Antisocial Behavior

I’ve always wondered if online addiction was a real disorder. The text in TLT made online compulsion and addiction seem less threatening than it is commonly believed to be, as it stated, “like cyberporn, the whole idea about ‘internet addition’ has been something of a moral panic.” The text also pointed out how the concept of Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) actually started as a joke by psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg in 1995. Since then, the idea of online addition as a disorder spread as parents became more watchful of the time and activities their children spent online and the emergence of ‘cyberwidows’—women whose husbands became absent due to their addiction to the internet. Joseph Walther and Larry Reid’s excerpt in the text also pokes fun at the concept of online addiction, as they compare internet addiction to their made-up disorder, acadaholism, a disease where one is addicted to academe. The text concludes the topic on online addiction with this: “If you call the internet addicting, then you have to call all powerful, evocative experience addicting.” TLT also takes a supporting stance on the internet for antisocial behavior. The text states how the internet can be “socially liberating” and the “Prozac of social communication.” I find it interesting and even a bit amusing how TLT is so one-sided and supportive of the internet, as the unit concludes with a positive description of the internet—“A great deal of what we do online today is productive, useful, and healthy.”

The online articles on Megan Meier, however, contrast dramatically with their perception of the internet. To summarize the story of Megan Meier, Megan’s friend’s mother created a Myspace account as an eighteen year old boy to first befriend, then bully the emotionally unstable Megan Meier. The constant bullying eventually caused Megan to commit suicide, and when word of this event got spread into the internet through Sarah Wells, a blogger, a cybermob outraged against the mother, whose name was Drew, ensued. This story is an extreme case of how the internet can be harmful, both for people like Megan who are socially dependant to it, and to people like Drew who eventually needed police protection from angry mobs that were spurred up by Sarah Well’s blog post. Though the internet can be “liberating,” “useful,” and “healthy,” the story of Megan Meier also shows how the internet can be harmful and destructive as well.


Discussion Questions

1. Did you think TLT’s stance on internet addiction was biased and too favorable of the internet? What is your take on internet addiction—do you think it is a real disorder?

2. In your opinion, do you think the internet is a cause to antisocial behavior or a remedy for it?

3.In connection to the last post on social cues and avatars, in what instance in the Megan Meier story do you recognize reduced social cues, avatars, or group dynamics in CMC?