine has lead to unbalanced sleeping and eating patterns? Lack of fresh air/daylight has promoted skin trouble/spots? You are suffering mental exhaustion from hours and hours of staring at a computer screen? Deep vain thrombosis/backache/general aches and pains due to poor posture, poor ergonomics? Repetitive strain injury... sore wrist/shoulder from mouse control? Blurred or loss of vision (burning eye syndrome)?
Based on the above, if you considered the possible differences between heroin addiction and internet addiction and still reckon that the internet seems the lesser evil perhaps you need to consider online activities like chat rooms, shopping, gambling... blogging! The negative elements of internet addiction will manifest just like those associated with heroin addiction. When you reach this stage it's probably too late... you need some professional help (ha ha, sorry Dunstan!). Dr Millen recommends you try to spot the tell-tale signs before it's too late. Here's a brief eight-item questionnaire from the Net Addict website. Consider yourself addicted to the interent if you answer yes to five or more.
- Do you feel preoccupied with the internet (think about previous on-line activity or anticipate next on-line session)?
- Do you feel the need to use the internet with increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction?
- Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop internet use?
- Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop internet use?Do you feel restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop internet use?Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop internet use?
- Do you stay on-line longer than originally intended?
- Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the internet?
- Have you lied to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the internet?
- Do you uses the internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression)?
Serious stuff eh?
You could probably answer yes to a few of these and correctly state that you have absolutely no internet addiction at all. A differentiation between normal and pathological internet use exists but only a fine line seperates the two. Maybe your job requirements leave you with no option but to sit in front of a computer for long periods of time; if so make sure you follow these useful Health and Safety guidelines, paying particular attention to the "breaks and exercises" section.
Some further reading
Maki made a useful post about how to avoid web (or blogging) burnout. Wired ran an article earlier this year on blogging burnout. Marginal Revolution provides some personal experience of blogging.
Comments are now closed
This was posted on 17th Oct 2004.
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Lars said...
Whew, that was quite a long post...
You've managed to address a lot of relevant issues.
I certainly recognize myself in your description. I used to spend large amounts of time exercising, particularly mountain-biking (I would love to try hill-running, but the part of Sweden I live in is too flat for that). I bought my first computer in 2001, so I could work from home. At school and at work I had always been quite disciplined in my search for information, but at home I gradually started spending more and more time surfing aimlessly, "just for fun". Slowly, other activities began to suffer. I was aware, but I made a conscious choice to devote a certain amount of time to the internet. It was still feeling new, and new things and experiences are often exciting.
To some extent, the excitement is still there, but not in the same way. This past year, more than ever, I have often found myself evaluating how I use the internet, how much time I spend on it, and what I get out of it.
I recently took a couple of months off of surfing and blogging, for different reasons. One was that I realized I was spending too much time on useless things. Joel, our mutual virtual acquaintance, writes that:
I am not sure I can answer that.
But has this been harmful to me? In some ways it is too early to say. There could be health consequences, such as those you mention, that won't show until years later. But other than that, it has mostly been a waste of time. My time. No one else really suffered.
So to compare internet addiction to other forms of addictions, particularly to heroin, would be to stretch things a bit, I think.
These are different types of addictions, with very different risks, effects, and costs to society, as well very different paths to getting out of them.
You don't really compare internet addiction to drug addiction, and, conversely, I'm not really saying there aren't any similarities. In fact, your post makes a good argument that there are: all types of addictions risk hurting the addicted, his or her family and friends, and society at large (through different costs incurred, etc.). This is important to bear in mind.
Also, I don't regard my own case as particularly serious, so I'm probably not the right person to comment on the extreme cases. It could very well be that those people, or people in their environment, experience consequences similar to those, of say, a drug or gamble addiction.
Another thing to consider is the lost value of all the things you didn't do that you could have done instead of sitting in front of a computer screen.
All in all, a thought-provoking post.
Monday 18th October 2004 12.51pm
Joel said...
Well I forever keep in mind something Hakim Bey said to me, which has almost become a kind of koan I return to. He has completely cut himself off from the internet, much to the surprise of those who thought it was something he would embrace. He wrote to me that he refuses "compensation for the demise of the physical world" (the letter is on my "about" page). This is a theme I find myself returning to time and time again.
I can't deny there is a certain pleasure in looking at websites, even aimlessly doing so, but you lose track so easily and drift off in a way that just doesn't seem to happen when reading books. The nature of the hyperlinked medium seems to encourage fruitless tangents (unlike, for instance, footnotes and endnotes in books). I have certainly stopped hyperlinking every little thing, which I think is becoming a pathetic practice. I think twice about every hyperlink I create. Y'know, some people even hyperlink big words to a dictionary definition! I mean, I've got a good dictionary on my shelf thank you very much and perhaps I'm not even that ignorant either and already know what the word means! Anyway, that's one area where one can take a positive stance: stop hyperlinking to every little bit of rubbish, just hyperlink to essential things.
Oh and Blair, fix your site in Opera mate! I want to stop using all these other lesser browsers like Firefox and just use the best browser. I've used Opera since version 3.6, but version 7.54 is incredibly good.
PS: Your "live comment" thing is very swish.
Tuesday 19th October 2004 5.21am
Blair Millen said...
Joel,
Interesting point about superfluous linking... are you referring to blogmarks like my "lowercase" bunch of links as inessential? If so I find these superfluous links make up a good part of my web browsing and regard them as enjoyable lunchtime titilation. Of course you are right in saying that most blogmarks are inessential but the few sites I visit especially for the blogmarks (like Simon Willison, Kottke and Airbag) usually provide quality distractions.
Thursday 21st October 2004 9.53am
Joel said...
No, I wasn't referring to things like your "lowercase", which I regard as a feature in which you intend to point out interesting things you've come across on the web. Given that is its aim it can't be regarded as "inessential". And you seem to have better taste than some there.
The kind of linking I am avoiding is superfluous referencing material in the body of a piece of writing. If I mention a film, for instance, is there really a need to link to its entry in the Internet Movie Database as a matter of course unless I intend to make a point about something someone has written there? You see numerous posts that are essentially pieces of writing, and worth reading, that are then littered with links that I have to use judgment whether or not to look at. Sometimes I will open them up behind the current window just to save thinking about it, and when I go to look at these other open windows usually it wastes my time.
As for those who link to a specific search in Google as if it was amusing, they should have their toys taken away from them and be taken out and shot. Similarly, linking every book title you mention to Amazon in the hope of affiliates money is another piece of bad taste people should receive a strong slap for.
Many such links are quite arbitrary, and not serving any great purpose. People do it because they can. It doesn't add anything to the authority or completeness of a piece. It is tempting to do it, and one gets into a habit of doing it, as if it was "journalistic" or something. But it is one of the biggest causes of aimless web activity. It is this kind of thing that I personally have decided to reign in, making an effort to make my writing self-contained, except obviously for those times I am specifically intending to point out something I have found on the web, which is getting rarer I must say.
If people want to provide lists of interesting links like your "lowercase", one of the original functions of a blog, it might be good if they annotated them as you do, but in general one soon learns whether the person has enough discernment to know what is interesting and what is not, and so one wastes less time. "Less is more" is still a useful adage. The kind of lists of supposedly interesting links you get on blogs like plasticbag.org and kottke.org I find overdone and noisy, so I don't care to read those sites.
Thursday 21st October 2004 6.09pm
karla said...
I am currently doing a senior project on interent addiction and I found this blog to be really stimulating. It has sort of give me some form in inspiration. :)
Monday 24th September 2007 8.01pm