[kypro]

Sometimes I wonder if the tech withdrawal people experience is more related to the inconvenience of not having tech like smart phones and computers, rather than an actual addiction.

For example, when my car is at the garage I feel like I'm going through a kind of drug withdrawal. It really bothers that I can't just jump in my car and go somewhere and instead I now need to catch a bus or walk. Before having a car this would have been normal to me, but am I now addicted to my car or is it more that having a car is really convenient and now I'm experience the inconvenience of not having access to one?

Similarly, when I'm home I rarely ever use my phone and it will often run out of battery without me noticing until I want to set my morning alarm before bed. But when I'm out of the house I get really stressed when my phone is low on battery or flat. Again, I don't think I'm addicted it's just annoying that I can't easily order a taxi or map my way to some place I need to go without a phone. Having a phone is an extremely useful tool when you're out of the house.

I'm not denying some people have addictions, but I wonder why in general we don't see our relationship with other technologies in a similar way. Am I addicted to electric lights and central heating? When does a recognising and appreciating the connivance of a technology -- perhaps even to the point where you can't imagine living without it -- become an addiction? If it's having a negative impact your life then I get it, but recently there seems to be a push to label anyway -- even kids -- who simply enjoy using tech as "addicts".

[Mezzie]

I think it has to do with the number of people who've adopted the advancement. I've spent hours a day online since before this article came out, and it's much less of a social 'problem' than it used to be because now it's understood that sometimes people check things + I can easily do so on the go vs. being tethered to the desktop (and wired Internet).

Plus more 'normal' people are 'addicts' now. The only people spending tons of time online back in the 90s were weirdos who were REALLY into some aspect of it (for me, it was web design and UI/UX though of course I had no idea there was a term for it). We're not addicted to electricity, but I bet people were side-eyeing the first people who were obsessed enough to learn wiring and hook up their houses themselves.

We also had a similar reaction to television, which followed a similar pattern: My grandfather who was born in the 1910s was a factory worker who was OBSESSED with TVs when they were invented. His basement was full of parts and Franken-TVs. He was an 'addicted weirdo' in the 1930s and 1940s but by the time he died in the 1990s EVERYBODY was spending hours a day in front of a TV.

[throwamon]

If you spent over half your day watching cat videos and posting low-effort Hacker News comments and the other half feeling bad for doing it, you wouldn't be wondering that.

[kypro]

I wasn't denying that people can be addicted to the internet, my comment was in response to whether what the parent commenter was saying is even that analogous to addiction.

Internet addiction is a term that seems to get thrown around a lot these days, especially at kids and teens, but I think what people tend to label internet addiction isn't really an addiction at all or even directly damaging -- it's just people understandably wanting to take advantage of having access to the internet and smart phones to stay connected to friends or to entertain themselves. If it gets to the point where kids aren't doing school work, or if an adult rather play video games than get a job, then sure that's a problem. But if a guy likes to come home from work and spend 80% of his evening catching up with friends on Facebook and playing video games I don't think that's an any less valid way to spend an evening than say reading a fiction book. And again, we don't accuse people who spend most of their free time reading sci-fi books as being addicts, even if taking their sci-fi books from them would send them into a state of withdrawal while they found something else to replace their reading "addiction" with.

[Mezzie]

> Again, we don't accuse people who spend most of their free time reading sci-fi books as being addicts, even if taking their sci-fi books from them would send them into a state of withdrawal while they found something else to replace their reading "addiction" with.

Parents and adults did do this back in the 90s, at least to me. I read books when I didn't have computer access and both were considered 'problems'. I had books taken away and was forbidden from reading because I would rather do that than socialize. I know I'm not the only one either.

[alexvoda]

By the same logic, aren't some people addicted to socialising? But I never heard it be called that.

[_dain_]

>For example, when my car is at the garage I feel like I'm going through a kind of drug withdrawal. It really bothers that I can't just jump in my car and go somewhere and instead I now need to catch a bus or walk. Before having a car this would have been normal to me, but am I now addicted to my car or is it more that having a car is really convenient and now I'm experience the inconvenience of not having access to one?

"Addiction" is probably not the right way of framing it, since it applies more to the place you live rather than some aspect of your character. The place you live may be car-dependent, if walking/cycling/public transport are not adequate substitutes even temporarily.

[soylentcola]

Not to be too pedantic, but isn't "addiction" essentially a state of having adjusted to something to a point where its removal causes some level of distress?