Internet Addiction Disorder: You May Be Crazy If...
Published July 24, 2008
The Internet Is A Good Thing
The global Internet is interactive, it's a wealth of information, and it includes social activities throughout. Most of the time spent online, and why it seems like it is addictive, is that it revolves around socialization. You hang out with and talk to other people online. I'd say it's even better than hanging out in person or talking on a telephone because of all the information available online that you can tap into to include in your online conversations. Where else can you talk to someone in England, Japan, Manila, Texas, and Wyoming without it costing you an arm and a leg for a conference call?
Until voice recognition and VoIP technology become useful enough to be commonly used, most everyone has to read and write and think to communicate online. This practice improves spelling and grammar, and construction and articulation of thoughts and ideas. Sure, you'll see a lot of horrific spelling and grammar, and you'll also see it improve over time. Research skills develop, and so does the ability to discriminate between useful and worthless information.
So, Are You Crazy?
Well, we're all crazy - in a good way. It's a good thing, this time we spend on the Internet because we're spending the time together. For me, it's making it possible to live way out in the middle of nowhere and still talk and hang out with a lot of wonderful people, even with my wacky sleep schedule.
Back in my early college days, I remember my Abnormal Psychology instructor saying that, as we go through all the disorders during the course of the semester, we will undoubtedly think that we suffer most of disorders covered. And, it was true. But, there’s a list of criteria with the majority needing to be manifest before you can be diagnosed as having a mental illness. Someone decided to come up with “Internet Addiction Disorder” but without studies or definition of criteria, nor treatment options, it is not a real disorder.
- Internet Addiction Disorder: You May Be Crazy If...
- Published: July 24, 2008
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Computers, Culture: Society, Sci/Tech: Internet
- Writer: Theresa Komor
- Theresa Komor's BC Writer page
- Theresa Komor's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Good article.
I was going to write a longer comment but I've gotta run and check out my auto forum, and then there's my RSS and craigslist and eBay for some shopping and some email I've gotts answer...
@ mc - I think the reason I looked into IAD and wrote about it was because as soon as you even mention the word 'addiction', all sorts of panic buttons are pushed. It just is not a legitimate mental health disorder!
@ bliffle - I think you're just as crazy as the rest of us! In that good way, of course!
Thank you for your comments!
Theresa
Off a little but not entirely off subject, there was a show on CBC radio that recently discussed the art of writing letters and what it meant to people.
Is this a form of communication that will die off permanently?
My name is Alessandro and I suffer from Invertigopius: A dizzying disorder within a degrading disorder.
Impossible to detect or cure.
I think you'll be ok, Alessandro. Take two aspirin and call your doc in the morning.
Lately, I've noticed that Wired and other popular Internet magazines have picked up on IAD and insist it is a real disorder. It is not. Someone decided to loosely copy the symptoms of Gambling Addiction and called it IAD. Again, it is not a true, mental health disorder.
Theresa
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Hello Theresa: I thoroughly enjoyed your article and found it to be thought provoking. Just because IAD exists does not mean a mental illness is lurking around somewhere. Or maybe it is or is not. Who knows. Only he knows and he is probably not going to tell or maybe she knows and she is not telling. We must be gender neutral, huh.
mc