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Internet Addiction
Every day, millions of people come home from work or school, boot up
their computers and enter a world we wouldn’t have dreamed of twenty years
ago.
They "talk" with anonymous strangers in chat rooms and news groups;
"visit" museums and African plains; "kiss," "hug" and "have sex" by typing
into a computer; "swim underwater" in simulated oceans.
It’s a new world, all right—one in which we are confronted daily with
new emotional issues, or new twists on age-old issues. These three brief
vignettes illustrate some of the uncharted waters we are wading in today.
Real Life vs. Net Life
George spends five to eight hours a day on the Internet talking with a
vast assortment of friends in various chat communities. He presents
himself alternately as an assertive and confident Casanova, an opinionated
scholar or a focused, take-charge businessman.
In "real life," George is none of these. Painfully shy and extremely
self-critical, George keeps to himself.
"I feel more like myself when I’m online," he says. But what he really
means is, "I feel more like who I wish I was."
In online culture, people often use the anonymity to put forth an
alternate "self." Internet interactions don’t carry the same risks as
face-to-face conversations. And that can free people to explore previously
underdeveloped parts of themselves.
But without integrating those new parts into real life, identities
remain dependent on a machine. The computer becomes simply a safe haven in
which to hide. And boundaries between the imagined world and real world
become further blurred.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
