Thursday, March 20, 2008

I can Quit Anytime I Want....

Do you have Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) (Hat tip: Mecurior)?:

If you’re a blogger, you could soon find yourself labeled with the newest mental disorder: Internet Addiction Disorder.

IAD has actually been proposed for inclusion as a psychiatric diagnosis in the next issue of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).


Shouldn't The New York Times be notified that rather than successes, these bloggers are sick addicts?

41 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I fear there is some truth to the "internet addiction" meme. Yet, as I sit in my pajamas writing you a comment, I hear the television from the next room. And I know I have at least chosen the more active form of addiction ...

10:40 AM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Danny said...

Well, some days, Ispent about 3 or 4 hours reading various blogs, online forums etc. So, that means I have IAD. So, I now need to sign up for my "disability benefits" package, dont I ? :):):)

Time will come when the DSM-V will become filled with such absurd, made-up , fake "disorders". God help us all then.

11:05 AM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Misanthrope said...

I can quit anytime I want. Of course, I don't want to.

11:37 AM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger BobH said...

Yes, I probably suffer from IAD. However, I have to wonder if adding "disorders" like this to the DSM isn't just an attempt, unconscious or deliberate, to improve the social standing and/or earning potential of the professionals who both treat these afflictions and control the contents of the DSM.

12:00 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger vanderleun said...

The way to avoid being labeled addicted is to become a gay blogger. The DSM won't lay a finger on you.

12:50 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Earnest Iconoclast said...

"IAD" is a symptom, not a disease. Aside from the fact that "Internet and computer usage" encompasses so many things that it's actually useless to lump them together.

Someone who spends all his time on the Internet stalking people is different from someone who spends all his time on the Internet day trading stocks is different from someone who spends all his time on the Internet playing games...

1:09 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Dave Cornutt said...

I'm not addicted.

2:41 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Dave Cornutt said...

I can quit anytime I want.

2:41 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Dave Cornutt said...

Really.

2:41 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Dave Cornutt said...

I just don't feel like it right now.

2:42 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Dave Cornutt said...

If it gets to really be a problem, I'll quit.

2:42 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Dave Cornutt said...

Promise.

2:42 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Helen said...

Dave Cornutt,

I'm commenting to you from the interstate in South Carolina --luckily I am not simultaneously blogging and driving. Do you want to start a support group?

2:47 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Larry J said...

What you need is Bloggers Anonymous (BA).

"Hi, my name is Helen and I'm a blogger."

"Hi, Helen."

"It's worse than that, I'm married to the InstaPundit!"

"Geezus!"

2:56 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Henry Cate said...

If this is a real disorder, could I get some funding to study the issue?

With more money I could quit my day job and spend more time blogging.

3:23 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Spinner said...

Texting is addictive and more dangerous as you see these people texting whilst driving and capable of causing serious accidents.

There is also mobile phone addiction that is a potentially dangerous thing espectially when driving. you see these people simply crossing the road either talking on the phone or texting.

3:41 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger JL said...

I'm probably addicted, as I find the internet a more satisfying way to spend my free time then most other avenues of entertainment. I do find that when I lack access to the interweb for extended periods I get kind of agitated unless I have a bunch of books to read. Maybe it's more of a reading addiction?

When I was in my teens and the internet wasn't as omnipresent, I spent most of my time reading or in the library looking for new stuff to learn about or enjoy. All types of great stuff, from Tolkien to The Complete Book of Sharks :D

I guess I like my brain to be active during downtime outside of work or the gym. I feel zombified just sitting and watching TV or movies, or playing videogames that lack strategic depth.

In closing, my name is JL, and I am addicted to the internets.

5:50 PM, March 20, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

gerard:

Perfect!

5:59 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger gs said...

We need to tax Internet usage to fund studies of this major new public health crisis.

And to fund development of technology to monitor people's online health. To hire helping professionals who will perform interventions (SWAT teams for the uncooperative cases). Senior civil servants--lawyers, of course...lots of lawyers--to coordinate everything.

Maybe we should fold the whole thing into the War on Drugs.

6:18 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Eric said...

What about blog bulemia or blogorexia nervosa? People who stuff and purge their blog posts, or who starve their blogs and allow them to wither away. It's really serious; many blogs have died that way. If you stop blogging, you might be just as sick as those who can't stop!

And the worst part is no one cares!
(Unless, as Gerard says, you avoid being labeled by becoming a gay blogger first.)

6:26 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger dienw said...

I do not have a disorder: I am a disorder.

7:02 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Peter V. Bella said...

Good. Now I know how to make my fortune. First I develop a twelve step program. WHen the book becomes a best seller, I will be the expert everone comes to. Talk shows and then Oprah! Next, I open up my own thirty day in house treatment center. I will find a corrupt Democrat to inusre legislation is passed so health insurance pays for it.

Then the whole operation goes public. I cash in and walk away.

That is the American way!

7:21 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Joan of Argghh! said...

It's been scientifically proven that watching television is akin to watching a fire in the fireplace; it produces an hypnotic state of lowered heartrate, etc.

The Internet is at least more interactive for mind and body.

And yes, I can happily go to Treasure Island this weekend and live without my computer.

Maybe...

7:51 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Trust said...

Bloggers Anonymous? No one likes a quitter. ;)

9:11 PM, March 20, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to know who funded Block's study.

I'm still wondering how the left is going to make the fairness doctrine work on the Internet, as they plan to do on the airwaves. And who will decide what is "left" and what is "right" and whether there will be a center, and how to include that in the matrix.

9:16 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger Trust said...

@br549:

I wonder if they'll apply the so-called fairness doctrine to education an academia, or if they'll only apply it to media where they lose.

I wrote an analogy of the fairness doctrine a while back, and posted it to my blog today. It's admittedly a bit cheesy, but then again, so is the fairness doctrine.

Best,
Trust

10:26 PM, March 20, 2008  
Blogger SeaSpray said...

I have a Blogaholics Anonymous mug but Dr A closed that blog recently.

Blogging is the best hobby. i would rather blog than watch TV and at least it is more creative/educational. :)

1:47 AM, March 21, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'll take a look at your blog, trust.
I don't see them messing with academia or education. It already leans sufficiently left for them (I hope).

What they don't seem to get, is that if I wish to view head on what is so far left it is laying on its left side, I have to lay on my right side to do so.

6:56 AM, March 21, 2008  
Blogger Serr8d said...

Last night my wife and I were sitting in the den and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all, If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

So she got up, unplugged the computer and threw out my Mt. Dew.

She can be so mean at times...

7:18 AM, March 21, 2008  
Blogger Kat Wilder said...

Hi, my name is Kat and I have IAD.

Look, if you HAVE to have an addiction ...

9:52 AM, March 21, 2008  
Blogger Cham said...

I'll take this post seriously.

Internet Addiction Disorder, yes, perfectly feasible. It almost sounds silly, but it isn't. Many of us have lives, respectable, responsible lives. We like to well-liked by others and not be considered cantankerous by the community. With the abundance of digital cameras, video cameras, forwardable email, and recordable audio equipment people have to be vigilant about what they say and what they do lest it appear on YouTube and Facebook the following day.

Our ability to express our opinions and maintain our good reputations grows harder and harder. We dare not utter our personal thoughts in the workplace, the community meeting or even poolside anymore. So people turn to the Internet, hide behind a screen name , and then proudly let loose.

Courtesy, respect and politeness be damned here on the Internet, it's a free-for-all. Name calling, accusations and vitriol are the order of the day. The best part about it is that one can complain to your heart's content. 95% of the blogs are depositories of a personal list of complaints: Political complaints, workplace complaints, neighbor complaints, race and gender complaints.

For many the Internet is one's happy place. Online, one becomes free to say what they please. At the same time, one's personal lives stand the chance of eroding. The more time on the net equals less human interaction. But everyone is free to time manage as they see fit so I am not going to worry about somebody else's IAD, or whatever you want to call it. Adults should be free to do as they please as long as they don't hurt anyone else.

10:41 AM, March 21, 2008  
Blogger Dave Cornutt said...

The good doctor asks: "Do you want to start a support group?"

Depends. Will they have wireless there?

1:03 PM, March 21, 2008  
Blogger Jack Steiner said...

I am a happy, well adjusted addict. Just don't take away my desktop, laptop or cellphone. ;)

1:16 PM, March 21, 2008  
Blogger SeaSpray said...

Serr8d...That's hilarious!! :)

1:18 PM, March 21, 2008  
Blogger Unknown said...

dave cornutt: good one!

Dr. Helen: you may enjoy the linked video in this CDR Salamander post

Sort of the "circle of life" for the internet addict... ;)

12:29 AM, March 22, 2008  
Blogger Bob Sorensen said...

I had a therapist give me a test about ten years ago, and he was prodding me to admit to addictions. "Do you drink?"..."No" (well, it was true THEN)..."Do you use drugs?"..."No"..."Are you sure?"..."Yes. Why?"

"You show addictive tendencies."

Then I told him about my Internet addiction...

7:47 PM, March 22, 2008  
Blogger Grim said...

I love that you guys vote on whether is "acceptable" or a "disorder." That's a great way to resolve a question of medical science. I don't know why we didn't think of that with cancer. We could have just voted it out -- problem solved!

Keeps health care costs down too. "Yeah, we had too many cases of ADD last year? So I think that influenced a lot of voters to throw it out of the book. But this year we got a big grant, so we can afford to add three or four new diseases."

2:33 PM, March 23, 2008  
Blogger Helen said...

Grim,

I don't like it either--diagnoses should be more science-based than they are.

2:45 PM, March 23, 2008  
Blogger pst314 said...

"Hi, my name is (...) and it's been twelve days since I last visited this blog...."

5:21 PM, March 28, 2008  
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