perelgut (05/13/82)
The following is a liberal extract from an article entitled:
"Computer crazy: the 'addiction' grows" Stephen Strauss
The Globe & Mail, May 13,1982
[The Globe & Mail is a daily newspaper out of Toronto which is unquestionably
Canada's finest daily paper]
"...From the time he was 12 until he reached 17 he would leave his house
every Friday after school with his sleeping bag under his arm and a pocketful
of change in his pants.
"For the next 2-1/2 days, David spent every waking minute programming a
university computer. When he was tired he flopped down on a classroom floor.
When he remembered to eat, it was from a vending machine or a take-out
restaurant. His parents didn't see him until Monday morning.
"'He looked red-eyed, wan, and was having increasing trouble relating to
people. He couldn't look you in the face when you tried to talk to him,'
remembered his father..."
The gist of this full page article, the front page of a well read section
of the paper, is that there is a rapidly growing sector of "computer addicts".
There followed a number of quotes which apply to old net discussions such as
what is a hacker (comp. sci. students "all-nighting" at terminals) and the
problem of video-game addiction.
However, the point I feel worthy of discussion is whether or not computer
addiction is a serious problem. The article makes comparisons between computer
use and cocaine/amphetamine addiction. The 'statistic' [my quotes] quoted is
that 1% of computer users run the risk of addiction which, it is pointed out,
is the same percentage as suffer harm from smoking marijuana.
Another interesting point the article makes is the existence of
"cyberphiles" and "cyberphobes". Examples are given of cyberphobic people
including "one cyberphobic policeman [who] shot the computer console in his
car." Computers are also cited as the reason for marriages breaking up and
people dropping out of society.
One final quote: "If one is looking for the ideal candidate for
computer addiction it is a young man in his 20's who, in Prof. Weinberg's
[a managment professor at St. Joseph's College in Philidelphia, Pa. --sgp]
words, 'either is single or soon will be single'. Why women are not prime
candidates for video addiction is not clear. Frances Quarrington, who teaches
Applewood Heights Secondary School in Mississauga [Ontario --sgp], suggested
that society encourages boys to do better at mathematics, which is necessary
for computer programming."
--- stephen perelgut ---
--- decvax!utzoo!utcsrgv!perelgut ---geoff (05/13/82)
Does it really matter to what one is addicted? I don't think that the arrival of a new addiction is cause for alarm. It isn't as if innocents are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into dens of computing. People find addictions that they like. I think the press tends to see hacking/computer-addiction as something similar to the `rink rats' of an earlier age or to the Moonies. As to why women aren't becoming computer-addicted in the same numbers as men, it probably isn't because men are encouraged in mathematics which is required to compute (to paraphrase the article) but because we are *told* that mathematics is required to compute by some.
pcmcgeer (05/14/82)
There are two things that I'd like to point out to all of you out there who might otherwise be misled: First, calling the Mope and Wail Canada's finest newspaper is rather like calling the Toronto Make Believes Canada's finest hockey team. It just ain't so, not so long as there's a Vancouver Sun. Further, the only individual who could possibly believe such a blatant falsehood is one born and raised in that part of Canada visible on a clear day from the top of the CN Tower. Second, Weinberg's thoughts on the subject (and those of MIT's Weizenbaum) have been around for some time now. (In fact, the Mop and Pail reprinted a circa-January article on the subject from the Vancouver Sun). They haven't improved with age. How many of us in net.land have actually met or heard of a computer addict? I've pulled my share of all-nighters, and so have the vast majority of the people I know in this fool business - but I know of no one who ever did it for any other reason than that his assignment, project or contract was due the following morning. The youngster in the story might have been a computer addict - but, alarmist professors and reporters aside, don't we all find it somewhat more reasonable to assume that he was just desperate?
jcwinterton (05/14/82)
Addictions that cause a separation of the sexes contain their own cure. The predisposition will be selected out of the gene pool....
bj (05/15/82)
I've also pulled my share of all-nighters, but most of them have not been caused by projects due the next morning. I pull all-nighters because I have something I enjoy working on. When I am interested I keep working as long as I stay productive (and hopefully not longer). But what can I say - I am an addict. B.J. (decvax!yale-comix!herbison) (Herbison@Yale)