LOL! it's *official* ATOT is addictive!!!! - link insie

[ScoobMaster]

I saw this on my excite portal news page:

Oct 6, 10:14 am ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Too much text messaging? You may need professional help.

More and more people are succumbing to so called "technology addictions," spending hours tapping on mobile phones or surfing the Internet, one of Britain's best known psychiatric clinics said Saturday.

"There has been a huge rise in behavioral addictions," including excessive texting, said a spokeswoman for the Priory Clinic which treats 6,000 patients a year for a range of addictions including gambling, eating disorders and drugs.

In the Sunday Telegraph newspaper the head of the clinic's addictions unit said some patients were spending up to seven hours a day text messaging.

"We have a situation where some people look down on alcoholics and cocaine addicts, but then go and spend five hours in an Internet chat room," Dr Mark Collins told the paper.

Original Story Link Here

 

[damiano]

lol

 

[PunDogg]

is there a detox center for this??

Dogg

 

[loup garou]

"We have a situation where some people look down on alcoholics and cocaine addicts, but then go and spend five hours in an Internet chat room," Dr Mark Collins told the paper.

Most relevant to ATOT quote EVER.

 

[Danman]

Originally posted by: PunDogg
is there a detox center for this??

Dogg

Yea, sign me up!

 

[Regs]

What else is there to do at work.....

 

[Spooner]

the web is just a fad

 

[EyeMWing]

Heh. ATOT is not a problem - so long as you can turn it off when it's time to go home after work/school or spend some 'quality time' with teh chix0rz.

This text messaging nonsense though - jesus christ it annoys the hell out of me. It's a 12 button keyboard. I don't see how you can type ANYTHING. And at 10 cents/message, HOW THE HELL CAN YOU AFFORD IT?

I don't have a LD carrier - with a 10-10 number, I can get 1 hour of cross-country calling for $3. Doing that in text messages (At an average of one message each way per minute) is $12.00. And messages routinely exchange at up to double that speed. And there's less content conveyed, less emotion, and it's a billion times less coherent because in order to keep yourself from spelling things out on this damn 12 button keyboard, you've got to make up abbreviations. "Sally mr. plz, 2 wedding" = "Sally missed her period, please come to wedding."

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: Regs
What else is there to do at work.....

Well there's always....never mind

<----- At work, and browsing ATOT and talking to my boss over MSN Messenger about in-car computers and MP3 encoding!


Confused

 

[skace]

How does spending 7 hours on the internet relate to a cocaine addiction? It's not like you are going to drive drunk or overdose from browsing the web.

I do think it may have some addictive tendencies, but I think relating it to a cocaine addiction is rather... odd. Since there are no health risks unless they mean carpal tunnel..

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: skace
How does spending 7 hours on the internet relate to a cocaine addiction? It's not like you are going to drive drunk or overdose from browsing the web.

I do think it may have some addictive tendencies, but I think relating it to a cocaine addiction is rather... odd. Since there are no health risks unless they mean carpal tunnel..

Carpal tunnel is not a health risk if you spend more than $10 on your user interface hardware.

 

[Amorphus]

Originally posted by: skace
How does spending 7 hours on the internet relate to a cocaine addiction? It's not like you are going to drive drunk or overdose from browsing the web.

I do think it may have some addictive tendencies, but I think relating it to a cocaine addiction is rather... odd. Since there are no health risks unless they mean carpal tunnel..

it still impacts one emotionally. there may be different ends, but the means can be compared on the same level, even if it is an indirect relation.

 

[skace]

it still impacts one emotionally. there may be different ends, but the means can be compared on the same level, even if it is an indirect relation.

Doesn't everything impact one emotionally? By the ends being different, you mean that one is a downward spiral of chemical dependance and the other... isn't? By indirect relation, you mean that they arn't similar at all?

How are 5 hours on internet chat any different than 5 hours on the phone. How are 7 hours surfing the web any different than 7 hours reading a book, watching television, or knitting. That is my point. The communication methods have changed and the forms of entertainment are changing also.

*shrug*. I didn't deny it wasn't an addiction. But I would compare it to an 'addiction' that a girl has with talking on the phone for 7 hours straight on school nights. I wouldn't compare it to an addiction of crack or alcohol.