Just like it's taken us a while to reckon with the fact that texting or yakking on the phone while driving can be seriously unsafe, it is taking a while to figure out what to make of our sometimes heedless obsession with all things online.
At least one psychiatrist says that, for some of us, online fixation can be serious a problem--a compulsive-impulsive disorder whose sufferers endure gadget cravings, broadband-deprivation withdrawal, increasing tolerance for spending extraordinary amounts of time online, and no apparent embarrassment when they wake up in the morning with a keyboard imprint on their face.
An article in The Ottawa Citizen cites an editorial on the subject in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry by Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University.
Another set of symptoms typically accompanying online addiction, Block writes, includes argumentative behavior, lying, social isolation, and fatigue. He also notes that Internet addiction typically accompanies other types of mental illness, argues that it should be included in psychiatry's official dictionary of mental illnesses, and points out that it already is considered a serious public health issue in South Korea and China.
Look around you. You probably see at least a few people in need of Net-addiction therapy. Assuming you're not holed up at home, staring for hours at your computer screen.
Henry Jenkins, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who is perhaps academia's leading fanboy, spent part of January in Shanghai and has been posting observations on his blog. I want to highlight one of his better contributions: on social responsibility in Chinese video game culture.
Video games, "freedom," and "addiction"
Jenkins was attending the International Games and Learning Forum, organized by MIT and Beijing University. There, the focus was on "serious games," those that might potentially be used to promote learning. His most frequently repeated observation was that, while U.S. experts on game learning tend to focus on pedagogy in game play, the Chinese experts he heard from focused mostly on creating historically accurate spaces for games to take place in.
Jenkins writes that some people were concerned that Chinese gamers would miss some measure of socialization in Chinese history when exposed to foreign-designed gaming spaces, and he contrasts the online gaming experience mostly concentrated in Internet cafes where there is minimal face-to-face contact between players with the commonplace sight of usually older Chinese playing chess, mahjong, and card games in the street or in homes. The older games happen face-to-face and often come with a small crowd of spectators remarking on strategy and shooting the breeze. Online games include a large amount of interaction through chat, but most of the non-text interaction is absent.
He also writes of concerns that game addiction, or hype about addiction, should require game designers to tread with caution, lest they be marked as unwelcome cultural influences. Jenkins is not a longtime student of China, but his observation is interesting, if not particularly well-supported by data. (He doesn't claim hard evidence.) He writes:
The addiction rhetoric, though, carries force within China where it is connected to a number of concerns which the Chinese have about their children's culture. First, at a time when aspects of capitalism are reshaping Chinese society (especially in Shanghai), addiction rhetoric gives the Chinese a way to talk about the impact of leisure culture and consumer capitalism on their lives. Playing games is problematic precisely because it is unproductive (or seen as such).
If corporate social responsibility were extended to the point of asking corporations not to contribute to unproductive activities, otherwise known as recreation or entertainment, I suspect corporate heads would fall nationwide. I'm also skeptical that this concern goes much beyond the realm of the rhetorical. Far more consequential to social change in China, in my view, are two factors: (1) the proliferation of direct and near-anonymous interaction online, including in gaming environments, among some Chinese youth; and (2) the divide between those Chinese with access to this sort of high-intensity Internet use and those with little or no online time.
Jenkins notes the latter concern as a challenge to using games as an educational tool: If you're not frequently in front of a computer, it's difficult to engage in learning with one. Research on the "digital divide" in China is at an early stage, but I suspect it will be of growing importance as times passes.
The human brain uses a complex system of senses, thoughts, and feelings to help us survive our environment. Feelings, in particular, play a critical role in warning us that something may be wrong. The brain interprets all these signals and determines what, if any, action should be taken.
What do you think would happen if that delicate system ceased to function properly? I'm not a shrink, but I'm relatively sure it would be a real mess. Well, you know what? I think we're beginning to see the signs of that mess all around us. And that's because we're all becoming addicts. Gadget addicts. ... Read more
The Register has an excellent article today on the compact disc, which was first pressed for commercial release 25 years ago. If you've ever been curious about terms like Red Book or 44.1, or wondered why CDs can hold 74 minutes of music, it's worth a read.
I have little to add. Except: Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms was not only the first CD that was recorded all digitally, but it was also one of the first in which the CD had different, longer versions of some of the LP album tracks. I specifically bought the CD for the extended version of "Why Worry," and it remains one of the only recordings I have in both LP and CD formats. It came out in 1985, and I remember that the DJs on my local rock radio station made a big deal out of playing the special CD versions (especially late at night). A mere five years later, I had to search high and low just to find the LP version of Jane's Addiction's Ritual de lo Habitual, which shows how quickly the format completely conquered its rivals.
By way of comparison, iTunes launched in 2003, and although downloads made up only about 10 percent of all music sales in 2006, it's conceivable that CDs could be all but dead in by 2008--the same five-year window that it took CDs to eclispe LPs.
I also like to think that the back cover of Pink Floyd's 1975 record Wish You Were Here anticipates the development of the CD--that disc that the hollow record-industry "suit" is holding out to the audience is the size of a 12" record, but has the translucent silver color of a CD. Not a bad job by album designers Hipgnosis, given that development of the CD didn't begin for another four years.
Claims of Internet and video game addiction aren't getting any sympathy from bloggers. And if the so-called Internet addicted can't get understanding from people who spend much of their day on a computer, it's doubtful anyone else will buy it.
The Associated Press this week reports on a Reno, Nev., couple accused of criminal neglect of their two young children. A neighbor phoned police to report a child's incessant wailing, and when police arrived, they found garbage piled up, the couple playing video games and plenty of food and baby formula in the fridge. The children were malnourished, dehydrated and riddled with infections, their muscles atrophied. Their parents, Michael and Iana Straw, ages 25 and 23, respectively, are claiming "Internet addiction" as their defense.
The Reno Gazette-Journal points out that child abuse and neglect cases often come out of alcohol- and substance-addicted families, but this seems to be the first time the Web has been cited as a cause.
The American Medical Association last month decided not to decide whether video game addiction was a real mental disorder. Their official statement was along the lines of "it's too new and we don't have enough information yet," but it's been proposed and will be researched. As with other addictions, the question seems to be where to draw the line. Is it a bad habit or a mental illness when someone spends dozens of hours a week playing online games? Is it an addiction when they can't stop even if they want to?
Michael recently inherited $50 grand and spent much of it on a plasma TV and state-of-the-art computer gaming system. He is an "unemployed cashier" and she a warehouse temp worker. What happened to the Straws to insulate them so thoroughly from the realities of adult life? Are they irresponsible or are they sick? Some are saying these young people suffer from a far deeper affliction than compulsive gaming.
Let us quote from the less vitriolic end of the blogging spectrum:
"In truth, I don't really care whether these people are simply bad, or sadly addicted to Dungeons and Dragons. To render two people, never mind flesh and blood, near death while you shirk adult responsibilities and play games is outrageous."
--madness, madness i say!
"Sucky people shouldn't breed."
--LiveJournal user oshiah
"Even apes take care of their young...GROW THE HELL UP. You want to screw up your own lives, fine. Give the kids to people who WANT them and go live in your fantasy realm of no responsibility and no dependencies. Go live where you CAN hit a reset button if you die. Go live where there are no emotional attachments or interactions. But your kids deserve better than that, damn it."
--LiveJournal user hayley76
You know those gamers--they spend hours on end hulled in smelly dark rooms with controllers in hand, ignoring social norms like sitting down for meals and showering once in awhile. Perhaps they're a little too into gaming.
But if a group of prominent doctors has their way, those gamers might end up diagnosed with video game addiction, a psychiatric disorder the American Medical Association will consider for official classification at its annual policy meeting beginning this weekend, according to several press accounts.
Given the overlap between bloggers and gamers, it's no surprise that the blogosphere is up in arms about giving video game addiction an official diagnosis, which bloggers say is going too far and assigning a mental disorder to a societal problem.
Like us, they also found it interesting that the news comes on the heels of stories about a professional gaming league and video games used as therapy for mental disorders and for other noble causes.
Blog community response:
"My first reaction that proving media causation is a high bar that is not always met. (My skepticism may derive from the fact that my last game addiction was a spring break bout with Tetris in the early 90s.) Further, gaming has become such a common activity that discerning its effects is not easy."
--Media SITREP
"Great, just what folks like Jack Thompson and Lyndon LaRouche need -- more ammo...it's like I've said before: some violent and/or mentally ill people play video games, but video games don't make people violent and/or mentally ill. If that was the case, there would be a lot more crazy people running around."
--GayGamer.net
"Hey...didn't we have this kind of behavior BEFORE video games? Crazy Cat Ladies who lived with a thousand felines and tried to cover up their smell by rubbing themselves down with used urinal cakes?...You will always have people who don't fit into society, who find solace in something OTHER than the norm, and who will never EVER be part of usual social structures. Diagnose them, but do it correctly...I know some of you disagree, and you see video game addiction as a real thing; but I beg you to look deeper, and to see past the buzz words and finger pointing and look at the real implications of sickness."
--Ten Ton Hammer
"No doubt that parents need to watch how much and what games their kids are playing, just like with any activity they do. And adults shouldn't neglect their job, family, and health for an activity, no matter what it is. But let's just leave it at that. If it does get out of hand, then treat the underlying cause. Not blame the technology."
--Middle Raged Punk
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