Virtual Chaos

This week, I was lucky enough to catch an episode of Dr. Phil titled "Virtual Chaos" which dealt with a handful of individuals who had crossed well over the line of computer game addiction. While I know "Dr." Phil isn't a primary source to obtain information, the show brought about many interesting points which relate to our current topic of people with addictions to on-line "worlds" such as the second life chat room.

The episode actually begins with Dr. Phil dressed as an avatar in a virtual fantasy world like the ones we explored through Second Life and There. He quotes in support of the video gaming world ““In the virtual world, I can be someone completely different. I can be Super Mortal Phil, defender of my countrymen, and a super-stud who gets to have cool hair while playing. And in this virtual world, I’m agile, powerful and I never have to do what my wife says!” He continues in the real life setting to explain how he even enjoys the occasional computer game, but he also recognizes that while they are fun, they can also rob people of their lives. One guest he spoke with was the mother of a young man named Shawn. Shawn, she explained, was like any other young man when he first got into a video game known as EverQuest; a young adult with a promising future. Within no time, though, the game began to consume his life. He stopped being social (she describes him as completely withdrawn) he stopped going to work, he would stay up all night, and he rarely ever left the house. About 3 months later, Liz, his mother, found him in his room in front of the video game with a rifle in his hand after committing suicide.

Liz is now an advocate for telling others about gaming addiction, which she strongly compares to a drug addiction. Often parents will purchase these types of computer games for their children as a way to “preoccupy” them so they can get other things done. Sadly, if the child doesn’t become a video game addict, the fact remains that, as we have noted in class many times before, the computer is still a pitfall for many young people. Dr. Phil shares the statistics that “One in three kids happen on to pornographic sites while on the computer, one in 11 are harassed while in chat rooms, 16 percent say they would consider meeting someone in real life that they met on the computer and 69 percent say they get personal messages from the computer.”

Like Shawn, Caiko from our episode of True Life shared a similar addiction to an online world, along with millions of other Americans. This episode of Dr. Phil shared a lot of interesting insight on the horrors of online addiction and the ability it has to consume an individual. We have also noted in class, though, that when treated maturely, the computer is an extremely valuable tool for both entertainment and educational purposes. Unfortuantly, it can all too often become a source for addiction in which can result in the loss of connection with the real world, or even worse, the loss of a valued life.

To evaluate gaming addictive behavior in yourself or someone you know, review the following list: http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/573

FACEBOOK ADDICTS ANONYMOUS

As I was brainstorming on what I could blog about this week, I happened to check my e-mail and see that I had a Facebook invite to a group called "Hi name is (BLANK) and I am addicted to Facebook" from a friend at a different university. Now if that isn't coincidental I'm not sure what is.

As a class, we are about to embark on the quest to find out if the majority of our Westminster community really could be classified as “addicted to Facebook.” We are all aware of the different groups we have been broken up into to complete this project, so we all know that there is no group centered around looking at past research on the idea of “Facebook addiction.” After receiving this group invite, I decided this would be an important thing to check out as we are beginning the project very soon.

I began by Facebook searching “Facebook Addict” groups. Needless to say, the results were endless (i.e. Facebook Addicts Unite, Facebook Anonymous: Rehab for Facebook Addicts, etc) indicating that many people were well aware of their so called addiction. With this in mind, I began to search previously researched articles dealing with this idea. My findings revolved greatly around college aged individuals and their excessive use of Facebook, which directly relates to our class research. For example, the author of one article entitled “Facebook is not just an addiction – it’s a disease!” raves that Facebook limits interaction between college aged students and creates the idea that people must have “picture perfect” profiles to fit in. (http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/2/ARTICLE/5655/2005-09-15.html) “We need to face it and realize that life doesn’t happen on a computer screen, that having 202 friends on Facebook doesn’t make you cool.” claims the author who throughout the article describe her own overuse of Facebook. Ironic, don’t you think? Another article written by a college student explains collegiate use of Facebook as “a method of academic homicide.” He says as a recommendation for a cure “Perhaps if there were some type of counseling, [students] could be cured of their addiction to the Facebook.” (http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2006/02/24/Opinions/The-Dangers.Of.Facebook.Addiction-1637444.shtml)

Based on these few examples, we are able to see that our objective to explore collegiate addiction to Facebook on our own campus is beneficial and has been recognized elsewhere. According to these articles, Facebook addiction truly does exist in the context of many college campuses and we are likely to find similar results in our own study. Maybe before we begin, though, we should assess our own addiction to Facebook. Though we have already done so to an extent in our discussion board, I recommend you watch this comical video and see if you meet the requirement for the dreaded “Facebook Addiction!” - http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/02/do-you-have-facebook-addiction/

I support you with your choice to end your life..

This week, our course has been held strcitly online and has dealt with the importance of online communities. We reviewed the idea of what a community is, what defines a virtual community, and the extremities of virtual community addiction. These articles put into light the importance of virtual communities to many individuals coming from various areas of interest. Some of these communities dealt with sports, networking, TV shows, and much more. Unfortunately, though, not all of these online communities are used for positive reasons. I investigated 3 types of extremely serious online communities that not only provide people with a necessary "sense of belonging" and consistency, but also the "support" to become anorexic, bulimic, or even carry out suicide.

According to Butcher, Mineka, and Hooley (2007) these communities do not encourage sufferers to seek treatment, but rather they provide information and inspiration to those who want to keep harming themselves. Sufferers of these conditions communicate with other individuals on effective ways to lose weight, purge, and succeed in suicidal attempts. Virtual communities such as these have even developed ways to recognize members outside of the internet by creating, for example, bracelets which resemble their involvement and support of in these virtual communities (Dragonfly beaded bracelets, Red=Anorexic, Blue=Bulimic) http://blogs.healthcare.com/medusa/2008/06/03/pro-ana-pro-mia-the-red-blue-bracelets/). Not only this, these virtual communities also sell t-shirts and other merchandise to encourage their members. These objects help to bring the individuals together as a unit and make them recognizable outside of the comfort of the website.

I chose to address these communities based primarily on the frequency of interaction, support and information exchange they share. Try visiting a website such as http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/2005/10/26/, and you will find a disturbingly large amount of young girls posting about methods of purging, and ways to stay strong in your plan to quit eating. Take, for example, a post by one user encouraging fellow members to begin a fast called "I'm going to get skinny even if it kills me." Along these same lines, pro-suicide websites help to encourage suicidal individuals, telling them it truly is their best option. With support from a community sharing these life altering views, individuals feel they are making the right decision. The major problem with these websites is their ability to provide users with a sense of validation (Butcher, Mineka, and Hooley, 2007). Fortunately, though, attempts are being made to abolish these online communities. Officials say that these websites lure in vulnerable individuals who are then assisted in acts such as suicide. If the hosts of these communities are found, they can be prosecuted for murder or harm as it is illegal to aid, or counsel anyone to kill themselves. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7341024.stm) On the contrary though, as we are all aware, the internet is difficult to patrol and a majority of these sites are simply going “underground” and becoming more difficult to access.

These sad and unfortunate examples of online communities are not meant to be disturbing, but rather to bring to light the strength of online communities and the things they can often drive people to do under the wrong circumstances. We can only hope that such communities will eventually come to an end before many more innocent lives do first.