Yesterday, I spent an interesting half hour at the BBC World Service studio at Connaught Place, for a panel discussion on internet addiction for Newshour.
On the panel were two psychiatrists who are lobbying for internet addiction to be recognized as a medical disease, and a recovering internet gaming addict.
I was the only voice of sanity and insisted that the internet is a medium, just like paper is. What people do on the internet is more important than the very act of logging on to the internet itself. Reading, studying, working, writing on the internet isn’t very different from doing it offline. Similarly, watching porn, or gambling or whiling away time online isn’t very different from doing it offline.
I finished by saying that I’m more worried about children spending hours in front of the Cartoon Network on the television and would be delighted if my children join Facebook before they start going to school.
I had earlier expressed similar views in a Mail Today story on internet addiction.
