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We can think of lots of adjectives for people who check their iPhones mid-conversation, or in the movies, or while walking on a crowded sidewalk: “Obnoxious” springs to mind. So does “oblivious.”
But now there may be a new way of looking at them: These poor souls are suffering from a debilitating psychological condition known as “Internet use disorder.”
“It’s about time!” says Hilarie Cash, founder of reSTART, the country’s only full-service rehab center devoted exclusively to Internet addiction (and based in Washington state). The term will be officially added to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM-5, when the latest edition comes out in May, and the announcement has been stirring up some controversy over what constitutes “addiction.”
After all, aren’t most of us sort of hooked on being online in some way or other? Take a look around you in Manhattan, and chances are at least half of the people you see will be buried in their phone screens. And with the NYC tech boom in recent years — the number of IT jobs here has risen 30 percent since 2007 — we’re a prime demographic for Internet use disorder. But we’re certainly not the only ones.
“I think in this digital age, the majority of Americans are mildly addicted to technology,” Cash confirms. “Think how you feel if you forget your phone at home. You start going into withdrawal and feel anxious.” Eventually, though, it is usually possible to go about your day normally, she says.
“But if you’re heavily addicted, like the gamers who come to reSTART, it takes a minimum of three weeks to go through detox,” she says. “You have irritability, anger — people can become violent. Poor sleeping, jittery nerves, sometimes a little bit of shakiness or an upset stomach.”
Chelsea-based comedian Dan Nainan, a self-confessed Internet addict, says he’s familiar with over-the-top gamer behavior. “I’ve known people who literally spend all their time on “ ‘World of Warcraft,’ ” says Nainan, 31. “I have a friend who wants to divorce her husband because all he does is ‘WoW.’ ”
Also, studies are finding that — like many other addictions — there are side effects to Internet overuse, like the new report from the University of Pittsburgh finding that people who spent the most time on Facebook were most likely to be overweight and poor.
But Nainan, who owns five computers and describes his Internet use as “all day every day,” is using his own compulsion to his financial advantage. As The Post discovered firsthand, part of his addiction is trolling the Internet for opportunities to publicize himself.
This level of obsessiveness doesn’t leave a lot of time for having a normal life, Nainan admits. “You go to dinner [with a date] and they’re like, ‘Pay attention to me and not your phone!’ ” he says.
That kind of behavior is a red flag for professionals like Art Bowler, a psychologist who treats Internet addiction in his Manhattan practice with talk therapy (similar to the way in which other compulsive behaviors are treated).
“I think when it becomes a problem is when it starts impacting everyday life and social functioning with other people,” he says. “People are not going out, not leaving their houses. They can’t not surf the Web at work. I think in many ways there is an obsessive compulsive component to this.”
OCD or not, Nainan doesn’t seem in a hurry to check himself in for Internet detox. Nor does Kate Conway, a blogger for the site xoJane who penned the recent post “Would I choose Twitter over having sex? Yeah, probably.”
“Twitter provides so much instant feedback that it’s kind of addictive for a wide-eyed attention whore like me,” Conway admits. “I could definitely see ‘Internet use disorder’ as a legitimate problem. It’s easy to convince yourself that if you unplug, even for a minute, you’ll miss something. It can cause a lot of anxiety.”
Young people are more susceptible than anyone: A 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that kids ages 8 to 18 spent on average 7 ½ hours or more a day using electronic devices. And a study of college students around the world, from the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda, found a universality of addict-withdrawal responses in students who attempted to stop their online usage for just one day.
Women, too, are at higher risk for addiction: A recent study from Germany’s University of Bonn found a genetic predisposition to both nicotine and Internet addiction that was more often located in women.
Case in point: 30-year-old Nicole, who works in publishing in Manhattan, and says that try as she might, she can’t stop checking Facebook.
“I check it all day. I can’t go an hour with being on it,” she says. “I think it actually makes me depressed and lonely, but I can’t stop. It’s like this empty hole of need. I go on to feel a connection and a sense of community and end up looking through the vacation photos from a seventh-grade acquaintance. That’s sort of lonely making.”
The bigger issue with Internet use disorder, says therapist Bowler, is that people are getting hooked on never, ever being alone with their thoughts. “You can avoid aloneness by watching porn, checking your bank account, e-mailing friends, Facebooking,” he says. “I think people panic, because nobody ever has to sit in silence anymore.”