SL Highlighted in an Article About internet Addicts

Donna? Is that you?

I'm not an addict...
















... how long is this upgrade gonna take?

Someone needs to write about the compulsive addiction carpenters have for their hammers.

that's a great quote...wonder if I could get my mother interested in SL. Wait! No! I didn't mean to say that!

Do you know a carpenter who uses the hammer as "a way of still meeting people"?

Hmmm. I'm not an addict. I actually spend less time in SL because I really don't feel like 'interacting' when I get home from my job.

My mom, brother and stepmom have SL accounts.

Hah! I tried to get my RL friends, family and relatives interested in SL as a way of meeting up and keeping in contact. I gave it up as a bad job when I lost my patience explaining how SL works for the 1,000th time and realised that they were all computer-illiterate technophobes. Could have been interesting tho.

An interesting article ^..^


But the article did not mention those of us in a career that focuses around computing technology. Could we be considered computer/internet addicts as well if our primary job function sits us behind a computer for 8 to 10 hours on a daily basis? Perhaps tis trend in society reflects how we live our daily lives. Many different job functions have replaced pen and paper with computing technology. From engineering jobs with their computer based CAD and CAM systems to retail/service industry workers with their POS terminals. It is getting ever more difficult to walk into a business establishment and not see a computer of some sort in use. Is it merely an addiction or is it just a natural change into being more reliant on technology? Are we any more addicted to a computer if we spend 8 hours a day on one at work then come home and spend 4 or more hours on our personal computers? Looking at it from just a hobby standpoint, how is this different then spending the same amount of time building Gundam models or knitting for the same amount of time on a daily basis? Am I any less addicted if all I used was my work computer for 10 hours a day but come home and not use one at all? Could the employees of LL be considered addicts since their primary job is to maintain SL so therefore it is possible that some spend this much if not more time using SL? Where is the line between what could be considered acceptable and what could be considered addiction, is the line drawn when you stop getting paid to sit at the computer?

Sorry if this made no sense at all, I am not feeling well today and articles like this give me a mixed feeling since my primary job focuses around computers and I see how integrated into our daily lives they have become. Not just in the home PC as many know it, but also has invaded other aspects of our personal lives. We use them for entertainment such as iPods, Tivos and our gaming consoles. We experience them in our daily commute when we listen to the weather that is forcasting based upon sattelite data which is processed on a computer for forcasting, we encounter it when our check engine light comes on.
I like the irony of the article as well. There is a high chance it was written by the author on a computer, then it is posted on a web page for the addicts to read....

True .. my analogy is a little unsound.

Still, when is meeting new people from all over the world an addiction? I think this is simply people nervous about things changing.

Hmmm. Wonder who this person is in SL.
I need an errand-girl.

Can the real-world job I go to for 8 hours a day also be referred to as an addiction? I mean, 8 hours a day is a bit excessive...

I know. But people think that if it doesn't make money, it's not worth doing.

Carpenters use hammers? Air guns seem to have displaced them.

I use a sledgehammer
Not really to BUILD things, tho.

ROFL... wait --- you only work 8 hours a day? damn! I must be a hopeless work crack ho.

I can't figure out why they don't say all the same things about television and TV addicts. I wonder if they did, back in the fifties and sixties? I dont' think so, really - I think fears and complaints about computer addiction mainly come from people who would rather watch TV.

On the other hand, I've read some bulletin boards and whatnot about Everquest (Evercrack, as a friend calls it), and yes, some of those stories would qualify as an addiction, I think, and a destructive addiction as well.

coco

I agree, but a paycheck differentiates an addiction from a job. There are workaholics, though. But no one refers to them as a cautionary tale against getting a job.


I would be leary of a carpenter wielding either one in the process of meeting people.
And a plumber; just think of those tools of trade at a meet & greet.

Gee, with all the people who gripe angrily about "GAH UPDATES I HATE LL, NOW LET ME PLAY SL" every update, whoda thunk?

Still, I don't see SL as being quite like Everquest - the "you aren't considered addicted to your job" analogy holds. I've certainly spent a lot of time on Neualtenburg and other group projects, and I don't expect to make money off most of them, but I don't think I could be reasonably called "addicted", except in the sense that if someone likes to do something, they'll do it as they can. It'd only be an addiction if I neglected the other aspects of my life for it.

Today, a special guest letter (edited for content).

Dear Penthouse Forum,

I never believed those letters you published were true until today.

I work in construction as a roofer. I was at work on a roof last friday laying plywood over trusses, when I saw 2 of the biggest (ya-yas) I'd ever seen. Attached to them was the girlfriend of the guy whose house we were building. I nudged my buddy who was helping me on the roof and said "I'm gettin me some of dat". He didn't believe me, and bet me 50 that it wasn't gonna happen.

I had to get her attention in a sneaky way. She's a classy ho, and grabbin yur junk just don't fly. Then I got a idea. my buddy had a hammer in his toobox. He ain't need it, since we use nailguns. I took the hammer and tossed it off the roof. It landed right in front of her. She jumped 20 feet (hee hee). Then, I cussed out the day laborer who was next to me for being clumsy. I came down off the roof, and apologized for the immigrent being clumsy.

While I was talking to her, she caught me looking at her (blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Escalade blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah jelly jar blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Ripple blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah boing blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah homina homina blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah splat blah blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah penicillin blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah shotgun.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Shotgun!?!?!

my advice to meyer is to play SL for 11 hours a day and spend 1 hour looking for a job everyday. it might help provide more entertainment/diversion options in the long run.

Since I've been in online places, only TSO, and now SL, I've been labelled 'addicted'. Never mind that I work, and maintain everything I have to in RL to keep things rolling along just fine. Now, if I sat and watched TV for 6 to 8 hours a night....that would be okay. I think, perhaps, that my peers are upset that I didn't catch the latest American Idol, so we could commisserate, but instead I went somewhere that is foreign to them.

As I try to explain to people who will never understand, and really don't want to, 'I would rather be 'doing' than watching others 'do'. For me, to interract with people, is living, and life. This article just highlighted something that is and will become more obvious to the conciousness of society in the future; things are changing, and people don't like change; as someone already said. Gone are the days of computer 'geeks'. We all make our choices; it's that some are just not ready to accept this kind of 'immersion'
as an acceptable alternative to the norm. The same uproar and criticism happened when Television was introduced to our culture.

Just my two L.

You can use a hammer to make people be still after you meet them.