From: utzoo!utcsrgv!perelgut
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Hacking/addiction
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.354
Posted: Fri May 14 09:44:23 1982
Received: Fri May 14 10:40:54 1982

utcsstat!geoff argues that new addiction isn't cause for alarm, expecially
since innocents aren't being forced into computer addiction.  I find this
attitude frightening.  Computers have entered into every facet of life these
days and are unavoidable.  Elementary schools use them to teach, video games
are based on them, many homes have them.  I feel that, as professionals, we
should be concerned with any potentially harmful effects our profession may
entail for both ourselves and for the general public.

Innocents may not be dragged into dens of computing and force-fed until they
become addicted but they are being exposed to an area which is very enticing.
Feedback in computing is immediate.  Very few readers of this article have not
experienced the thrill of getting the tough problem solved or of writing a
particularly "good" bit of code.  According to the article which prompted my
initial letter, 1% of computer users will become addicted.  They weren't
forced into this addiction, but they would not have chosen it had the choice
become available.

I am not suggesting that there are any easy solutions to the problem.  In fact,
I am not convinced that there are any solutions to the problem.  However this
should not imply that there is no problem or that it should be ignored.  Are
there people reading this who know of cases where cyberphilia was a major
cause of a divorce or of a persons withdrawl from society?  Such stories exist.
The article relates one such story.

Any profession engenders some such problems for the few who get carried away,
but the gist of the article is that computing, being so immediate, may contain
more such pratfalls than most.  I believe it was F. Brown's "Mythical Man-Month"
which pointed out that computing works with the stuff of thought.  This makes
the thrill that much more direct.

--- stephen perelgut ---
--- decvax!utzoo!utcsrgv!perelgut ---