Net Addiction Contagion Spreading West

2010-01-18

Head for the hills! Internet addiction is coming to a city near you.

In the past week, we've all been in excited discussions about online content control, and we've been solidly stuck in the political/security context. Let's not forget that the Internet is a much more influential bit o tech than that, and its social influences have proven to be just as challenging for the government.

To tee off this topic, until today I can't recall ever seeing a reference to the Internet as an addiction on a Western blog before:

Internet use is very close to an addiction in our culture. I sure understand that. It suspends time as you get lost in a miasma of thought; it creates another world – separate from the ordeals of the real one; it can even create a new persona for you; and you can't get away from it. That's a drug. And we need to figure out how to manage it and retain a human balance.

The above was re-posted on Andrew Sullivan's blog. I think it came from another blogger, so this is not a formal announcement by Obama or the W.H.O. or something.

On the other hand, this is not a discussion I take lightly. News chasers in China have been monitoring the "Net Addiction" phenomenon for a number of years here, often with shock and regret at the "treatments" that doctors have developed for young children afflicted with this "disease" — including ECT (shock therapy).
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