Am I addicted to the pub if I spend all my evenings there? Am I addicted to my car because I use it everyday?

The TV people asked me what criteria I would use to define “internet addiction”. I’m no psychologist, but I don’t think it is easy to come up with a list of objective criteria for it. It all depends what role use of the internet plays for the person in question.

There is one criteria, though, which I think is sufficient but not necessary: when somebody starts lying about how much they use the internet, then it would be an indicator that at some level, they know their usage of this tool is problematic.

I’m online (laptop and treo) for all practical purposes 7/24 … so am I an addict, or is that just the way life is (and, btw, I think I live a pretty full and active life apart from the connectedness, too — lots of outside interest, friends and family).

So they started talking about a week. That would make things more complicated, because I use the computer as a tool a lot. Think “a week without my car” — a lot of things need to be organised differently. But worst, I need my computer professionnally.

So, am I addicted?