Easy to fall into electronic addiction

This morning my husband admitted to me he was a heroin addict.

Well, not exactly. What he actually said was that to him, the Internet is as addictive as heroin is to a heroin addict.

"I go into my computer with a single purpose - to find specific information on something I want to know about. I think I'm only going to look at one site for a few minutes. Instead, I keep finding threads that lead me to other places … then to more sites. Before I know it, I've been sitting at the computer for much longer than I had intended," he told me.

I know that is true because I often find myself waiting for him to do something, but he's lost. Lost in the Internet.

Sometimes, when I am expecting him to meet me at a specific time and place, he shows up late. Very late. His explanation is always, "I got tied up."

I know what that means without having him elaborate. He got tied up by that great time stealer - the Internet.

I understand because on occasion I find it happening to me.

What started off as a good work habit was turning into an addiction for me.

When I turn in my newspaper stories I've learned to keep checking my email because my editor often wants more information or photos. Sometimes he sends an email asking me to cover something taking place that weekend. The event was sometimes over before I got around to checking my email.

So I developed the habit of checking it every day. Then it became several times a day. Eventually I found myself checking it so often it bordered on being obsessive.

Obsession is the word for what can happen when we develop a passion for the technological wonder we call "the Internet."

On one hand, I give full praise to all that the Internet offers. I am often grateful for all the information at my fingertips, and frankly, I would never want to do without it.

Without going into detail, I can say there were times when information I gained from the Internet saved me - saved me from surgery with little chance of helping, saved me from making medical mistakes or saved me from dumb purchases.

I have some friends who tell me they refuse to use the family computer, even for email.

"I refuse to get involved in all that technology, said one woman who recently moved to our neighborhood. Yet, she asks me to call her whenever we have a community happening - which is at least every week.

I did it for a while before I finally told her she needed to check our neighborhood Facebook page or have her husband do it because there is often information she would want.

When you don't use the easy technology at our disposal, you miss out on a lot. On the other hand, you don't fall victim to the time stealer we call "the Internet."

Often, when my husband tries to tell me about a story he's reading in The Wall Street Journal, I say, "I know. I read it on the Internet."

That's because I was in the habit of going there way too much. It took a while for me to realize I was in danger of the same addiction that grips so many of us.

It started innocently enough. My community has a most helpful Facebook page that gets daily contributions from many of our 4,000 members.

It's a place where I can find what classes are being offered, what social events are taking place and what's going on in our neighborhood. Photos of fox, deer, bear, snakes and alligators greet me every day, including one photo of an alligator that crawled into a neighborhood hot tub and couldn't get out.

But it's just so easy to go from enjoying something to being addictive to it.

Experts tells us there's an epidemic of addiction to video games and the Internet, especially in teens and young adults.

They tell us there is very real evidence that people of all age are suffering from compulsive use of video and computer games.

What happens is that "gamers," as we call them, stop all other activities in order to sit there and play. They stop socializing with friends and let their work slide.

We all probably know young adults whose entire world seems to be the Internet or video games.

I know some students who failed classes and young adults who lost jobs because all they wanted to do was stay up all night and play games. Then they are too tired the next day to function.

Staying home turns into playing more games, and it's a vicious cycle.

I also know a certain grandson who couldn't come to the phone for a few minutes when I called to ask what he wanted for Christmas. He said he was "in the middle of a game."

According to Psychology Today, Internet and gaming addiction is associated with structural and functional changes in the brain. There are changes in emotional processing, executive attention, decision making and cognitive control.

Want to know more? Go to the easy source of instant information - the Internet itself. The Internet has a lot to teach us. But it won't teach us how not to become another electronic addict.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.