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 ---