The Junk Drawer

A junkie runs on junk time. When his junk is cut off, the clock runs down and stops. [William Burroughs, Junkie]

Growing concern over Internet addiction

Filed under: Newspaper Clippings — dhalgren at 1:06 pm on Sunday, May 21, 2006

One of my pals, disgruntled by the lack of phone calls originating from NW Ohio, sent me the following story. Here’s the bit that, admittedly, resembles me:

“Denial is strong in Internet addicts who claim they cannot be addicted to a machine,” Wieland notes. The “one more minute” response to being asked to go offline is common and is similar to an alcoholic who says they will quit drinking after “one more drink.”

Come on, who hasn’t asked for just one more minute?

3 Comments »

172

Comment by Mel B.

May 22, 2006 @ 1:39 pm

Admitting you have a problem is the first step…

I don’t have a problem. I can stop at any time.

174

Comment by Matthew

May 23, 2006 @ 11:42 am

I don’t know if there is such a thing as Internet addiction. When you consider the kinds of things people do online, the “addiction” falls into more typical types: pornography addiction, gambling addiction, video game addiction, news addiction. The medium is not what is addicting, but the material passing through the medium. Does that make any sense?

180

Comment by dhalgren

May 27, 2006 @ 8:09 am

It does. But I do feel that there is a sort of mental addiction to simply going and sitting at the computer. I have often felt psychologically compelled to do so and, even now, mornings would not be mornings if I did not check email first thing (which I am doing at this very moment).

I’m glad you are in control of your web habits, Mel B. Someone here should be.

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