A World Wide Woe

Through the day I peppered him with questions, all meant to answer this one: why had he failed to make something of himself, and I hadn't? It was a complicated question, but it was pretty clear by the day's end that the most detrimental influence in his life, from an early age, was videogames and the Internet. We were both exposed to computers early on, but he had let them consume his identity.

Andrew was a child of Commodore 64s and online bulletin boards, and he was fascinated with them as far back as I can remember. With his early knowledge of computers and programming, I like to think he could have become an heir to Bill Gates, but he spent most of his time online goofing off, not developing software. Though my brother has never been officially diagnosed as an Internet addict, he readily admits that he demonstrates all of the signs and symptoms of the compulsion. His was a world of constant refreshing, immediate access to new information and stimuli. Before long, the real world couldn't hold his attention span. He dropped out of high school and spiraled down a path that eventually led him to homelessness.

The Internet is addicting, says psychologist David Greenfield, founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction in West Hartford, Conn., because it works on a "variable ratio reinforcement schedule," which is a fancy way of saying that it gets you high every once in awhile. This is based on a theory first espoused by renowned psychologist B. F. Skinner—not knowing whether a reward is coming is actually more compelling than being able to count on results every time.

"It can be as simple as finding an e-mail you like, hearing from somebody you love, being told a cousin is coming to visit, interspersed among a lot of neutral, less-salient information," Greenfield says. "You don't know how desirable that will be or when you're going to get it."

Greenfield's survey of 18,000 Web users, conducted in 1999, found that 5.9 percent of them demonstrate the symptoms of being addicted to the Internet. Since that survey, there hasn't been much comprehensive research on the topic, says Kimberly Young, founder and director of the outpatient Center for Internet Addiction Recovery because there aren't enough treatment centers from which to acquire comprehensive data.

That's partly because there remains some skepticism about whether Internet addiction qualifies as a real condition. Greenfield says he's spent plenty of time trying to convince colleagues that Internet addiction is genuine, and Seattle psychotherapist Hilarie Cash, one of ReSTART's cofounders, says she often hears from therapists who suggest that the issue isn't the Internet but whatever anxiety or depression compulsive users are suffering that may lead them to overindulgence. Still, as Cash notes, both China and South Korea have declared Internet addiction their countries' No. 1 public-health threat.

What is it about this modern invention that crosses the line from entertainment and simple utility to an addiction that can cost people their jobs, their shelter, and even their health? I don't remember being hooked on Monopoly or checkers, but I do feel something gnawing at me when I've let my e-mail inbox collect messages for too long. I spent many a long day in college playing first-person shooter games until my thumbs were sore. For real addicts, there are even more serious medical issues at stake: there have been at least 10 documented cases of people dying from blood clots caused by sitting in front of a computer for too long, Cash says. Cosette Dawna Rae, who cofounded ReSTART with Cash, got a call recently from a woman whose Internet-obsessed son had to have his leg amputated after a clot.