SL Addiction: A Problem?

beside, not all addictions are bad.

*snorts* This is only the mother's side of the story and after dealing with a MIL who drove my husband up the wall with her demands and clingy attitude, I find myself asking: Is this woman like that? Did she drive her son away and rather than feel any guilt, blames a 'game' instead? Instead of trying to understand her son and his real interests, she probably shoved him into a mental corner and forgot about him.

SL is like sitting and eating at a feast. If you are healthy, you'll leave when you feel full, but sometimes people eat themselves to death.

Is it addictive for me? Hmm... At first I was on as long as I could be, but that lasted about a week. Then I moderated and am now only really on for long periods of time if I'm in the 'zone' for building/crafting/creating. I'm not as social as I should probably be.

I agree. More people die daily as a direct result of cigarettes and beer than have ever died in all of recorded history from an overdose of pixels.*

My SL activities come in binges. I get all excited about a project and stay on line almost every free moment. Then I run into a snag, get frustrated, and put it aside for weeks sometimes. During those away times I have binged just as much on studying Beethoven or in trying to figure out if the Huns settled in Hungary, is that where it got its name?

I think we should start worrying about Beethoven and archeology addictions.

(*The above cigarette / beer reference is loosely paraphrased from Orson Scott Card's Secular Humanist Revival. He was talking about something else entirely, though.)

I'm not addicted. I can quit anytime I want to.







I just don't want to.






*shakes*

Raises hand- bipolar,OCD and ADD- thanks also for not taking that route!

Bastard. You just told everyone the ending to my career. I'm considering stealing your life.

As for Melody the mom who lost her son to Second Life. Hogwash. Blaming Second Life is like an alcoholic blaming booze. People make their own decisions and are responsible for them. If her son is messing up his life, that's his problem, not Second Life's. Frankly, the way she writes leads me to believe she was overbearing and completely overprotective of him. People with Asberger's don't react well to being smothered, and you can't expect them to call you every night and check in. The just don't work like that. My nephew, who I dearly love has Asbergers, and you just have to understand that the way he deals with social interaction is different than the way most people do.

Honestly, if this woman were my mother, even without Asbergers, I'd try to put 3000 miles between us just like her son did.

Addicted... yes, I'm logged pretty much all the time that I'm not working. But I've had an internet addiction long before I found SL. But I don't see it as a problem. I work a full time job, pay my bills, keep my house clean, have good hygiene, keep my cat fed, visit the family on special occasions like birthdays and holidays. If they really needed me, I'd be there for them.

To be honest, there's not alot of people around here that I'd care to hang out with by choice and I've always been an indoor type person. I don't drink or do drugs... though I smoke a bit too much, so I guess its not the worst addiction in the world... and its a lot cheaper than most.

People look for something to blame:
--Rock music
--Dancing
--Video games
--Gambling
--Drinking
--Drugs
--Sex

The fact is, when something is missing from one's life, one is apt to try to fill the gap with something. The focus is in the wrong area; the "substance" rather than the individual.

Nothing is addictive of itself. One thing or another may provide a catalyst, but it is the individual that completes the process of addiction.

Well, everyone needs a hobby.

Oh that Rock and Roll is the Devil's work, I say. Stay away from it. Especially the bands like that Nine Inches of Nails group....EVIL!

Yeah, the nails are a Satanic symbol of crucification. They have subliminal messages to get you to worship Satan. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Could somebody who knows at least SOMETHING about it please tell me what Asperger's is? Every single definition I've ever heard has sounded to me to be a description of a personality type, as opposed to something that deserves to be called a disorder or disease, let alone a whole syndrome.

Nope, not in the slightest, I can take it or leave it. It passes time if I have nothing else to do.

I wonder sometimes if the addiction people form is because there is much lacking in their RL. Like maybe they don't have a lot of RL life friends, successful relationship or a busy profession, (just speculating).

I have a happy and fulfilling life and consider it to be much more important that SL.

I hear what you're saying, but I disagree about the priority. If a fellow drives his car into a lake because he is suicidal, you can worry about the reason he's suicidal later: right now, you need to get him out of the freakin' lake.

But don't blame the lake.

"There's a little bit of paradise.. the way hot pepperoni, mushrooms, pineapple and melted cheese all come together in a single moment in time." ~Winter Ventura

There appears to be at least one thing in RL you like.

Well..

My friends call me a loner.
They call me 'not one of the crowd'.
They call me 'computer nerd'.
They call me 'no lifer'
But. Before. I met the internet.
I was already a loner.
I was that kid, that smoked in the shade.
The one that avoided the crowd.
I was the one, who became there boss.


Heh I can actually say I'm addicted to SL. But I blame myself, and my lonerness. I still have friends. I love my girlfriend, my family but I don't get along with anyone else in the real world/. In SL I'm a social mad science addicted catgirl. If anything SL has turned me into a social person =D. Maybe not in this 'real life'. But who cares about that. I have a good job, plenty of free time. Plus, like I said, most of my high school friends work for me now =D.

Aspergers is found on the Autism spectrum. It is a disorder that focuses on the personality which is why you woud think of it s a personality type and I supose in many ways it is. However the reason that is comes under the idea od 'disability' is that it usually manifests in a number of 'deviant' behaviours. That is behaviours which differ (often quite considerably) from the norm.

Aspergers has a huge number of categories and sub categories one must fit into to be diognosed as having it. However in most cases they are just found to be on the Autism spectrum.

Some of the more obvious tendancies of people with Aspergers include alack of understanding about the Social World (that is that they are unsure or un aware of how to act in a 'socially normal' way to fit in.) They usually are very vvery intelligent and tend to focus, even to the pointof obession about one or two things. This can hinder friendships as they will often only talk about this for days on end.

For a person with Aspergers I can see the benefit of SL. They have the ability to earn social norms in a capacity thatis easier. They have the chance to tke the time to type, to think slowly through things. They would also likely find it easier to make friends in here by finding groups of people who have similar intrests

Eclectic sums it up pretty well.

Autistic disorders, by the way, are not due to limited cognitive ability as most people are familiar with when you talk of mental disorders. Cognitive abilities are often fine and not uncommonly higher than average. They simply perceive the world and sometimes themselves in a different manner than most people would. The degree to which this occurs varies individually.

A couple additional points:
- AS is NOT an excuse for antisocial behavior. Unfortunately there are many self-diagnoses on the Internet (and some outright liars) and they use it as a cover to avoid criticism or excuse bad behavior. Most people who actually have AS would love to be able to fit in and live the same as all the "normal" people around them and will try to do so, not wave around their diagnosis and use it as an excuse to piss everyone off.

- The Patriotic Nigras and griefers and trolls in general (in SL or anywhere on the Internet) do not necessarily have any form of Asperger's Syndrome, despite some people's claims. Some may have it, but plenty just enjoy being an a** and would appear little different from everyone else in RL. AS is not a catch-all for every behavior that seems out of place.

QFT!!

I don't spend as much time in SL as I used to. Things change, new things come about.

If someone finds themselves one of those 24/7 players, then there's something seriously wrong.

And ignore the post about the WoW new expansion- Starcraft 2 will PWN!!!!

Also QFT.

whoa whoa whoa....the kid has Asbergers!!!!? Ok (I didn't read it obviously lol) But....lets back up here....first of all...people with Asbergers have extreme difficulty with social experiences because they cannot really read normal bahavioral cues from other human beings. They simply do not process information the same and therefor do NOT relate to others.....or more accurately, cannot. Gees.....along comes a social venue that allows them to relate to human beings more literally (using text) and presto.....the world is opened up to them on a level they can finally function in!!! Hellooooo mom....this is probably her sons only real 'normal' social experience because of his disability. Cripes.....has she ever done any research on the condition? Doe she have a clue at all what her son is going through. Wingnut. SL might be the thing that's saving him from complete isolation and misery.

Wow....that's so profound.....on a number of levels......sent chills up my spine. Thanks.

Oh look, there's the answer right there in the first reply.

Anything has the possibilly of being an "addiction" in the loose sense of the word, and anything can get out of hand if one lets it.

I spend a *lot* of free time in SL. As well as role play, I'm running two stores *and* do professional building in here. Yet I always try to keep some perspective. We have real lives out there that need care and freeding, and people who care about us, and all that.

I love sl and do not see it as an addiction at all. Initially, I viewed it as a hobby which hobbies should provide enhancement and be rewarding. My first year was more focused on exploring, making money and finding a place to stay. My second year however has been more relationship building. When I was injured from a car accident and was off work for a few months and it was winter time, sl was like a Godsend. My sl "family" provided alot of support and it was much more engaging than another episode of Jerry Springer or the Maury show, "I slept with 30 men, who is my baby's daddy". Although Steve Wilko was pretty entertaining. When I was off work, I found a job as a host in a club. So, in that aspect I felt like was working and gave me a greater appreciation of hosts jobs.

Now I believe I have found someone and we just click. We will wed in about 4 weeks inworld. We have discussed meeting in irl and approaching that next level with deliberate caution. We have made a pact if we are still together in sl for a year then we will meet irl.

Not to derail this thread, but for those who met irl, how did it go?