Kramer Solinsky wakes up to a pretty cool world every morning.
One of the first things he does when he hops out of bed is pick out his weapon.
His favourite is the traditional sword and shield. Sometimes, when he’s feeling a little unconventional, he’ll go for a giant spear instead.
His attire is a tad medieval. He often opts for head-to-toe body armour because it offers the most protection – just in case.
A quick thrust of his sword and another one bites the dust.
“It’s a good feeling when you kill one,” he says.
But all Solinsky is killing is time.
According to Dr. David Greenfield, author of Virtual Addiction and director of the Centre for Internet and Technology Addiction at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Solinsky has a classic case of web addiction.
He lives for hours a day as a sword-wielding, dungeon-roaming, monster-vanquishing rock star, taking time away from family, skipping out on friends and losing marks on school work to live in his world of monsters and villains, dungeons and heroes – the fake, online world that he wakes up in and goes to sleep with.
“I would rather be playing online than anything else,” he says. “I’m not addicted or anything though.”
“Sometimes it’s just too hard to log off.”
Solinsky is not alone.
Greenfield says that in our plugged in, turned on, and wired up society, web addiction is an ever-increasing problem threatening social relationships and, in some cases, lives.
“Over 65 per cent of people who use online technology will become addicted,” he says.
“The Internet has taken over people’s lives and taken them out of the real world.”
Web addiction has also had deadly consequences.
Earlier this month, a South Korean couple let their three-month-old daughter starve to death while they fed and exercised a virtual child.
In 2007, a similar case happened in the U.S. with an American couple becoming so immersed in the virtual realm that their 22-month-old son and 11-month-old daughter were almost fatally malnourished.
“These cases are not rare,” says Greenfield.
“The Internet is like a drug that numbs us and causes us to lose touch with reality and real communication. We have to start limiting ourselves.”
But telling people that they should wean themselves off the technology they have come to depend on is like telling a crack addict to quit cold turkey.
Odds are they won’t be able to do it and most won’t even want to. The Internet keeps us constantly informed and connects us with people all around the world.
And those are good things, right?
Right. But perhaps it’s true that you can have too much of a good thing.
“Of course the Internet has had many positive impacts,” says Dr. Hilarie Cash, co-founder of web addiction recovery program Restart, and co-author of Video Games and Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control.
“But the problem is the more we rely on online communication, the more people are going to sacrifice real life for onscreen life.”
Cash says the problem of web addiction is only going to get worse as time goes on, and today’s youth, the first generation to grow up fully plugged in, gets older.
According to her, society has to begin fighting the problem now before we live in a world where typing and texting are the only ways we talk to one another.
Steps are being taken.
An Internet therapy program for kids addicted to the Internet just opened in London, England.
The American Journal of Psychiatry is arguing for web addiction to be included in the next Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, used by doctors to diagnose psychiatric conditions worldwide.
And in South Korea, where more than two million people are Internet addicts and a virtual baby was nourished instead of a real one, the government is developing free software that will limit Internet access to a healthy level.
It’s going to take more than that though, according to Greenfield.
“People need to stop getting so wrapped up in the Internet and get out there and have real, face-to-face communication, not just through Twitter and Facebook,” he says.
“Or else, Internet addiction is easily one of the biggest social problems facing the 21st century.”