So, I have moved to Monroeville, Pennsylvannia. In so far as my explorations have taken me, I have determined that there is little to do in this heavily commercialized suburban town but shop. This is of stark contrast to the city life, of course, but I think I enjoy it overall. As a note of trivia, Monroeville is internationally renowned for holding the Guinness Book of World Records Largest Zombie Walk, at the Monroeville Mall in 2006- The same mall that the original Dawn of the Dead was filmed at. There is one this year as well, and I expect to be there to set a new record!
Not having internet access for over two weeks has been both painful and revealing of the extent to which I have become reliant upon it. It has also been somewhat of a relief. Without a connection to the outside world and the ability to slack off continually, I feel that I have actually accomplished more work without all of the socializing and mindless meandering that goes about on a typical day. Another positive effect was that time actually seemed to go slower, and the day lengthened with all of this free time that I suddenly had available to me. I actually went outside more, and did things that, well, people do. This is a whole lot different from my usual routine of being glued to my computer all evening.
All of this has got me thinking of “internet addiction”. IAD, as it turns out, was started as hoax, but this hasn’t stopped people who want to classify every human behavior as a disorder. As a social medium that encourages interaction and information exchange, it is hard to believe that internet addition, if it could be considered as an addition at all, could perpetrate any negative influences. Compare this to say, gambling, which has no value at all, but has serious consequences to addicts. Then there is ‘Video Game Addiction’ which was featured on an old episode of Intervention, a show which usually features a jolly cast of alcoholics and drug addicts as its stars. I don’t know if the producers and writers of this show felt that they were running out of ideas, or wanted to try something different, but it should be self evident that lumping crackheads and alcoholics in with people who play a a little too much World of Warcraft is certainly a categorical misplacement. Granted, this kid that was portrayed on this show was a total anti-social loser, but to intercede and fly someone to am inpatient treatment center is not an act to be taken lightly. There have even been a few deaths involved with people who have no life outside of video games, such as a South Korean man who died after playing StarCraft for fifty hours. All I have to say is, he probably died a happy man.
