Molly TumanicIt’s everywhere on campus. I find myself sneaking off between classes just to get a quick fix. I have an addiction, I’m not going to lie. I’m an Internet junkie.
I figured the first step to recovery is confronting the problem. Yes, I am addicted to the Internet and need to be within close proximity of a connected computer all the time.
The problem is the university only enables my addiction by providing me with labs all over campus with one of the fastest speeds of Internet available. So not only does the school provide me with mass quantities of what I need, but it also has given me top quality goods at a primo price – free. Well, with the price of tuition.
I think the problem began when I was in middle school and my family first got the hellish America Online. All I knew is there was this “Information Superhighway” out there and I was dying to take a ride (cue “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochran for full effect).
It started as innocent fun – a few minutes here, a few minutes there, nothing that could really cause any sort of problems. I was just having a good time, chatting with friends on Instant Messenger, learning about different interests, meeting new people in the chat rooms, etc. How could any of this really cause an addiction?
Then I went to high school. I started doing more research papers. My circle of friends grew larger and it was so easy to talk with all of them at once online rather than talking on the phone with just one for hours. My knowledge of using search engines expanded and I could find almost anything that I wanted to learn more about. This was just too good. I started having cravings for more.
Finally, the last stages of my addiction … college. I came here with a laptop, hooked up to the campus Ethernet the first day, and I’ve never been the same. Suddenly checking my e-mail, online shopping, eBay and news all became great alternatives to homework and studying for exams. If I was at my computer, I couldn’t write a paper all the way through without taking hour-long breaks just to catch up on my correspondence.
Now I find myself ducking into labs between classes just to check my e-mail. When I have time to kill, I’ll hit the news Web sites. I probably read the news at least three times a day online, just because you never know what might be going on in the world every few hours.
When I was in Europe during Winterim with friends, I found myself paying exorbitant fees just to check my e-mail or read the news daily. I think this was probably the worst part. It actually affected my vacation and my friends.
As I evaluate my addiction, there are definitely pros and cons to my addiction. While it might affect my schoolwork and relationships with friends, it also has provided me with unique opportunities. The Internet has helped me learn so much more about the world. Anything I want to know about, I can just Google it and get thousands of different perspectives on a wide range of topics. It’s like my window to the world. I feel more a part of the global community.
It has also helped provide a new venue for communication. Long distance bills can be expensive, especially if you have friends in different parts of the world. All you have to do is sign on to an instant messaging system or drop an e-mail and suddenly lost friends can be relocated and bonds can be enhanced. It’s such a good way to keep in touch with friends and family. If you haven’t heard from someone in a while, you can just send out an e-mail or an e-card to show you still care; it’s touching, really.
I must say the epitome of the benefit from my addiction lies in the fact that I can create a legal career out of it. I’m actually a Web Design minor, so I can feed my crazes regularly as part of my academic enhancement. I’m also the online editor here at The Spectator, so I get to contribute to the technology I love so much. What a strange world we live in where our addictions can direct and even enhance our career choices.
