Asynchronous Addiction

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that I just wrote that title to draw attention. But I will justify it by saying that I've done this to simply draw attention to some types of strategies tech journalists use in their headlines, that ultimately lead to confusion.

Truth is, people throw around words a lot these days. Almost everyone is addicted to something, according to even themselves. Even Ben Uy, admitted to a comic book addiction in his post earlier today. In fact, I highly doubt that he is, in fact, addicted to comic books. He might spend hours reading them, know more intricate facts about them than most people, and spend far too much money on them, but that hardly qualifies as addictive behaviour.

Anyone who has take the 'Sexual Histories' paper will also note that a lot of the world's addictions are socially constructed. That is to say, they are invented by social parameters.Of course, after today's lecture it's pretty easy to see that the same can be said about video games, gambling and pretty much anything out there.

There seems to be some sort of constant moral panic about technology. As if we are actually regressing or somehow damaging society by developing our capabilities as humans and furthering scientific research. In my opinion, people just don't know what to do about technology. They can't understand the behavioural changes that are almost inherently attached to new developments, and since they have nothing more to compare with than their own past experiences, it seems perfectly normal that they would see this new behaviour as 'unnatural'.

Earlier today, in lecture, I mentioned how asynchronous games could be more prone to causing addiction. I took this from my own experience with these games. Whereby I normally don't find much time to watch television, much less play games, when I began playing asynchronous games I suddenly made time... lots of time. The question of addiction sprang to mind more than once during these bouts. Then again, before I started bartending I never used to drink. Then, after working the job for a year or so, I found myself having a 'staffie' (the free drink every bartender gets at the end of their shift - and yes, I did pick up on the innuendo  almost every night. This then led to inevitable questions about alcoholism.

Of course, I was never truly addicted to asynchronous games, or alcohol. I simply found something that I enjoyed doing, and wound up doing it repeatedly for a while, sometimes even regardless of the consequences. Just as the quote from end of lecture; I found my 'time out'. But this absurd discourse of addiction that exists all around us makes us worry that at any point, addiction could be right around the corner and catch us when we least expect it.

I feel like we would be able to achieve a lot more in the way of social understanding and progress if we just stopped panicking about every little slant in behaviour. If everything is a disorder, than, what's to say we're truly meant to be ordered?

Also here's a cool/funny link that relates to a lot of the topics we've been discussing in class. But mostly to structural incoherence.