Readers who follow my various writings (yes, I mean both of you) know I've written about internet addiction and other addictive sources (there's a list of links below). The possibilities of online living being addictive is an old (in internet time) discussion. There were papers and postings about it back in the days of 300baud BBS and journal postings for about just as long.
What makes things different now is how the Chinese Government is dealing with internet addiction. Readers may remember my writing "...the literature on narcotics addiction didn't appear until there was sufficient narcotics available at low enough cost to create a "user" class that caused economic hardship to the community, at which point it became profitable to point at some diagnoses and say "Look, narcotics addiction"."
What I was offering was that the internet as the internet wouldn't be recognized as an addictive source until there was sufficient economic hardship demonstrated. From the article referenced above, "I couldn't catch up to the other students", ie, production was falling, ie, economic hardship, ie, ta-da!.
For what it's worth, the American Psychiatric Association is currently deciding if IA, as in Internet Addiction, should be included in the DSM-V ("the" diagnostic guide for American psychiatric work).
So how much time are you spending online? And are you going to follow the links I've provided?
Go for it. Psychiatrists have been losing money in the current economy because psychiatric care is expensive and often considered optional or elective by most health care systems. Not to mention that intentionally seeking psychiatric care is still somewhat stigmatic in our culture.
But if the APA includes the IA in the DSM-V (and more acronyms you couldn't ask for, yes?)?
Well, heck. Then HMOs will have to pay for treatment. Imagine the number of web designers and marketers and analysts who'll finally ... oh, never mind...
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- Are You Addicted to Surfing?
- What Tivo Guilt, etc., tells us about ourselves
- Responding to WindKiller's comment on "What Tivo Guilt, etc., tells us about ourselves"
- Guys Can't Help Themselves
- Responding to WindKiller's comment about Nature v Nuture and Abusers
- Chatty Cathy to TXTing Terri
- (And if you happen to be reading this after 11 Oct 09) Want to kick the habit? Play Some Music
- The 4th Annual SNCR Research Symposium & Awards Gala at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, 5-6 Nov 09
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