From: utzoo!utcsrgv!perelgut Newsgroups: net.misc Title: An Interesting Article from Canada Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.350 Posted: Thu May 13 11:47:41 1982 Received: Thu May 13 12:36:42 1982 The following is a liberal extract from an article entitled: "Computer crazy: the 'addiction' grows" Stephen Strauss The Globe & Mail, May 13,1982 [The Globe & Mail is a daily newspaper out of Toronto which is unquestionably Canada's finest daily paper] "...From the time he was 12 until he reached 17 he would leave his house every Friday after school with his sleeping bag under his arm and a pocketful of change in his pants. "For the next 2-1/2 days, David spent every waking minute programming a university computer. When he was tired he flopped down on a classroom floor. When he remembered to eat, it was from a vending machine or a take-out restaurant. His parents didn't see him until Monday morning. "'He looked red-eyed, wan, and was having increasing trouble relating to people. He couldn't look you in the face when you tried to talk to him,' remembered his father..." The gist of this full page article, the front page of a well read section of the paper, is that there is a rapidly growing sector of "computer addicts". There followed a number of quotes which apply to old net discussions such as what is a hacker (comp. sci. students "all-nighting" at terminals) and the problem of video-game addiction. However, the point I feel worthy of discussion is whether or not computer addiction is a serious problem. The article makes comparisons between computer use and cocaine/amphetamine addiction. The 'statistic' [my quotes] quoted is that 1% of computer users run the risk of addiction which, it is pointed out, is the same percentage as suffer harm from smoking marijuana. Another interesting point the article makes is the existence of "cyberphiles" and "cyberphobes". Examples are given of cyberphobic people including "one cyberphobic policeman [who] shot the computer console in his car." Computers are also cited as the reason for marriages breaking up and people dropping out of society. One final quote: "If one is looking for the ideal candidate for computer addiction it is a young man in his 20's who, in Prof. Weinberg's [a managment professor at St. Joseph's College in Philidelphia, Pa. --sgp] words, 'either is single or soon will be single'. Why women are not prime candidates for video addiction is not clear. Frances Quarrington, who teaches Applewood Heights Secondary School in Mississauga [Ontario --sgp], suggested that society encourages boys to do better at mathematics, which is necessary for computer programming." --- stephen perelgut --- --- decvax!utzoo!utcsrgv!perelgut ---