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I have been giving a lot of thoughts into this for quite a few years now. A few years ago I went on a trip and ended up staying at a friend's house where he did

I have been giving a lot of thoughts into this for quite a few years now. A few years ago I went on a trip and ended up staying at a friend's house where he didn't any internet connection. There was Mobile Data available but where I was it was very expensive due to the data cap being 1GB at the time. Anyhow, being disconnected for like 3 days in a row felt like a drug user without their "fix". There was no way to connect to the internet so I could watch either news or talk to my loved ones via Skype (now you can see how many years ago this was) or just play some online game. It was a weird experience because after those 3 days it felt like I was in a coma, I was completely disconnected of everything that was going around having only the local newspaper in the nearby town to what was happening, and since it was just local/national news I had no idea what was happening in my home country. At the end of those holidays I ended up taking away that it's odd having your personal life and work life (I work remote) relying always on being "connected". Not just odd but it does feel like people who are used to it feel different once we don't have it anymore.

kypro 5y ago
Sometimes I wonder if the tech withdrawal people experience is more related to the inconvenience of not having tech like smart phones and computers, rather than an actual addiction. For example, when my car is at the garage I feel like I'm going through a kind of drug withdrawal. It really bothers that I can't just jump in my car and go somewhere and instead I now need to catch a bus or walk. Before having a car this would have been normal to me, but am I now addicted to my car or is it more that having a car is really convenient and now I'm experience the inconvenience of not having access to one? Similarly, when I'm home I rarely ever use my phone and it will often run out of battery without me noticing until I want to set my morning alarm before bed. But when I'm out of the house I get really stressed when my phone is low on battery or flat. Again, I don't think I'm addicted it's just annoying that I can't easily order a taxi or map my way to some place I need to go without a phone. Having a phone is an extremely useful tool when you're out of the house. I'm not denying some people have addictions, but I wonder why in general we don't see our relationship with other technologies in a similar way. Am I addicted to electric lights and central heating? When does a recognising and appreciating the connivance of a technology -- perhaps even to the point where you can't imagine living without it -- become an addiction? If it's having a negative impact your life then I get it, but recently there seems to be a push to label anyway -- even kids -- who simply enjoy using tech as "addicts".
- throwamon 5y ago
  If you spent over half your day watching cat videos and posting low-effort Hacker News comments and the other half feeling bad for doing it, you wouldn't be wondering that.
  - kypro 5y ago
    I wasn't denying that people can be addicted to the internet, my comment was in response to whether what the parent commenter was saying is even that analogous to addiction. Internet addiction is a term that seems to get thrown around a lot these days, especially at kids and teens, but I think what people tend to label internet addiction isn't really an addiction at all or even directly damaging -- it's just people understandably wanting to take advantage of having access to the internet and smart phones to stay connected to friends or to entertain themselves. If it gets to the point where kids aren't doing school work, or if an adult rather play video games than get a job, then sure that's a problem. But if a guy likes to come home from work and spend 80% of his evening catching up with friends on Facebook and playing video games I don't think that's an any less valid way to spend an evening than say reading a fiction book. And again, we don't accuse people who spend most of their free time reading sci-fi books as being addicts, even if taking their sci-fi books from them would send them into a state of withdrawal while they found something else to replace their reading "addiction" with.
    - Mezzie 5y ago
      > Again, we don't accuse people who spend most of their free time reading sci-fi books as being addicts, even if taking their sci-fi books from them would send them into a state of withdrawal while they found something else to replace their reading "addiction" with. Parents and adults did do this back in the 90s, at least to me. I read books when I didn't have computer access and both were considered 'problems'. I had books taken away and was forbidden from reading because I would rather do that than socialize. I know I'm not the only one either.
      - alexvoda 5y ago
indigochill 5y ago
That's an interesting anecdote compared to my experience disappearing to a cottage in northern Finland for a few days. At home I spend -way- too many hours on the computer pretty much constantly. But when I went to the cottage, I forgot about all of that and I was just in the moment. Admittedly I was with someone I was interested in and we were basically always out doing something, which is a different experience than when I go visit family and there are long stretches where I'm left to my own devices (at which point I usually go back to a computer), so maybe the social engagement (and how we fill lack thereof with internet connectivity?) is the common factor?
323 5y ago
Some cognitive scientists are saying that smartphones are extensions of our mind/body now, so taking them away is like taking away the artificial limb of an amputee - it makes you feel incapacitated. Some go further, and say that taking away smartphones from prisoners for example could be classified as psychological torture.
- bumby 5y ago
  Are there any citations to back up those claims?

kypro 5y ago

Sometimes I wonder if the tech withdrawal people experience is more related to the inconvenience of not having tech like smart phones and computers, rather than an actual addiction. For example, when my car is at the garage I feel like I'm going through a kind of drug withdrawal. It really bothers that I can't just jump in my car and go somewhere and instead I now need to catch a bus or walk. Before having a car this would have been normal to me, but am I now addicted to my car or is it more that having a car is really convenient and now I'm experience the inconvenience of not having access to one? Similarly, when I'm home I rarely ever use my phone and it will often run out of battery without me noticing until I want to set my morning alarm before bed. But when I'm out of the house I get really stressed when my phone is low on battery or flat. Again, I don't think I'm addicted it's just annoying that I can't easily order a taxi or map my way to some place I need to go without a phone. Having a phone is an extremely useful tool when you're out of the house. I'm not denying some people have addictions, but I wonder why in general we don't see our relationship with other technologies in a similar way. Am I addicted to electric lights and central heating? When does a recognising and appreciating the connivance of a technology -- perhaps even to the point where you can't imagine living without it -- become an addiction? If it's having a negative impact your life then I get it, but recently there seems to be a push to label anyway -- even kids -- who simply enjoy using tech as "addicts".

throwamon 5y ago
If you spent over half your day watching cat videos and posting low-effort Hacker News comments and the other half feeling bad for doing it, you wouldn't be wondering that.
- kypro 5y ago
  I wasn't denying that people can be addicted to the internet, my comment was in response to whether what the parent commenter was saying is even that analogous to addiction. Internet addiction is a term that seems to get thrown around a lot these days, especially at kids and teens, but I think what people tend to label internet addiction isn't really an addiction at all or even directly damaging -- it's just people understandably wanting to take advantage of having access to the internet and smart phones to stay connected to friends or to entertain themselves. If it gets to the point where kids aren't doing school work, or if an adult rather play video games than get a job, then sure that's a problem. But if a guy likes to come home from work and spend 80% of his evening catching up with friends on Facebook and playing video games I don't think that's an any less valid way to spend an evening than say reading a fiction book. And again, we don't accuse people who spend most of their free time reading sci-fi books as being addicts, even if taking their sci-fi books from them would send them into a state of withdrawal while they found something else to replace their reading "addiction" with.
  - Mezzie 5y ago
    > Again, we don't accuse people who spend most of their free time reading sci-fi books as being addicts, even if taking their sci-fi books from them would send them into a state of withdrawal while they found something else to replace their reading "addiction" with. Parents and adults did do this back in the 90s, at least to me. I read books when I didn't have computer access and both were considered 'problems'. I had books taken away and was forbidden from reading because I would rather do that than socialize. I know I'm not the only one either.
    - alexvoda 5y ago

indigochill 5y ago

That's an interesting anecdote compared to my experience disappearing to a cottage in northern Finland for a few days. At home I spend -way- too many hours on the computer pretty much constantly. But when I went to the cottage, I forgot about all of that and I was just in the moment. Admittedly I was with someone I was interested in and we were basically always out doing something, which is a different experience than when I go visit family and there are long stretches where I'm left to my own devices (at which point I usually go back to a computer), so maybe the social engagement (and how we fill lack thereof with internet connectivity?) is the common factor?

323 5y ago

Some cognitive scientists are saying that smartphones are extensions of our mind/body now, so taking them away is like taking away the artificial limb of an amputee - it makes you feel incapacitated. Some go further, and say that taking away smartphones from prisoners for example could be classified as psychological torture.

bumby 5y ago
Are there any citations to back up those claims?