This blog is now a read-only document

It's been 2 1/2 years since Hooked on the Net's publication (in the fall of 2003), and I haven't devoted much time to keeping this blog site updated with relevant information. I think it's time to shut down the blog, but this site will remain online for as long as this book on Internet addiction remains relevant. And that, I believe, will be for quite some time.

I hope anyone interested in the topic will explore portions of this site. I recommend the following:

• About Net addiction. Is Internet addiction for real?
  
• About the book -- an overview of Hooked on the Net, with a sample chapter.
  
• The faq.
  

I'd like to thank all of my readers and supporters for this project. I especially thank my publisher, Kregel, for their interest in this important topic.

Driven to distraction by technology

The typical office worker is interrupted every three minutes by a phone call, e-mail, instant message or other distraction. The problem is that it takes about eight uninterrupted minutes for our brains to get into a really creative state.

The result, says Carl Honore, journalist and author of "In Praise of Slowness," is a situation where the digital communications that were supposed to make working lives run more smoothly are actually preventing people from getting critical tasks accomplished.

More...

New Year's resolutions for email addicts

According to a report releaseed last spring and reported in PCWorld.com, U.S. residents are so hooked on e-mail that some check for messages in the bathroom, in church, and while driving.

The average e-mail user in the U.S. has two or three e-mail accounts and spends about an hour every day reading, sending, and replying to messages, according to the survey, conducted by Opinion Research.

Some tips on curbing your email usage:

Resolve not to check e-mail after a certain hour of the night and respect the curfew.

Often the best way to close the loop on an ongoing e-mail discussion is to pick up the phone and call the other person.

The next time you find yourself complaining about the volume of e-mail you receive, look at yourself in the mirror and reflect on how many messages you send out.

Act on every e-mail you open by deleting it, forwarding it, responding to it or filing it.

Go without e-mail one day per week.

9:45 AM ·

Game over: man dies of heart attack after 50-hour gaming session

From Reuters:

SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing online battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.

Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play online games on Aug. 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.

Full story.

Teens, parents clash over blogging

The generation gap between teens and their parents moves into the online world of blogging, as this article, "Teens: It's a journal. Parents: It's unsafe", points out.

As technology-savvy youths enlist computers in the timeless teen quest to establish identity, some adults feel the stakes are too high to accept it as just another form or phase of self-expression. In this camp, crime worries trump a desire to honor young people's privacy.

Internet stalkers have killed at least four minors in the past three years, and law enforcement authorities count about 5,000 reports of attempted sexual predation over the Internet in the past year, according to Parry Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org, an Internet safety organization.

Given such statistics, parents need to get over the feeling that they're invading their children's privacy by reading their blogs, Ms. Aftab says. She believes that parents must bring their judgment to bear on the content of what's posted. "When you get hormones pumping, minors are operating the heavy machinery of the Internet under impaired judgment."

Link via Brad Boydston.

Paying the piper

Hear me once and for all, folks:

There is no such thing as free music on the Internet.

Just ask Parvin Dhaliwal.

Addicted to WoW

A JoeUser blogger posts about his addiction to the online multiplayer game WoW (World of Warcraft). "I think WoW is a great game," this user writes, but adds:

...I hate WoW for making me skimp work, check out WoW webpages when I should be doing support calls or answering emails, or doing forums, reading the news, watching the stack of 12 books I've purchased the last few months ... or even checking my home email [I have not checked it for a week.

The love-hate relationship of online gaming seems to be a prevalent attitude among gamers.

Blogging can be hazardous to your job

Obsession with the web can be more than hazardous to your mental health. It could be hazardous to your job security, as this Christian Science Monitor article (via USA Today's tech guide) illustrates.

SAN DIEGO — Suffering from "pure boredom" while working as a features writer for a North Carolina newspaper, Rachel Mosteller began keeping an online journal. Anonymously, with names changed to protect the guilty, she chronicled the people who inhabit just about any newsroom -- the foul-mouthed female reporter, the chubby sportswriter, the co-worker who hoards the free books sent in by publishers seeking reviews.

But her blog, called the "Sarcastic Journalist," didn't stay secret for long. Her bosses found out last year, and Mosteller, eight months pregnant at the time, promptly found herself sacked.

She learned a valuable lesson: If you have a job, blog at your own risk — "unless you're writing recipes and about how much you love puppies and kittens," Mosteller says.

Full story.