Stewart Schatz

As reported on Geeks Are Sexy (I love that name), an editorial in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry says that Internet addiction, which includes “excessive gaming… and email/text messaging”, is a common compulsive-impulsive disorder.

The report also says that “people can lose all track of time or neglect ‘basic drives’, like eating or sleeping.”

Duh!  I can’t count the times when I was on a game or Internet binge and started playing or surfing after the kids went to bed around 8:30 and didn’t get to bed until 1:00 or 2:00 AM.  During that whole time, the house could have burnt down around me and I’m sure I wouldn’t have even noticed.

All you married people out there know all-to-well, that your wife/husband usually doesn’t appreciate a bug-eyed mate stumbling into bed just after finally getting to sleep because the life-like, in-your-face sound effects finally stopped.

Hi, my name is Stewart Schatz and I’m an Internet Addict.  It’s been 15 seconds since my last hit of email but I’m working really hard to limit my online hours to 20 hours per day.  My sponsor isn’t much help because the only way I can reach him is through text messaging, which of course is also off-limits.

I think this “disease” is an awesome excuse to skip work and improve my blog’s Google Page Rank… Oh, I mean reflect on the negative effects that the Internet and gaming has had on my life.

If you have access to the Internet from your work or if accessing the Internet is a part of your work day, is your employer guilty of “enabling”?  –sounds like a whole new lawsuit category.