Philip Wen's //

Internet Addiction?

So this piece of news has been floating around about China diagnosing “Internet Addiction” as an official disorder. You can read about it here, here, and here.

More and more information from news to celebrity gossip to even radio, video, textbook material and technical documentation are being moved from their traditional medium of paper magazines, dead tree newspaper, AM/FM and cable to the internet.  With all these former outlets being combined into one big fat pipe, it is obvious that people will spend more time on the ‘net.  I am not sure how these medical experts are diagnosing this as a disorder.

So let’s see.  Before the advent of the ‘net, a typical day of a normal person would probably consist of .5 to 1 hr of reading the newspaper, 2-3 hours of watching TV, a 3-5 hours of working on spreadsheets or writing some documents, 2-3 hours of chatting and conversing with friends near or far, etc.

Now that digital connectivity is prevalent, most of these roles are being taken over by the internet.  Streaming video, audio, news, IM, web-enabled productivity apps have all replaced the old ways of information and work delivery.

I can understand the diagnosis of addiction for someone who stays on World of Warcraft for 19 hours a day.  But for someone who utilizes a variety of different apps to facilitate productivity and enable communication through the ‘net, how can that be classified as addiction?

What are your thoughts?  How do you feel about our increasing dependence on electronic connectivity?

Update:  For a more top-down look on what the internet is being used for, check out this article.