The Daily Grind: The nature of addiction
I can't forget an article featured earlier this year on The Washington Post about an internet addiction clinic in China, and how they were treating patients there with the same techniques they've used on heroin addicts. From electroshock therapy to involuntary isolation, take your pick.
That's disturbing enough in itself, but personally? I've never considered internet usage to be addiction. Let alone MMOs, which are always at the heart of the argument. Would we send people to addiction clinics for watching too much TV? Reading too many books? Drinking too many smoothies? Of course not. Personal choice isn't addiction, even if it isn't good for you.
But maybe we're too close to the issue. Judging from admittance to the clinic, anyone who has attended a Molten Core raid in World of Warcraft is a die-hard addict. We've all heard -- or seen! -- one or two horror stories, as well.
Do you consider over-usage of the internet to be personal choice? Habit? Or an addiction that should be treated as such?
