Computer Addiction

Earlier today I was reading a blog http://netaddictionrecovery.blogspot.com/ that was talking about Pathological computer use. Which basically just describes obsessive computer usage as an addiction with all of the same symptoms. Symptoms like withdrawal. This got me to thinking that maybe the gaming addiction itself isn't the games themselves but the computer instead. Maybe the games are just a way to justify spending more time with the computer. The games give people goals and tasks to complete so that they don't feel poorly about spending hours at a time glued to their monitors. They can say to themselves "Hey I accomplished something." While it is easy to get lost surfing the web it is even easier to get lost in a mystical game world.

In our society today there are little ways to escape the Internets hold on us. It control and is part of so much of every ones daily lives. I personally spend 2 hours on the computer mandatory every day, if not more. I check email, read stories, visit blogs, play games, write papers and whatever else I need to do. The computer has become the new Swiss army knife and has some gadget for every last situation. I would like to say I could go without the computer for a year and be fine with it, but I don't really know how I would survive. How would I get my news? How would I entertain myself? How would I communicate? How would I write my papers?

I suppose I would have to begin watching television and reading the newspaper to get my news. To entertain myself I suppose I would have to get up and move.... but who wants to do that. To communicate I suppose I would have to write letters, which is something I rarely ever do, I occasionally send mail to relatives thanking them for gifts. Email is so much faster, easier, cheaper and better. The only thing you lack with email is the physical piece of paper and you can always just print out the email. As for writing papers I guess I would have to use a type writer... only problem with that is I make so many errors while typing by the time I was done I 'd have gone through fifty sheets of paper, which would hardly be helping the environment.

So after realizing all of that I have to admit that I don't think I could go without the computer, I just use it for too many things. It is also clear if I was forced I could find a way to make do. I think a lot of people are the same way. The computer has entered almost every ones life and is now a integral part of it. Anyone out there think they would want to try and manage a whole entire year without computers, living the life they are living?