Oh yes, that’s a thing now; and
what’s more, the Internet will help you beat it!
So, it is finally here. The cure to Internet
addiction. Okay, maybe I exaggerate. But it may well be around the corner. A
hospital in Pennsylvania has become the first to offer an inpatient detox
programme for those who are suffering from an addiction to the Internet.
Starting this week, the Bradford Regional Medical Center will offer a 10-day
programme devised by experts in others forms of addiction. Those who sign up
will be given classes in digital detox and will participate in group therapy
sessions much like those addicted to alcohol, drugs or even sex, do.
Some medical experts, of course, insist
that there is no such thing as Internet addiction. Some people are
over-dependent on the use of digital technology and social media (same
difference, if you ask me) and may need intervention to disengage from the
virtual world. But calling this an addiction is over-egging it a bit.
Whatever you may call it, however, there
is no denying that too many of us have become obsessive about our use of the
Internet. We are constantly dipping into social media sites like Facebook,
Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram to check out what’s happening with the
world and to tell the world what’s happening with us. We can’t eat a meal
without first taking a picture and sharing it with all our virtual friends. We
can’t go on holiday without documenting every single moment on social media.
Hell, we even live-tweet miscarriages, births and (more creepily) deaths.
And such is our obsessive desire to
remain updated and plugged in that we can ever disengage and just enjoy the
moment. We take videos of live concerts rather than immerse ourselves in the
music. We take pictures of a beautiful sunset instead of letting its beauty
wash over us. We spend all our time on our smartphones when we should be
engaging with the real-life people around us.
In such technology-driven societies like Japan,
it is estimated that as many as half a million children in the age group of 12
to 18 are addicted to the Internet. So serious is the situation that the
ministry of education has started ‘fasting camps’ to help these kids disconnect
from their digital devices. These camps are held outdoors where the
children (after their touchscreens are
wrestled away from them presumably) are made to interact with one another, play
games, participate in team sports, have conversations and group discussions.
Or, in other words, experience those childhood joys that we took for granted
growing up in a pre-Internet world.
That’s not to say, though, that only kids
who were born into the new technology age have a problem disconnecting from the
virtual world. Even ‘grown-ups’, who really should know better, find themselves
wasting time in ever more inventive ways on the Internet. The office worker who
has Facebook open in a side window as he replies to emails. The journalist who
can’t stay off Twitter even if she is on a deadline. The young mother who joins
chat groups to escape the isolation of being housebound with a baby and ends up
hooked.
And these are just the benevolent ways of
wasting time on the Internet. There is a dark, malevolent side to the Internet
too as those who get addicted to gaming or gambling sites know all too well.
And then, there’s the whole murky world of cybersex and on-line porn. But given
that this is a family publication, we will draw a discreet veil over that.
So, why do we all get so hooked on the
digital world even though we know at a rational level that it is doing us no
good? And that we really should be getting some work done instead?
Well, psychologists say that we get a high
from the anonymity that the Internet grants us, allowing us to be whatever and
whoever we want. And that we get a sense of self-validation when we engage with
people in the virtual world; especially if we feel isolated in the real world.
Which is, perhaps, why people who work
from home are more susceptible to digital addiction. There you are, sitting
alone at your desk, staring at a computer when a ping tells you that you have
received a tweet, email or even a Facebook update. The temptation to click on
the link is too hard to resist. You decide to take a little peek. And before
you know it, you’ve wasted an hour and a half of your life that you are never
getting back.
I felt a little better about my own
digital addiction when I read that Monica Ali, of Brick Lane fame, had written
about her gratitude to Self-control and Freedom in the foreword to her new
book. Yes, I use upper case advisedly. These are the names of the apps that you
can download to treat your Internet addiction. Self-control and Freedom allow you
to set up a period of time – say three hours – when your browser will behave as
if you are offline, allowing you to concentrate on your work without any
distractions. If that’s too hardcore for you, there are apps like Anti-Social (a
kind of Freedom-lite) that allows you to block off those social media sites on
which you waste most time.
Yes, I know, using Internet apps to treat
Internet addiction; the irony doesn’t escape me either. There has to be an
easier way, right? There is actually. It’s called self-control, with a small s this time. We really should give it a try.
