Mobile Internet Addiction: A Personal Account Pt. 1

What is this?

It sounds like an internet meme, mobile Internet addiction.  I expected these words to be bolded up on a picture similar to Overly Attached Girlfriend, and Y U NO.  Yet, a quick Google search did not return quite as many articles on this topic as I expected.  I found a gazillion articles on internet addiction, and yet, the similarities between these two phenomena end at the word "addiction."  Maybe I'm uncovering a new phenomenon...perhaps many of you will read that last statement and tell me this has been going on for quite some time and it's nothing new.  Perhaps.  Yet, I don't find many people talking about this, let alone mental health professionals.

It's real.  It's pervasive.  It could be very dangerous.

I should know.  I'm living it.

In the beginning...

I can trace my beginnings with this phenomenon with my earliest introduction to the internet in the late 90's.  AOL, Prodigy, Yahoo!, et al...these were the once humble portals to untapped caches of information and worldwide connectivity that hard-wire telephones could never be.  The sound of a 2400 baud modem connecting to the 'net was a very reassuring sound that signaled unparalleled anticipation and excitement for what awaited for me on a Windows 3.1 machine and that bulky 14" CRT monitors running at max 800X600 resolution.  I couldn't wait for that final _screeeeeech_ sound to end, signifying a successfull connection and the ever famouns AOL "you got mail!" sound eminating from the tinny PC speaker, alerting me that my virtual pen pal has replied to my earlier message.

Back in the 80's I had actual paper pen pals, people with whom I corresponded with actual paper and pen letters, folded and stuffed in paper envelopes, sent via first class postal service, a seldom-used service currently used for nothing more than Chinese take-out coupons and the ever popular debt collection letter.  Back then delivery times ranged from 3 to 5 days for continental US deliveries to upwards of 3 weeks for international mail.  Then the person at the receiving end had to read the letter, pen their response, stuff their message in another envelope, and send it back.  Weeks could pass by before receiving a reply.  Long distance relationships were hell back in the day!

This was me everyday circa 1984-1989

(Sure, there was the telephone, but long distance calling then was an expensive endeavor, one to be used only in the direst of emergencies, unless you subscribed to MCI's "Friends and Family" program, which my friends and family did not.)

Now, information is shared in real time electronically via the internet through email, instant messaging, social networking, and SMS (text) messaging.  No more does one have to wait weeks for a reply...nowadays if a reply is not heard within 5 minutes desperation sets in.

(Telephone?  Nowadays long distance calling is free on landlines and mobile devices.  Didn't get an answer to your text in 5 minutes?  Call that person and find out what the holdup is?  (The only acceptable answer is that person is either mortally injured or their phone battery totally drained-and even then this last one was rather flimsy.))

Now that I've rambled on, you may ask yourself "what does all this have to do with mobile internet addiction?"  I shall elaborate more.

From those humble beginnings, instant information gratification and global communication access started to take a hold of me.  I was almost immediately hooked on that modem "SCREECH" sound and the feeling of relief when it would stop, indicating to me a successful connection was established.  AOL and Prodigy were my introduction to the Internet, and the sound of "You've Got Mail!" emanating from the tinny PC speaker was like a drug.  I was hooked.  

I had soooo many AOL cd-roms...they made great throwing stars!!!

I didn't think just how bad I got hooked on AOL until I found myself installing it on a work PC so that I could have access to it during work hours.  This, my friends, is the beginning of my Internet addiction...and it culminates to my current mobile Internet addiction.

...to be continued next week...