Not an Addict?

I’m Hannah Weinerman and as a freshman, I’m still getting used to all the elements of Cornell and college itself. Last year I deferred my admission, spending it in Israel, which was unbelievable but makes it that much harder to get back into the habit of seriously working. I’m from Long Island, NY, like a typical Cornell kid (which I really didn’t think was true until I got here). I’m in ILR, hopefully going into public policy and quickly learning that the hype about all the reading is unfortunately accurate.

As a new member to the world of blogging, I find the whole concept of what Wallace calls an “asynchronous discussion forum” a bit bizarre. It’s extremely weird to think that a heated debate, let’s say for example why Team Aniston is better than Team Jolie, could be played out over a couple of weeks. It loses that momentum which is the excitement of a debate. We now live in the world of instant gratification and when things are so easily available, the slightest waiting period seems like the most interminable experience. What happens when you finally text your crush and you agonize until he or she finally responds? Coming from the perspective of being a little neurotic myself, not getting a response in that situation would have myriad of implications ranging from that person must not even want to talk to me or to just feeling rejected.

This idea of instant gratification got me thinking about the phenomenon of Internet addiction. I realized how much time I was spending online, when I once was procrastinating writing a paper, and all of a sudden I was on my Facebook looking at all 300 of my best friend’s pictures from Binghamton. I’ve heard stories from friends about how they are addicted to “MUDs” like “The Sims” and sometimes don’t move from their computers for almost eight hours. The fact that researchers are trying to get Internet Addiction Disorder (which originally was a fake disease posted by Dr. Ivan Goldberg to comment on the new phenomenon) added to the list of Mental Disorders is a clear indication Internet Addiction can really hinder people’s daily activities.

I don’t what sucks other people into the Internet. In my own encounters online, one major draw is that unless you blatantly make it known, no one knows what website you’re visiting or how much time you linger there for. It’s an almost creepy but captivating feeling when you get a voyeuristic glimpse into someone’s world and they’ll never find out what you saw. As cliché as it is, the whole world is literally at your fingertips with a click of a button. How much more instant gratification could you ask for?