The Cost of Internet Addiction

Slow news days eventually lead local television to sensationalist stories, such as internet addiction. Since the late 1990s, investigative reports have shown that people spend too much time online. These are the same outlets that have accused television of robbing people of exercise and a social life. Perhaps the irony is lost when the reporter unknowingly reads from a teleprompter that children are addicted to the internet, while the station republishes the same story on the their website.

The internet, much like any other popular media, remains a target and a scapegoat for people to blame their behavior on. Does internet addiction really exist? The recent report from Reuters gives a mixed answer. The article cites a study conducted by the University of Maryland in which they had 200 students cut their media ties for 24 hours. The results claimed that the students suffered similar withdrawal symptoms to that of a real addiction. The American Psychiatric Association does not acknowledge internet or media addiction as a disorder.

The media jumped on this story after Reuters previously published a story on internet addiction in South Korea. This article claimed that 10% of adults and 26% of teenagers in the country had an addiction to the internet or online gaming. The South Korean government has taken action, spending the equivalent to $9 million on education programs and are even developing a voluntary system that will assign gamers identification codes that can be monitored by parents or tracked for time spent online.

If you think South Korea is tackling this problem the wrong way, then consider what is happening in the US. An internet rehab facility, reStart, opened last year outside of Seattle. The center is designed to help people who excessively surf the internet, text, or play games. The cost for a 45-day stay is roughly $30,000.

Addiction to social media and computers may very well be real, but until more conclusive evidence is presented, I think it is best to look at computers (or anything with a screen) as a tool that should compliment a lifestyle, not lead it. Until the media has some new studies to report, or a new technology to blame, we will continue to endure the sloppy reporting.

I’d love to hear your opinions on internet and/or social media addiction. Is it true? Are you addicted? Leave your comments below. I’ll leave you with a humorous comercial for Sony Vaio.

Bonus! A clip from South Park!

Photo: Lee Jordon

Cable TV Ala Carte: Who’s in Your Top Five?

Does anyone, who is not a coma victim, watch the Golf Channel?  Is anyone without insomnia watching HSN or QVC?  Isn’t the need to buy useless crap fulfilled by the Internet now?

There are at least 15 channels in everybody’s cable TV lineup that are completely useless. Admit it, for $60 a month, you are paying for a lot of content that you’ll never watch.  Ratings are sinking since the web has arrived. Ratings have even taken serious blows since the highly adopted use of TIVO and DVRs. Most people in the know don’t watch a talking head for 20 minutes to find out which mission critical toxin “might” be present in their cupboards. Anyone with half a brain knows that real content today is delivered on-demand and chosen to reflect your interests.

Gone are the days of spending a half an hour with your eyes glued a scrolling marquee on the lower portion of ESPN. Today you check your phone or ESPN’s own web site for the score.  Today you can use your computer or mobile phone and have all of of the day’s news fed directly to you.  So why are we still paying for cable as a complete service when we only want the programming we actually watch? read more

Dear Lolcats, I think you’ve had enough cheezeburgers

It has come to my attention that I use too many cat photos for my articles.  Its not that I like using cat photos, but usually I’m left with little choice.

Cats are cute and all, I like them well enough.  I would have one as a pet if i were less lazy, if i weren’t mildly allergic and if I wouldn’t have to put down a huge deposit for my apartment.

I HATE the Lolcats trend though.  I don’t mind photo’s with captions.  I don’t even mind cat photos with captions.  What I hate is the intentional misspelling and misuse of the English language. What I hate even more is how much other people seem to be obsessed with the “can has cheeseburger” situation.

“I can has cheeseburger” fanatics are worse than new parents with their child’s photos.   We all have friends like this.  Every damn link they send you is of a F–king lolcat!  The popularity of this site has every asshole with a digital camera taking snapshots of their cats and plastering them up with lame misspelled captions attached.

read more

F my life! A site in review

A friend recently sent me a link to a fun little site called, f my life. Its a low key, no frills site, as far as design, but the content makes all the difference.  It reads almost like a twitter feed, but it doesn’t adhere to the 140 characters rule.  Users submit short 2-3 sentence stories or anecdotes about an embarrassing or awful situation they find themselves in that they want to share with the Internet.  One of my favorites is:  “Today, my boss fired me via text message. I don’t have a text messaging plan. I paid $0.25 to get fired.”  There are hundreds of submissions to read through most of which are amusing, some of which are hilarious.  They have a separate link for the list of flop submissions, and for the most part the posts on that list are pretty lame.  Be warned that many of the posts have strong language and uncomfortable situations, but then that really should go without saying.  This is not a place for the young or innocent.  Be prepared to have a sense of humor and a touch of fun bitterness upon viewing.  read more

Facebook harvests your soul, then acts confused when you get angry.

Facebook did WHAT?!

Unless you’ve been in hiding, you’ve probably seen stories about the Facebook Terms of Service change.  You know, how they assumed you were OK with them taking your firstborn.  Apparently our brouhaha was over nothing.  When you log in to Facebook today, you will see a message regarding TOS.  While the legal verbiage did lay claim to everything you ever posted on your account, they now say that isn’t what they wanted at all.  They say they really don’t want to own the rights to your list of 25 random facts, or that sloppy drunken pic on New Year’s Eve, but the way the TOS update was written, that’s what it legally let them do.  read more

Internet Meme: David After the Dentist

Why would a mother post this video of her son, obviously high on laughing gas or novicane? The answer is that most good parents can find comedy in their children. This week’s internet meme is David’s apparent buzz after a recent dentist visit. Let’s just hope this video doesn’t resurface in 10 years when David is trying to impress girls. At least he’ll have a nice smile.

As any good meme does, there must be remixes. Some of my favorites are the Elected Method Remix, Christian Bale Remix, and Tobuscus Remix.