The media has discovered a new problem: Internet addiction. But reports about the alleged disease - from The New York Times to CNN to PC Week - are primarily based on hype and misconstrued jokes.
"It's all bullshit.... There's no such thing as Internet addiction," says Dr. Ivan Goldberg, the psychologist who inadvertently started the Internet addiction meme that has spread far beyond its intention. "The Internet is about as addictive as work: Sure, there are workaholics, but they're simply working to avoid the other problems in their lives."
Goldberg coined "Internet Addiction Disorder" a few years ago as a parody of DSM IV, a classification system for psychiatric illnesses such as compulsive gambling, anorexia, cocaine abuse, kleptomania, and pedophilia. He took his joke so far as to start an Internet Addiction Support Group mailing list.
Unfortunately, a group of psychologists and journalists took him all-too seriously: Interview requests started flooding into Goldberg's office, people joined his mailing list to discuss their behavior, and several psychologists began opening clinics and conducting research into the disorder.
One of those studies was conducted for the American Psychological Association by Kimberly Young, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh who diagnosed 396 of 496 "avid Internet users" recruited from Usenet as "Internet dependent." She claims her results prove that the Internet can be as addicting as alcohol, drugs, or gambling.
The study wasn't exactly proof that the Internet is an addiction, however: The study itself admits that the "self-selected subject pool biase[d] findings," and was more of an examination of a potential disorder than proof of an addiction.
John Grohol PsyD, director of the Mental Health Net, is slated to debate Young at the next American Psychological Association convention, and thinks the Internet addiction advocates like Young are just jumping on Internet paranoia.
"I don't see how they can see the Internet as a disorder, but not look at a bookworm who reads 10 hours a day and not say he's a book addict," comments Grohol. "Anything taken to an extreme is a disorder, but we don't go around coining everything taken to an extreme as an addiction."
Young's "Internet addicts" for example, spent 38.5 hours a week logged in; Nielsen stats, on the other hand, show that the average American spends 28.10 hours a week watching TV - a population termed "Couch Potatoes," not television addicts.
Any activity done to a great extent can be a problem: Spending hours online may disrupt your social life, give you repetitive strain injury, and drain your bank account. But it's sure not going to kill you, like alcoholism or drug addiction will.
Jeffery Hon, spokesman for the National Council for Alcohol and Drug Dependence, was concerned at the comparison, "People addicted to the Net aren't getting into car and drunk driving, aren't committing crimes, or committing date rape."
Even those running Internet addiction clinics are loathe to use the term "addiction." "It's closer to impulse-control disorders, like gambling and compulsive shopping," explains Dr. Maressa Hecht Orzack, director of the computer addiction clinic at McLean Hospital in Boston.
Jonathon Kandell, a psychologist trying to set up an Internet Addiction support group at the University of Maryland, has only come across four or five "Internet addicts" - primarily students using the Internet as an escape for other problems - during his five years of practice. His attempts to set up a support group have foundered for lack of patients.
Nevertheless, addiction is a danger, says Kandell, who claims that as many as 5 percent of all Internet users are addicts. That's 400,000 Net addicts in the United States alone. "The Internet is so engaging, there's a danger that people will substitute these activities from real activities, get involved in chat rooms and lose their skills in dealing with people. If someone gets obsessed with this kind of behavior, it can ruin their life."
So far, the Internet community doesn't seem to be taking the hype very seriously. The Web sites dedicated to Internet addiction are almost purely satirical (including many sites that The New York Times somberly referred to as "resources" in its story on Internet addiction).
And although Goldberg's Internet addict support group mailing list has 212 members, those people who joined because they felt they did have a problem with the Internet have been scared off by journalists who join looking for the inside scoop on the condition.
Offline, Internet addiction specialist like Young are getting fuel for their clinics from the media hype; Young herself was so backlogged with requests for interviews that she wasn't available to talk for a week.
"I dread the day they start prescribing Prozac for this," groans Grohol.
