Addicted!

If you're reading this, you're an addict.

That's the conclusion one comes away with after reading this story about a Stanford University group's study of Internet use.  According to the story, the researchers interviewed more than 2,500 people by phone, and found that on average about 1 in 8 respondents showed signs of "problematic" Internet usage.

I have some problems with the study as it's described in the story.  In particular, the definitions of addictive behavior seem overly broad.  Consider:

   "*   13.7 percent (more than one out of eight respondents) found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time
    * 12.4 percent stayed online longer than intended very often or often
    * 12.3 percent had seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point
    * 8.7 percent attempted to conceal non-essential Internet use from family, friends and employers
    * 8.2 percent used the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood
    * 5.9 percent felt their relationships suffered as a result of excessive Internet use..."

Almost all of these describe just about any human activity.  Compare Internet use with a close equivalent:  talking on the telephone.  How many of those criteria apply to phone calls?  Certainly hard to avoid for days at a time, often run longer than intended, everyone would like to cut back (especially when the phone bill comes), non-essential calls routinely concealed, and often used as a way to relieve a bad mood.

The only characteristic cited which seems genuinely worrisome is the last one:  relationships suffering as a result.  I'll get back to that.

The Internet (a highly untidy way of lumping together Web sites, email, and instant messaging) is a form of communication.  Humans are social animals.  We like to communicate.  In modern society, many of us find our opportunities for meaningful face-to-face communication are limited.  "The Internet" provides opportunities for human contact which we otherwise wouldn't have.  Far from pathologizing "Internet use" as a form of addictive behavior, the researchers would do better to investigate the converse:  people who don't make use of this opportunity to expand your circle of friends and contacts.

Moreover, it's fun.  Why is an enjoyable way to spend time described as an addiction?  One might as well call hanging around in coffeehouses, lounging, reading, playing Monopoly, or puttering in the garden "addictions."  One might also call conducting psychological surveys an "addiction" under the same definitions.

Okay, so what about the 6 percent of respondents who felt their relationships were suffering as a result of 'net use?  Well, let's look at some numbers:  About 60 percent of Americans are married, and the divorce rate is 0.4 percent.  So in any given year 0.6 percent of marriages fail to the point of breaking up, it seems reasonable that ten times as many relationships are "suffering" in some less-than-terminal way.  People blame all sorts of things for their problems, and if two-thirds of Americans are 'netting, naturally it will be cited.

Of course, this could all be desperate rationalizing by an addict in denial.