All Your Brain Belong to Us

I read that the American Journal of Psychiatry says compulsive E-mailing is now considered an illness according to psychiatrists. (Actually it's all part of "Internet Addiction", but the E-mailing headline caught my eye because I am an E-mail administrator. Our 350 or so active users take a 2 gigabyte bite out of my disk space every day. I remember when a desktop computer didn't even come with 2 gigabytes on it.)

The problem isn't just E-mail, but other online pursuits like playing games, an area where I myself might be on the edge. The bad news is that Internet addiction is resistive to treatment. The good news is that I am up to 4 million points on Slingo.com.

I had always read it was debatable whether compulsive Internet use was a true addiction. But if you've ever seen the phones light up at a call center when E-mail went down, you'd be convinced there is surely some brain-web connection. I'd be interested in your thoughts.