View and vote on the article here: Feature: Reflections of a Digital Junkie
Feature: Reflections of a Digital Junkie| Category | | | Summary | | Its 4:30am, and most of Australia is asleep. In exactly 30 minutes I will hop on a train to Sydney to visit some clients and hopefully earn some money. I haven't gone to bed yet - by the time I?m finished in the chat room, getting some sleep is going to m |
| | Body | I?m one of the lucky ones - I have friends and family that understand my love of computers and don?t gripe when I lock myself in my room for hours on end. Essentially, I'm an Internet addict, but it's not really an addiction, as I see it; my addiction has no negative impact on other areas of my life (except for maybe in the girlfriend department).
Morning Routine
Thankfully, I don?t go to Sydney every day of the week; that would really kill me. My morning routine (when I?m not off at an unearthly hour of the morning) goes like this: my alarm goes off around 8 AM, I get up, check my email, and flick the IRC window open so I can see if anyone is chatting. Usually I?ll close whatever I had downloading overnight; it?ll either be finished or further along than it was, but I?m not about to let my P2P downloads interfere with my browsing speed.
If there's nothing happening, I?ll consider crawling back into bed for another hour or so; my real world life doesn?t start until later in the day, although my clients tend to start calling at about 9 or 10 AM. When I think about it, every one of my clients should be thankful that I spend the amount of time on the Internet that I do.
Procrastination is the Key
Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow, or better yet indefinitely. Putting things off has very little to do with my Internet usage, although the Net is one of the things I use to procrastinate. If I wasn?t on the Internet, I'd be reading a book or watching a movie. People who may have been addicted to TV in the past are slowly morphing into the junkies of the digital age, thanks to the interactive nature of the Internet. If procrastination is my vice, then looming deadlines are my nightmare, and somewhere in the haze of things I become brutally aware that the time I spend chatting on IRC and commenting on random Slashdot articles is what put me in this situation in the first place.
The Daily Grind
Gloria Jean's or Starbucks, take your pick. Caffeine addiction is the gateway to Internet addiction. Personally, I drink Red Bull, but I?m not addicted to that, either; I can stop any time I want. Anyways, at least I?m not a smoker; it?s not in my personality to be stressed, and I could care less about peer pressure, so that rules out two of the major causes of people smoking.
Somewhere during my research into Internet addiction, I found out that the age group that has the highest percentage Internet addicts is the 14 - 25 year old demographic. Not only is it is the age that most computer games are targeted at (which we all know leads to Internet addiction), but it is also a stressful time, full of the pressures of school and other social complexities.
In real terms, addiction is an escape, and newcomers to this sphere are more often than not happy to become a faceless entity judged only by what you say and do. MSN may be the digital equivalent to that first smoke in the school restroom (not that I would know anything about that).
See the world, meet new people (then kill them!)
No, this is not the new ad campaign for the Army, but it does say a lot about the Internet. To understand Internet addiction, we really need to understand the addictive qualities the Internet has. Nicotine may be what keeps people hooked on cigarettes, but it?s the trivial benefits like social acceptance and stress reduction that attract people to start smoking in the first place.
Not being a well-travelled person, my view of the world comes through the looking glass that is the Internet. I talk and work with people from all over the globe. Meeting new people is one of the most attractive qualities of the Internet - while I am by no means socially inept as far as the rest of my life is concerned, my line of work doesn?t bring me into contact with loads of people, either. So, meeting people online is a good way to expand my social relationships. It can be argued that the relationships that I form online aren?t as good as real ones, but if I invited most of the people that I talk to online to a real world event, they would be more than happy to spend time in my physical presence as well. They are my friends, and regardless of what you believe about Internet addiction, it would be a great loss if I couldn't spend time with them anymore.
So what about killing them? Computer gaming has its own addicts, but mixing it with the Internet creates a powerful drug. Fighting AI characters, no matter how smart, gets boring after a while, but when you?re thrust into an environment where you're fighting against other living, breathing, Internet addicts, you are challenged. There is a sense of teamwork as you work alongside people you have never met (and may never ever see) to defeat other, equally distant people. Enter online gaming, exit any chance of getting work done today.
C is for Computers
Every single person I know uses computers, and some hate the things with a vengeance, but the complexities of today?s working environment have propelled computers into every nearly every workplace, and certainly every school in this country has a computer lab. While the employees and students may not be willingly propelling themselves toward computers (and by extension the Internet), it is an unavoidable facet of modern society. Computers, when not used properly, are more of a hindrance than a help, and by the same token, the time that is wasted on the Internet by employees is costing businesses money. Internet addiction becomes a real problem for businesses, right alongside the issues of employers reading their employees' emails, or the employees stealing office supplies or misusing resources.
Meanwhile, the general public isn?t aware of the complexities that computers and the Internet have thrust into their lives. Many people don?t fully understand computers (which opens them up to a whole host of other problems), and they certainly don?t understand what Internet addiction is, or what it does.
Cold Turkey
In all fairness, this has been a rather haphazard look at Internet addiction. Reality (in all its harshness) strikes when your addiction starts to cause you problems, and at times I feel like I?m walking a very fine line - it would not take a great deal for me to fade away from the rest of my life altogether. Cold turkey may be an option for some, but for all its risks and drawbacks, losing the ability to use the Internet would certainly be worse. That's not the addict in me speaking either; I rely on the Internet for my job, which allows me to make money to live. Over time, I could retrain and probably avoid the Internet, but in the meantime I would starve.
Stepping backwards is more realistic. While the Internet is a great tool that is all that it is. It is far more important to spend time with people than with pixels and bytes. Just as with anything else, the key is moderation, and I don't mean quashing other people?s forum posts. Consider well the fact that if you understood that last sentence, there is a very good chance that you are an Internet addict as well.
Take my advice - find the power button, and shut the screen off; there's a good chance that there is a beautiful day or night outside for you to take advantage of, and people that would love to spend more time with you. The Internet will still be there when you return. Hell, it's not like I?m going to stop using.
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This article was imported from zZine. (original author: nirus)
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