Virtual World Addiction

Internet addiction will now be a recognized disease, which leaves me wondering how health plans will deal with it when the Chinese are using electroshock therapy to deal with too many hours in WoW.

Serious addiction … a boy (12) receives electric shock treatment for his internet addiction in Beijing / AP

According to News.com.au:

The American Journal of Psychiatry published an editorial claiming that internet addiction met the criterion for a mental disorder and called on the American Psychiatric Association to officially list it as such.

The editorial’s author, Jerald Block, said internet addiction consists of three particular subtypes: excessive gambling, sexual preoccupations and email or text messaging.

“Internet addiction appears to be a common disorder that merits inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” Dr Block said in the journal.

Meanwhile, Vint pointed us in the direction of A World of Warcraft World on Cracked.com which takes a tongue-in-cheek look at how MMORPGS will change society. She cunningly altered it to be “SL friendly” (oops! I gotta read those Second Life(r) branding guidelines again…and how the heck do you get the (R) thing to work anyways?”):

1. Everyone will look like a fashion model.
2. All will play in the same virtual world.
3. Someone will go to jail for stealing and selling a SexGen bed.
4. You’ll meet someone who plays a MMORPG for a living.
5. They’ll take the “G” out of “MMORPG” and call it a virtual world.
6. You will find yourself momentarily forgetting whether you’re in the real or virtual world.
7. You’ll meet a couple who has been married for years and have never seen each other’s real-life faces.
8. There will be a branch of government to rule the virtual world.
9. There will be a whole class of wealthy people without a dime to their name.
10. The rise of the metaverse will go almost completely unopposed.

But maybe the tongue-in-cheek won’t turn out to be so tongue-in-cheek? As I know people who live in virtual worlds. Know people who forget that they’re in a virtual world (at times). And know people who have been in long-term relationships that seem, from the outside, a lot like real ones.

Addiction is a disease. And I won’t argue its causes but have some pretty deep opinions on it. And Internet addiction is one manifestation of something else. It doesn’t represent something new, although inclusion in the DSMMD might bring better therapeutic interventions or at least an understanding of its effects. And being a disease, the line between addiction and either just spending too much time in WoW or earning a living in a virtual space shouldn’t be confused, although we’re sure to see a lot of interest groups riding agendas on either side of the issue.