Unit Three
Reading Selection One:
Young Cyber Addicts
By Amy Wu
The phenomena of sending letters to all of my high school friends with the touch of a button, and joining the "rec.music.Dylan" for diehard Dylan fans, transformed me into a shameless cyber addict in my freshman year.T
Like the hundreds of other addicts I made my nightly trip to the  computer lab, where a queue-shaped waiting line was already formed, my fingers itching to touch the keyboard and my mind already set on chatting with my online boyfriend R2D2. For weeks I gave up sunshine for a computer terminal. A whole new world was opening up before me until my "A" average in anthropology drifted to a mediocre "B." T
The Internet is becoming young America's latest addiction, especially on college campuses. The "Just Say No" to sex, drugs, and alcohol may soon be applicable to e-mail and surfing the information superhighway.* Blame it on the free e-mail accounts and easy access most colleges offer.T
A cyber addict is as easy to distinguish as a boastful alcoholic. They sit before a screen for hours laughing, talking and smiling at a screen, hopelessly lost in their own world. They proudly tell you that yes they do spend four hours a day in cyberspace, that yes they have a fruitful social life where they chat with friends with names like KillBarney, that yes they put off major papers so they can keep up with their e-mail correspondence.T
When asked what they would do if the school took away their most prized possession they gasp and turn pale with the possibility. "If I didn't have access I'd have to get a life,"* a junior said with a nervous laugh.T
For others it would be more of an inconvenience than a total loss. "I wouldn't freak, some people would just freak," a freshman said. Others say that they would just buy a modem. All they have to do is log on to the school's system, still free of cost.T
The temptation of entering cyberspace is great for many young people. It's a cheap and quick alternative to snail mail (the kind with a stamp). The "Talk" channel bears a close resemblance to the telephone. Logging onto the Net allows you to chat with as many as thirty people at the same time.Australia and Africa are made through the "soc.penpals." Love at first byte is even a possibility.* My girl-friend and a cyberfriend went out to a café after meeting each other online. Unfortunately conversation over cappuccino didn't make them compatible, and they never e-mailed each other again.T
The Internet is a channel for the curious. With the click of a mouse the Dead Sea scrolls can be viewed, the President's health care plan will appear, and letters to editors or to cyberzines can be written.T
For a generation accustomed to fast music, fast food, and quick results, the Internet is a perfect match—it's easy, it's fast, it's fun, it's free. It is also addictive and as dangerous as it is educational.T
For a generation accustomed to fast music, fast food, and quick results, the Internet is a perfect match—it's easy, it's fast, it's fun, it's free. It is also addictive and as dangerous as it is educational.T
There are stories of young people who have disappeared into the computer, who become so addicted that they cybersurf for nine or ten hours and continue into the night. There is always one or two of these hopeless addicts in the lab. They have glazed expressions on their faces and if you wave to them they think you're an imaginary creature of virtual reality instead of reality.T
The Dead Sea scrolls aren't addictive, but mudding—a Dungeons and Dragons type game—and checking how many e-mail messages you've received is. One young woman tearfully told me how she became addicted.T
"Oh I was bad," she said. "I wouldn't count the hours I would just be there." She and her channel friends would chat about everything from Nine Inch Nails's newest album to rumors of Kurt Cobain's ghost. Her addiction reminded me of my addicted roommate who begged me to hold her computer card for a week after she had done poorly on a mid-term because she spent the previous night on the Internet. Needless to say the week didn't last.* T
Another young woman, whose grades dripped from 3.3 to 2.5 after getting hooked on the Internet tried to explain. "I didn't stop studying," she said, "you just like get addicted to it. You're so into the conversation you don't want to get off and study, you just study less." It's a typical response from a cyber addict.T
These young people are drawn into a world where they are connected to the world but sadly disconnected to their environment.* Many have lost friends and a social life which includes going to the movies or out for pizza. Some haven't talked on the pone and written a letter for a year. Many have given up school activities, student government, and sports.T
Earlier this year my suitemate's boyfriend even called my room and told me to tell her to get off the computer so he could talk to her. "Get off the computer!" I screamed. "Don't bother me!" she shot back. The boyfriend was terribly upset and threatened to throw her computer out the window.T
Many addicts lock themselves in coffin-styled dorm rooms and spend sunny days staring at a screen for hours until that glazed is achieved.T
If only colleges charged Internet use per hour, if only accounts were given out on the basis of need, if only hours were limited, then maybe horror stories about young people who have failed classes because of too much e-mail, who have disappeared in the mudding world, who haven't spoken to a human being in a week, who haven't felt the sun in days, and who are proud of all the above, wouldn't exist.T
As seemingly great as free access on the information superhighway may seem to prospective students and parents, the dangers and damage it can cause outweigh the positives.T
"I know some people who had to cut down because they developed carpal tunnel syndrome," one young woman said. She stared at her own atrophying wrists, the result of one too many hours chatting with the "Mystery Theater 3000," smiled sweetly, and said she had to finish e-mailing Darth Vader, her new online boyfriend. It was just another sad story from a young cyber addict.T
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