Yes I Am Addicted

“Hi, everyone my name is Rational Ahmand and I have an internet addiction.” I guess this is the beginning of my twelve step program to control my newly found addiction. Which is funny, seeing that I am adamantly against viewing (too much) TV and playing video games, when it's at least more than a few hours everyday (or better, more than a few hours every week). However, the versatility of the modern PC and the internet makes it oh so hard to resist! It's an interesting hypothesis whether blogging entails having an internet addiction – a highly probable and testable claim, to be sure.

There are increasing reports of "internet addiction" among younger adults; and I suppose that I'm no different in this respect. (I use scare quotes around ‘internet addiction’ because it's still open whether this problem is a genuine addiction, and if so, if it really needs treatment. There has been little psychological research on this alleged phenomenon thus far. However, research in this area is vastly growing.) Well what can I do? Umm, I could start simply by leaving this post and doing something totally constructive and unrelated to using the computer or other multimedia devices. But, a lot of my schoolwork and research depends on regular usage of the computer, so trying to avoid it in the long term is a hasty decision. Here is a site that purports to help internet addicts: center for Internet Addiction. If anyone else is afflicted with this "addiction," maybe this could be a starting place for help. Alternatively, a cognitive therapist could be better.

What about you? Do you have a so-called internet addiction? Here's a survey: Internet Stress Survey. I make no claims of this survey's validity. You can use it merely as a starting point of interest. Until then, I’ll see (or chat with) you on the web!


~AP