It’s a bad week for Internet addicts. It was reported that a Chinese youth died at an Internet addiction rehab camp (yes, there is such a thing) in China this past Sunday. Apparently he was beaten by an instructor using rather brutal methods to help fifteen year old Deng Senshan get over an online fixation. According to the statistically reliable National People's Congress, ten percent of China's Internet active youth under age 18 are addicts. Chinese psychologists define an Internet addiction as being online more than six hours a day, playing games or viewing pornography during work or study time, and getting angry when unable to get online.
That’s some scary stuff …I mean the Internet addiction camps!
I guess it was only a matter of time before Internet addiction became deadly, just like cigarette smoking or drinking. Yet another fun thing to do has made the leap from, well, fun to addiction status. So-called Internet Compulsion Disorder (ICD) has become a real diagnosis which people are now getting actively treated for.
You know it’s REALLY bad when people choose to spend more time on the Internet than having sex. According to a recent survey, forty six percent of women and thirty percent of men surveyed said they would opt to forego sex for two weeks instead of giving up access to the Internet for the same period.
Then again, I bet many women would opt to forego having sex with their husbands even without the Internet to blame.
But back on topic. The average American now spends more than 32 hours a week online at home. Sixty five percent of adults surveyed said they would rather die than give up the Internet. And video games have been shown to be highly addictive, with game addicts possessing more than half of the same traits as those addicted to gambling.
Thank goodness for Archbishop Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church of England and Wales, who recently proclaimed social media as the new vice. He’s apparently very worried that tools like Facebook and Myspace could lead kids toward depression and even suicide. That is if their friendly Internet Addiction camp counselors don’t get to them first.
And in supreme religious irony, the Archbishop of Ireland encourages his flock across the way to use texting, Twitter, and email as channels for daily prayers. Adding insult to injury, a group of German Protestants are Twittering the entire bible in 140 character bursts. Now that’s an addiction!
If I was really smart I would jump on the Internet bashing trend and write a series of self help books. But I’m sure some wanna-be Deepak has already beat me to it.
Then again there may be an opportunity to become an anti-all-things-digital crusader . A kind of 21st Century evangelist admonishing my followers to pray at the Altar of Analog. The problem is I couldn’t attract any kind of sizeable audience without broadcasting on the InterWeb – but by doing so I would be committing an act of bloggable hypocrisy.
All I can say is thank God I myself don’t have a problem.
And frankly I don’t have time to start a new anti digi-crusade anyway. It's nearly happy hour and I’m dying for a drink and a cigarette before I hit the casinos. Where'd I put my iPhone?
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