Where Should We Look For Help?

Where Should We Look For Help?

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Where can we find help?

[duck]

Unfortunately, computer addiction is still not taken seriously enough by the population at large for resources to be made readily available. Aside from the one or two notable cases which receive mention in the occasional Newsweek article, computer addicts are shrugged off as weenies and nerds who simply don't have enough to do with their time. And since none of the negative ramifications of computer abuse are immediate or directly harmful (i.e., as far as we know computing doesn't cause cancer), it seems a relatively low priority as far as potential threats go.

The trouble is, immediate or not, the negative ramifications are real; students by the hundreds and thousands fail classes because they spend their study time in front of a computer. Corporate America loses hundreds of millions of dollars a year in time that its employees spend diddling about on the net. Granted, only a handful of these perpetrators are addicts, but some individuals literally stop going to work and school, logging more than 20 hours a day on their computers. These people need help.

It is ironic, then, that the only support groups to be found for network addiction are online. It's farcical to think that people who are attempting to recover from their addictions to computers gather online to discuss their problems. It's like going to a local pub for your AA meeting and downing a few pints during conversation.

These pages don't tend to take themselves too seriously either. One exchange on alt.irc.recovery included the following:

">So there *are* other IRC addicts :)

Yep. I know several others too, but... Maybe IRC addicts spend too much time on IRC, so they don't have time to read news? But if addicts don't read news, what are we? :-\

>Sarah, Proud IRC addict"

Judging by the tone of this conversation, neither of the participants seems very anxious to rid themselves of this addiction, and presumably they see the addiction as more entertaining than harmful. The reality remains however, that people of all different professions spend more and more time on-line, and it over time, the computer becomes a necessity rather than a convenience.

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