Thoughts about addiction...

Easiest way to curb your SL Addiction:

Drink heavily while playing!! Pass out for a few hours & find yourself logged out!

O.o I can't drink.. and choose not to! Plus booze taste nasty so... lol...

Okiphia- when you hurt, your friends help you get thru it- then leaving becomes a non issue. In RL, if you lose someone, u don't have the option of leaving the world - and here- we don't have to clean out the closets

But you do now..... this is Second Life.. we can leave RL for everything except food and potty and sleep if we want.. done right you can live completely in SL... have groceries delivered (Using the web tab in SL to order from a stores site), have a business in SL to support your RL needs...

SL can be a total escape if we want it to be. (Not saying I do...)

In RL I am an academic research librarian, and mindful of this conversation thread, I spent some time Friday evening after work, pulling up peer-reviewed journal articles from the psychology/psychiatry literature on problematic Internet usage (i.e. Internet addiction) in general, and the role of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG for short) in problematic Internet usage in particular. Examples of MMORPGs include World of Warcraft and Second Life (even though SL is technically not a "game".

What is shocking is that there is as yet little published literature on problematic Internet usage. I have found one bang-hits-the-spot PhD dissertation thesis on the topic titled, "An Examination of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games as a Facilitator of Internet Addiction", written by Jeffrey Michael Parsons at the University of Iowa in 2005 for his PhD in Education. It is fascinating reading. (btw, you can purchase a copy of this thesis for US$41.00 from UMI ProQuest, here: ). Its publication number is 3186948, and the full citation is:

An examination of massively multiplayer online role-playing games as a facilitator of Internet addiction. Parsons, Jeffrey Michael, PhD. THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, 2005. 169 pp. Advisor: Colangelo, Nicholas

Here's some stats to get the conversation started:

(I'm going to call it Internet addiction from here on out, even though it is being hotly debated whether or not problematic Internet usage is, in fact, an addiction. Frankly, it's so obvious to many of us that it *CAN BE* an addiction, I think it's a valid term. I'm not going to cite each stat, buy a copy of the dissertation yourself or get it through interlibrary loan/document delivery at your academic/corporate/public library if you want to check the sources.)

1. This is such a new kind of addiction that doctors and counselors have a limited base of experience from which to draw when dealing with Internet addiction. There is extremely little scientific literature on the impact of MMORPGs on problematic Internet usage.

2. Internet addiction is characterized by a pre-occupation with Internet use, mood modification, a need for increasing amounts of Internet use, withdrawl, conflict, and relapse episodes. The effects are varied but often include loss of sleep, strained relationships, and reduced levels of productivity at work or at school. The effects are not only associated with the amount of Internet use, but its prioritization over other life commitments. Whether Internet addiction is treated as a problem related to gambling addiction or as a problem related to substance abuse, the common characteristsics include the inability to reduce Internet use, disruptions in daily living ( e.g. work, family, school), and dependence upon Internet usage to maintain psychological well-being.

3. Approximately 6% of all Internet users can be classified as Internet addicts. The percentage of MMORPG players who can be classified as Internet addicts is not yet known.

4. The average Internet user spends approximately 4 hours a week online (personally I think it is higher than that), but the average MMORPG player 20 hours a week online ON TOP OF other Internet use (e.g. email, browsing the Web, etc.). Researchers generally agree that Internet use becomes problematic when it exceeds 20 hours per week, therefore placing most MMORPG players in an at-risk category for Internet addiction.

5. MMORPGs such as Second Life represent a unique form of Internet use that lends itself toward addictive behaviours. The issue of addictive game play is complicated by the fact that MMORPGs want you to spend as much time online as possible. Excessive MMORPG use, as an Internet addiction, is growing in prevalence among those people who seek counseling.

In other words, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg as yet...

Edit: Throwing in yet one more stat:

6% of 50,000 (the average high-point of simultaneous SL usage lately) = 3,000 MMORPG addicts in Second Life.

*grin* Happy to help! There are more than a few folks who don't handle the glucose lowbies well, fwiw, so we're in good company... and as long as that company sticks to a steady feeding schedule, it's alllllll good.

I wonder why we never hear the words TV + addiction ever together???

What me addicted?

As I spend my afternoon at work lurking in the
forums because I can't log on from work.... LOL

And I want you to know YOU are the only one doing that...

/me laughs

.d

Nah,, Just means I don't Automaticly accept the fact something is Offered, Credited, or Certified by a University as Validation. They teach a lot of Silly things in universities also.

But in the case of Net Addiction, i've read a lot of Reserch Material, so i Know the University Classes Probably have more solid grounding than a Study of a Language Invented by writers, and fans of a Television show.

>>And before the Trekkies start flaming me, i have BOTH Volumes of the Klingon Dictionary, and almost every ST Tech Maual Published. My First edition of the TOS manual is even autographed by Rodenberry. <<

Morden Winkler;
You've seen pretty much what I have, it's Very new, and i agree what people are seeing now Probably IS just the tip of the Iceberg. I wonder though, I've seen a lot of people in SL told by friends In the game, "Dude, don't you Ever sleep? Log and spend some time in RL for a Change." How many Other Addictive practices have a "Support base" built right in? I wonder how, in Future that will affect stats with regards to the more interactive Platforms over things like simple net surfing?

Angel.

Most interesting, but also a little worrisome to me.

I can't help but remember a study that was done a decade or more ago. I can't cite it, but in essence, researchers tried to determine why the common cold is more prevalent in cold weather. They dipped a group of participants (whom I hope were well compensated!) into ice cold water a few times a day and found they did not develop any more cold symptoms than the control participants who were not dunked. The published conclusion was that being cold itself does not promote the spread of the common cold viruses.

Well, maybe it doesn't, but I'm thinking they only needed to go outside in cold dry air and feel how it makes nasal passages start running and eyes itching. I think we are inadvertently touching our eyes and mucous more when exposed to cold air - which may be very different than a dunking in cold water.

I'm not doubting the scholarship of the paper you reference. I just worry that however brilliant researchers are, and however rigorous their scientific methods, they can be myopic and not see the whole picture sometimes -- or rather their role is to work on a very small chunk of the whole picture. I hope a great deal more research is done before anyone uses this as an excuse to wield the Scepter of Hubris to save us from ourselves.

I doubt I'm really addicted to SL. I'm addicted to -- piddling with projects. If I didn't have a computer, I'd be addicted to a pad of paper and a pencil, and I would still let the housework slide, working on some non-essential diversion or other. If we were put here just to pay bills and to clean house and to raise a family of identical bill paying house cleaning pragmatists, then I think I'm in the wrong species.

The ResMod is back and it looks like he got a cartload of padlocks while he was away...

They suppose to right? But frankly speaking they as fuzzy as the rules on sl times. They takeout what they like and need and playing withthe factors so the outcomes supports their fight.

This forum isn't for general discussion; there are many Resident Sites where this discussion is appropriate — Resident Answers is for Resident-to-Resident help. I'll close this thread...