As9, Human Pets

Problematic Internet use is when a user no longer has the personal discipline to control his or her time spent online, which leads to an array of negative but some positive consequences. In this blog post I will refer to facebook and address a recent addiction I have had with the networking website. I few blog posts ago I wrote about my facebook and how one might interpret the type of person I am according to my facebook profile. This inspired me to spice up my profile according to the type of person I am to more accurately represent myself. In doing so I came across the sub networking application human pets on facebook. As explorative as I am I just had to check out this fascinating sounding program. Human Pets application is based on the idea that you can search for, care for, and buy/sell other people also using the application similar to a pet store. It of course is based on profile each user creates and pictures they can post of themselves. I soon started checking my human pets application many times a day to see if I had been sold, bought, if I had any new messages. Before I knew it my price had raised to 40 thousand points which is more than most people have. This was the result of 2 girls “fighting” over ownership of me. I wont lie this made me feel kind of “popular” in a way, and started my addiction to this fascinating new program known as Human Pets. Caplan in 2004 described Problematic Internet use as “problematic behavior related to too much time online.” Caplan believed that this problematic use resulted in only negatieve outcomes as a result. However as an actually PIU suffer I can assure those that wish to question me that not all outcomes are negative. Caplan’s theory of problematic internet use and psychosocial well being says that “Individuals with psychosocial problems hold negative perceptions about their social competence.” This part of the theory I can agree with in my situation to an extent. Before I really used the internet to talk with others I had a very negative view of myself and my image, however since then because of how I have been treated online my confidence has grown significantly and I am most of the time very comfortable in FtF social situations. The next part of Caplans theory says “These individuals prefer online interactions because it is less threatening and they feel more efficacious.” Again I agreed to this at first, but now I much prefer to meet people socially in FtF than online because of the huge amount more you can get to know faster about the person. Online you may talk to someone for a few days a couple hours a day and learn less then you can in one of two days of FtF interaction. The last part of Caplans theory says “Preference for online interactions leads to excessive and compulsive online interaction which then worsens their problems.” I totally disagree with this part of the theory, before I used to computer to initiate social interactions with people I was terrible at meeting someone and continuing a conversation. I was at the point where it was not even an option, but since I have spent time doing it online and building confidence I have been able to in FtF communication start and maintain many more interactions then before I practiced online. As closure to this post I stat that I do in fact disagree with Caplan more then I agree with his theories. Although I do understand how his theories could apply to someone fresh to the CMC world after time has been spent on there and real life FtF interactions have been experienced I believe that persons are able to more easily able to perform in the real world because of the practice they have had online. As I think about it, it is almost like school. You learn in the classroom in order to perform in the outside world, and with the cut down on field trips over the years apparently we don’t think that more and more time spent in a classroom environment will hurt your performance in the world. I see this classroom example and the Internet example as equals…