The Internet: when is an interest an addiction? A passion? An evil?

BBW

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Just this morning, I finally had a chance to read some of the articles in The New York Time's Sunday Week In Review Section. This article Miss G: A Case of Internet Addiction made me chuckle, surprised me, and, utlimately, I felt vindicated. I think you may, too.

There are certain popular diversions — television, video games, the Internet — that we pursue so deliriously we end up hating ourselves for loving them. Others we brightly recast as the duties of citizenship: newspapers, public radio, sports.

...If you’re inclined to worry about your habits, you may have already stumbled onto a strange and influential self-evaluation questionnaire by Dr. Kimberly Young, a professor of business at St. Bonaventure University. Though Dr. Young developed the test in 1998, early in Web life, it still dominates the Google returns for “Internet addiction” and steadily stirs up anxiety.

Dr. Young told me she believes the Internet is addictive in part because it “allows us to create new personalities and use them to fulfill unmet psychological needs” — which sounds worrying except that art, entertainment and communications systems are designed explicitly to permit self-exploration and satisfy psychological needs....

Please let me know if the link doesn't work... Now that the NYTimes is not completely free anymore on the Web, I'm not sure how linking articles will work.

This article actually got me to thinking about the Reflective Photography Group and people's posts within it - and what I'll write.

By the way, Groups can be reached by using the drop down menu from the Community link that runs along the bar seen at the top of any of the forum pages....just down from New Posts, Private Messages, FAQ, etc.
 
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