Experiment Cuts Off Online Junkies from Internet 409
Ant (an Internet junkie) writes "An article from The Register reports one begins gibbering uncontrollably because he/she can't get a fix without internet access after two weeks. That, at least, is according to an 'Internet Deprivation Study' carried out by Yahoo! and advertising outfit OMD.
Participants in the human experiment were deprived of the web for 14 days, and found themselves quickly succumbing to 'withdrawal and feelings of loss, frustration and disconnectedness.' The reason for the rapid collapse of their universe is - say the researchers - because 'internet users feel confident, secure and empowered.'"
So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Marketing ploy done good (Score:3, Insightful)
Strange (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess they should not just disconnect these "users" but rather offer them to practise some intensive sport activities instead.
Hiking in the mountains [wengen-muerren.ch] is a good candidate because it is also rewarding : you get to see some magnificent landscape [gnuart.net] when you reach the top.
If only I could. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, since all my work (read: paychecks) come from the computer, I can't do that.
That sucks.
Symptoms (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't being on the internet all day/night cause this to happen with your real life? or is that just me....
this is why i mangage my habit (Score:2, Insightful)
why,yes i was jokeing...
Re:Symptoms (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gibbering uncontrollably? (Score:2, Insightful)
"Disconnected"? (Score:3, Insightful)
I do feel a bit annoyed that I can't talk with friends who aren't physically near me (I don't have a cell phone), and it's inconvenient when I want to look something up, but that's about it. I really don't see how someone who mostly just chats when they're online could get "addicted" to the Internet.
Civilization is doomed (Score:5, Insightful)
So Kim's parents, nor her grandparents, were ever able to go anywhere for the weekend? How in the hell did we as a species ever get this far, that we can suddenly become a bunch of helpless twits? Christ it's amazing, that in such a short time, humanity has gone so far backwards, head firmly planted in ass, as to be generating shit like this. I do take the article to be something of a joke, I mean it *has* to be.. Fuck, this is crazy, I have to stop drinking while reading this site...
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
You may be to old to consider it human contact, but no matter if it's face to face, a phone, or AIM, the person on the other end is a human. My mother felt the same way, couldn't tell the difference between me chatting with some friends online and playing a game. Until the day one of the people I chatted with came down to visit.
These are real people, real friends, and for some of us the only friends we have. Cutting off the net connection is like cutting off a face-to-face persons contact to his friends.
Re:OMG! (Score:5, Insightful)
I was about to post how great it'd be to get away from Slashdot for a couple of weeks... then I realized I volunteered to visit.
Crap. It's just like smoking. >:I
Re:Pff.. They're talking about 14 days? (Score:5, Insightful)
But 14 days without internet can be an interesting experience. Lst year I went on two and a half weeks of vacation to the alps without a computer in sight. I was totally relaxed, actually got some decent sleep (as opposed to my usual semi-neurotic insomnia) and when I returned from vacation I was entirely revitalized, out of touch with my normal "plugged-in" world, but revitalized nonetheless.. Now I am back to semi-neurotic-insomnia.... time to get back out there...
Re:You know you're reading /. too much when (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:So... (Score:2, Insightful)
News at Eleven (Score:5, Insightful)
Get a grip. This exact same crap was said a century ago. The past is sooooo golden. That is, until you get there. Then it sucks.
It depends heavily on context (Score:3, Insightful)
And it depends what kind of life you have outside the net, and if that world makes you happy.
For example when I join an Art of Living [artofliving.org] course for a week or two, I come back invigorated and ready to rock the world. I'd just had an extraordinary time without any computers!
Then I sit down in front of a computer, and all that energy is drained into silly bugs, and a dozens things I have to repair and fix in order to remain sane.
I can imagine if I didn't have something really worthwhile outside the net, like Art of Living, I would miss the online world, just because it's an easy way to hide from it. Obnoxious commercials all over the place doesn't help either, but a walk in the forest and mountains works wonders
Re:Gibbering uncontrollably? (Score:3, Insightful)
Thats not because they're Right Wing, that's because they're unhinged.
Re:If only I could. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like when I was looking for a house and had "broadband access" near the top of my list. My non-geek friends laughed themselves silly about this but I wasn't in on the joke. They have kids so their first criteria was schools, neighborhood, and such.
For me, it's the point of "how do you get movie info, tv listings, dictionary, political scoop, phonebook entries, asymetrical comm, product info, latest music/movie releases, and so on, and so on." That's excluding all the info I need for the latest programming techniques and trends. For non-onliners, the dozen different sources for info works. For me the net is a one stop info source. I don't understand them and they don't understnad me.
Sure, the net has its pr0n and time wasters. But it's a tool that can be used for good and evil. To call it an addiction is like saying a hammer is an addiction to a serial killer who uses it to kill. It's not like smoking or crack with no positive use. It's like the hammer that can kill or hammer a nail.
Re:Pff.. They're talking about 14 days? (Score:4, Insightful)
Living out your normal everyday life without net access though would be exceptionally diffivult for the majority of us
Same old, same old (Score:2, Insightful)
Does the press never get tired of labelling the Internet negatively? It's getting really tedious, IMHO.
I personally think the internet is one of the greatest things that humans have ever invented, as it allows anyone with access to get their hands on an immense amount of information on anything they want, and to contact people who may be just like them - or completely different.
I use the Internet for getting information, being entertained and contacting people - and these are without any real limit, other than what I'm not interested in. It's a vital resource, and it's obviously 'addictive', in the same way that anything that can provide so much can be. Doesn't mean it's going to be a bad thing, even if there's a dark underbelly to it at times. The net's just a reflection of the people who use it, so it's clear that since people aren't all perfect, the content they produce will echo this fact. I'm an evangelist for the Internet, but that's 'cause I think it's f***ing cool.
Feel? (Score:3, Insightful)
With all that information at your fingertips, the possibility to contact about anybody (that wants to be contacted) this is a small wonder. Internet users ARE confident, secure*1 and empowered.
*1 If you equal the small chance of being run over by a truck at home as secure...
Re:Quite the same here (Score:3, Insightful)
Thanks to Charley and Frances... (Score:4, Insightful)
The 1st time was not so bad. I had my Palm fully charged and loaded with good books to read. And that is not unimportant as it seems because it is a back-lit screen so I could read at night without having to resort to a lot of lamps, candles, or flashlights. All but the latter generate heat, bad!, and the flashlights use up batteries quickly enough when there are none in the state!
I can say that I suffered no real ill effects but of course I had plenty of other things to keep me miserable at the same time. The sweltering heat, the fun of cooking without power, cleaning up the mess with chainsaws (Ok that one was kinda fun.), cold showers. But I did miss it.
Now the 2nd time was a little more rough. I lost my DSL as the storm 1st hit but still had dial-up and power. I was hopeful. Well that got dashed pretty quickly as the power soon went out again and into darkness and heat I plunged. I had changed up my backup Palm that I use for writing on the road but had forgotten to install the keyboard driver for it, doh! My main Palm was only 1/2 charged and it died about day 2. Back to reading by candle light!
I guess my example is a bad one because there were so many other variables involved but I can say that as someone who uses the inet probably way too much that I suffered no real ill effects. I used the time to do some writing the old fashioned way with paper and reading a bunch. I also listened to the radio a lot and knowing that everyone down here was pretty much in the same boat helped.
Oh, and btw as Jeanne is likely headed our way right now I have both Palm's charged up and ready to go!
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, if your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/... sends you an IM/mail/... they didn't really contact you? No matter what they say? You'd feel nothing?
I thought people that out of touch died about 10 years ago. Clue: If it exists, it's real. If humans do it, it's human contact.
Re:Civilization is doomed (Score:4, Insightful)
you do not go outside much do you.
These "helpless twits" have been out there forever.
the internet simply keeps them at home and out of danger.
I look at it as a "safety feature!"
Re:Depending on activity (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pff.. They're talking about 14 days? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have been doing a lot of thinking about this recently, and I'm guessing I've probably gone somewhat overboard. I have two computers, a Nextel phone, a Cingular phone, a Sidekick, and a cable modem. Recently, when a friend had to send in her laptop to the bloodsuckers at Best Buy for repair, I decided that it would be no big deal for me to loan her my PowerBook for the three weeks she would be without her computer. Two weeks in and I'm still comfortable with the proposition. Frankly, if my job didn't require a computer, and if it didn't make my life as a computer science student much easier, I think I would just give up on all this.
Presently I'm having a real struggle with being in college (and being so connected) period. I spent the summer working hard with a tree service company. It was a great workout and I expanded my mind in new ways. I have fully learned that simply because something is physically intense does not mean it's for morons. Nevertheless, I am being told I would be "settling for mediocrity" if I dropped out of school and did that sort of work full time. Well the thing is, I did a little math and realized that I don't need to make $100,000 a year to live the way I want to. In fact, the $14/hour tree job seems perfect.
The thing that gets me the most upset about all this is I have recently concluded that I am absolutely surrounded by mediocrity every day at school. I have a professor who is an MIT grad who doesn't even know the difference between ethernet and PS/2 connections. The people I work with on campus spend more time doing CYA work than anything real (that's cover your ass, if you haven't experienced that before). The campus's security policies and practices are half-assed and inconsistent. So are all the construction efforts. Most students are nothing but drunken robots who spend their nights at the same shitty bar(s), and their days doing nothing but mechanically studying and spewing worthless facts. Most professors rely on rote recitation teaching methods. There really is no effort being put forth by so many people here, yet when I clearly demonstrated superior knowledge in an Italian course I received a failing grade due to poor attendance and was not allowed to appeal that decision.
Sound like I'm just ranting about school, specifically my school? I'm not. Many, if not all colleges have many or all of these problems. The fact is that the Internet has turned me into an impatient bastard. Yes, it does make a few things easier, but if school was actually worthwhile I wouldn't mind going down to the surprisingly good library here and doing some old-fashioned research. Right now there is no incentive to do so.
What are the best things that have come out of the Internet anyway? I would probably say that through its increased communication, we have been given the open source movement. While on the surface this is a great idea, it has serious problems also. What about the people whose lives are taken over by their projects simply because they spend "a little time on it after work?" I may be talking out of my ass here, but I am willing to bet that the current open source development model leads to burnout. And so does anything that is based on the Internet and the assumption that it automatically makes things faster, better, smarter, and easier, because it does not. The Internet is a tool, and can be a difficult one to use appropriately. Our overdependence on it is going to continually get worse before a solution is found. But please, go on, continue living a connected life. I probably will. What it really comes down to is I don't have the balls to get out of this shitty lifestyle and move on to something I'd really rather do, and I think this is true of a really large portion of the people who spend a lot of time on the Internet.
Re:soulless consumer culture (Score:1, Insightful)
Since when did soul=christian? Taken that link from your atheist comment?
Soulless here is more an emotional shallowness where the consumption of goods is the only affirmation of the worth of life.
Yes, christianity *can* be an answer. *Any* religion can be. It doesn't have to be spiritual either, though. There are many more ways of connecting with others than with uniformity of belief.
As an agnostic (there may *be* a god, but I won't change the way I live my life because of it and if the afterlife is an eternity of torment because I didn't beleive, then f*ck him) I find the worst thing about prosetylising (aargh, bad word to spell!) christians is that they want you to read the latest word but will NOT return the favour.
Other religions seem somewhat better, though that may be just because they have to live in a mainly christian society and have to put up with it.
ANY belief system should be through real faith. Real failth *demands* doubt. If you act on your belief and think "what if I'm wrong" and would, if you *knew* it was wrong, do something different then that means your belief needs changing.
I have no issue even with satanists. As long as they only abuse themselves and allow people to join or leave as they wish while describing *why* they are right, I have no hassle with them. You never know, they could be right.
Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)
like they should maybe hang out with younger kids instead of their more mature peers.
I fail to see the maturity that is present in a group of teenage guys standing around making comments like "Look at the rack on her!". While such people may have more developed social skills, I would suggest that their intellectual maturity is behind that of the so-called "computer nerds". In reality the ability to hold a meaningful and intelligent conversation is likely to be a lot more useful and important than the ability to accurately judge the bra-size of a female from across the room.
Remember: "Cool" != Mature.
Re:Pff.. They're talking about 14 days? (Score:5, Insightful)
You are not better off without it. Remember the days of Encyclopedias, and asking your father about something and being told to go look it up? Without the instant access to knowledge that you have today, cursory reasearch is made a lot harder.
Today I read about 12 new technologies, "talked" with 15 people across the US at no phone cost to me. I sent instant mail to 3 clients and recieved immediate responses. I often research companies online. I figure out who I'm boycotting this week. I discuss politics, religion, and money with a wide variety of people from all over the globe.
There is no way in hell, that I'd go back to 1983. You've got to be kidding me to say we'd be better off not using the net every day.
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
With a few exceptions, humans and their ancestors have long been social creatures. The presence of other bodies sends out a variety of chemical and visual signals that we respond to subliminally, and the absence of those inputs has real effects.
Would you be happy with a girlfriend/boyfriend with whom all your "contact" was by IM and the telephone? Would you consider that a worthwhile intimate relationship? If you were a child, would you feel that a parent who "phoned in" regularly was really part of your life?
Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)
"All" is a cheap strawman. You can know someone better from letters/email, phone, IM ... than just by being next to them physically.
To tell me it is not 'real' is absurd at best and archaic at worst. If you do not see that others are 'real' and treat them as such even if you don't see them, that's not my problem. BTW...why reply to me at all? ;]
Bullcrap. (Score:5, Insightful)
Shenanigans. It's simply because they're disconnected from their friends, information, and entertainment. The same thing would happen if, before the prevalence of the Internet, you told people they couldn't use the phone, watch TV, or read a newspaper for 2 weeks.
I hope they didn't pay these "researchers" any of my money.
Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you really believe that. It's a stereotype, btw. IM usage is popular with many groups; it's not the geeks that do the most of it, it is the people who like to socialize who do the most of it!
Re:Pff.. They're talking about 14 days? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pff.. They're talking about 14 days? (Score:3, Insightful)
Due to the cost effectiveness of the internet, we are now seeing a rapid deployment of various services on this network. Though some of these services require a WAN type computer network (ie. online message boards), many services now being deployed on the internet existed before the internet.
VOIP is just one of the many examples of a technology that is being deployed on the internet. However, telephone communication has existed for over a century. There are many people that used to waste an inordinate amount of time on the telephone before there was any internet. So now, if these same people used something like Skype to communicate with their friends, would they be addicted to the internet.
The same holds true for any number of other hobbies. I used to spend a lot of time playing games in school. Many people used to engage in multiplayer LAN gaming before the widespread use of the internet. Now they're connecting to each other using the internet. So now, do we have a situation where every hardcore gamer is addicted to the internet.
Anyway, I think that research should stop referring to the internet as some sort of homogenous thing. People have been addicted to their particular hobbies, healthy or unhealthy, for a long time. There have been game addicts, telephone addicts, porn addicts, music addicts, and movie addicts since way before the internet. Its just that all their hobbies have now converged on this thing called the internet.
So basically, I think these kind of studies are useless. Telling me that someone is addicted to the internet means nothing. Are they having problems because they can't get their fill of porn. Or perhaps they are addicted to Slashdot. Even the two demographics converge in this case, they are quite disparate addictions.
So in conclusion, I would say, no fucking shit. Obviously people will miss the internet. Pretty soon all their movies, TV porn, music, voice and video communication, and information will be on the internet.
Re:Pff.. They're talking about 14 days? (Score:3, Insightful)
History Repeats Again (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bullcrap. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not a negative aspect. It's a benefit. Humans are 'pack animals' meaning we instinctively group together and pool our resources. We, for the most part, protect each other, help each other, teach each other, and when we're cut off, we miss each other.
I hope you're not really completely satisfied without any human interaction, and are just trying to put up a front. Where would the world be if it was populated by people who didn't care if they never spoke to another person their whole life?
2 weeks unemployeed (Score:4, Insightful)
No internet for 2 weeks would be no work..no income ( or vacation, whatever that is ) and a overfull in-box..
While i would freak for not being online, its not due to addiction, its due to reality...
No shit, sherlock. (Score:3, Insightful)
On the internet, you can find any piece of news or information INSTANTLY, whereas otherwise you have to go to the library, find the book it's in via the card catalog, hope that it isn't checked out, and then look up the information. It's frustrating to be confined to this method of information access, it feels very restrictive.
When it boils down, it's about freedom. Freedom to satisfy our desires and curiosities without inhibition or restriction. The information available on the internet is often unavailable anywhere else, and it is often made available FOR FREE.
- Slashdot covers news that will not end up in my local newspaper. I don't have to spend a dime to get that news either, it's FREE. (admittedly slashdot sells subscriptions, but they aren't required in order to read the news. Ever see a newspaper with no advertisements?)
- When I hit up wikipedia because I want to read about antimatter, it's FREE. (admittedly they do ask for donations, but it isn't required. You are FREE to make donations as you see fit)
- I don't have to concern myself with long distance charges so I can call my aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh (I'm in Seattle), because I can drop them an email with a voice attachment wishing them a happy anniversary, and IT IS FREE!
- Or I can make a VOIP call FOR FREE and talk to friends and family for as long as I want.
- When I want to see how my stocks are doing, I don't have to call my broker, wait on hold for 20 minutes, get told he's out at lunch and do I want to be transferred to his voicemail; all I have to do is go to yahoo's finance pages and enter the ticker symbol, and I will get a significantly greater amount of information than just the high and low of the day as my broker would tell me on the telephone--FOR FREE!
And so forth. It's about freedom, it's about empowerment. If you asked everyone to ditch their cars and go back to horses and carriages they'd laugh you out of the building. The internet brings a better way of life to us just as other improvements in technology have. The difference between the internet and other liberating technologies is that the internet empowers us on many levels instead of just one level; a coffee machine only makes coffee, a car is only useful for transporting yourself and your belongings, but the internet is a communications platform, a meeting place, a network of knowledge, a network of storage, a historical reference, and the list goes on. Taking away the internet today is the rough equivalent of saying the following 50 years ago: You may no longer write letters. You may no longer talk on the telephone. You may no longer ask questions of anybody you cannot meet face to face. You cannot seek knowledge without being instructed by a teacher.
Re:Pff.. They're talking about 14 days? (Score:4, Insightful)
As for whether or not the internet is a "good thing", I see plenty of concrete, tangible benefits to the internet, as shown by the OP and others. What I don't see is a list of concrete, tangible detriments. Usually the best people can come up with is that it makes people more "disconnected", or destroys the sense of "community", or some other wishy-washy unverifiable thing. Even the case one could make based on this article is pretty weak. I mean, find an activity or consumable that nobody will use to excess. You can't. I'd bet even some of our hunter/gatherer ancestors ate too many berries and suffered the consequences.
Re:Haven't we all been there? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)
As for your claim that you can know someone better by letters, etc, I disagree: it's fair easier to decieve someone, intentionally or even unintentionally, about one's true nature, situation, and motives, when using media at a remove. In proximity to someone, the unintended cues they give off in speech will tell me things about their cultural and class background that they are probably unaware of themselves, not to mention the way that nervous habits and body language communicate needs and anxieties.