Addicted? Really?

上瘾了？真的？

 

The internet Mental-health specialists disagree over whether to classify compulsive online behaviour as addiction – and how to treat it

互联网：强迫性上网行为是否是网瘾，该如何治疗？心理健康专家对此说法不一

 

Craig Smallwood, a disabled American war veteran, spent more than 20,000 hours over five years playing an online role-playing game called “Lineage II”. When NCsoft, the South Korean firm behind the game, accused him of breaking the game’s rules and banned him, he was plunged into depression, severe paranoia and hallucinations. He spent three weeks in hospital. He sued NCsoft for fraud and negligence, demanding over $9m in damages and claiming that the company acted negligently by failing to warn him of the danger that he would become “addicted” to the game.

 

克莱格·斯莫尔伍德是美国一位残疾退伍军人，五年中有20000个小时都泡在网上，沉浸在一个叫做“天堂II”的线上角色扮演游戏中。当韩国游戏开发商NCSoft公司控诉克莱格违反游戏规则并将其注销后，克莱格极度抑郁，并陷入严重的偏执和幻想中。住院三周后，克莱格控告NCSoft公司欺诈和疏忽，声称该公司没有告诫其游戏“网瘾”的危害，要求获得9百万美元的赔偿金。

 

But does it make sense to talk of addiction to online activity Mental-health specialists say three online behaviours can become problematic for many people video games, pornography and messaging via e-mail and social networks. But there is far less agreement about whether any of this should be called “internet addiction” – or how to treat it.

 

但是线上行为是否就一定会导致网瘾呢？精神健康专家认为三种线上行为有可能对人们有害：电子游戏、色情以及电子邮件和社交网络。然而，对于其他行为是否能被称为所谓的“网瘾”以及如何治疗，专家们至今还不能达成统一。

 

Some mental-health specialists wanted “internet addiction” to be included in the fifth version of psychiatry’s bible, the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”, known as DSM-V, which is currently being overhauled. The American Medical Association endorsed the idea in 2007, only to backtrack days later. The American Journal of Psychiatry called internet addiction a “common disorder” and supported its recognition. Last year the DSM-V drafting group made its decision internet addiction would not be included as a “behavioural addiction” – only gambling made the cut – but it said further study was warranted.

 

一些精神健康专家认为应将“网瘾”列入新近改版的第五版精神病学圣经——《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》（第五版DSM）中。美国医学协会（ASA）在2007年就曾表示支持这一想法，但几天后却又改口。《美国精神病学杂志》将网瘾视作一种“普通疾病”，并支持普及网瘾知识。去年，第五版DSM起草小组决定：网瘾将不会被列入“行为上瘾”——只有赌博加入其列——但小组表示研究将会进一步开展。

 

Sceptics say there is nothing uniquely addictive about the internet. Back in 2000 Joseph Walther, a communications professor at Michigan State University, co-wrote an article in which he suggested, tongue in cheek, that the criteria used to call someone an internet addict might also show that most professors were “addicted” to academia. He argued that other factors, such as depression, are the real problem. He stands by that view today. “No scientific evidence has emerged to suggest that internet use is a cause rather than a consequence of some other sort of issue,” he says. “Focusing on and treating people for internet addiction, rather than looking for underlying clinical issues, is unwise.”

 

怀疑论者认为，互联网并无让人上瘾的特性。2000年时，密西根州立大学传播学教授约瑟夫·沃尔瑟在与他人合写的一篇文章中开玩笑似地说道，如果按照所谓的网瘾标准，大部分的教授也可以叫做“学术上瘾”了。约瑟夫还表示，其他的因素，比如抑郁，才是真正需要解决的问题。约瑟夫至今还坚信该观点。“所谓使用互联网是问题的起因，而不是因其他因素造成的结果，这一点并无科学证实。”他说道，“如果只关注并着手治疗网瘾者，而不寻找其他隐藏的临床因素，是很不明智的做法。”

 

Others disagree. “That would be wrong,” says Kimberly Young, a researcher and therapist who has worked on internet addiction since 1994. She insists that the internet, with its powerfully immersive environments, creates new problems that people must learn to navigate.

 

反对的声音同样存在。从1994年便开始研究网瘾的研究者兼临床医学家金伯利·杨说道：“这种说法可能有误。”她坚持认为，互联网上强大广阔的空间，滋生出许多新问题，人们必须学习如何解决这些问题。

 

No one disputes that online habits can turn toxic. Take South Korea, where ubiquitous broadband means that the average high-school student plays video games for 23 hours each week. In 2007 the government estimated that around 210,000 children needed treatment for internet addiction. Last year newspapers around the globe carried the story of a South Korean couple who fed their infant daughter so little that she starved to death. Instead of caring for the child, the couple spent most nights at an internet café, sinking hours into a role-playing game in which they raised, fed and cared for a virtual daughter. And several South Korean men have died from exhaustion after marathon, multi-day gaming sessions.

 

上网有弊端已是公认事实。以韩国为例，宽带普及导致高中生平均每周花23小时玩线上游戏。2007年，韩国政府估计近21万的儿童需要接受网瘾治疗。去年，全球的报刊都报道了一对韩国夫妻因喂养不足导致女婴死亡的新闻。这对夫妻因为整夜泡在网吧里，沉浸在一个线上喂养和照顾女儿的虚拟游戏中，根本没有时间照顾真正的女儿。另有几名韩国男性因长时间沉浸于线上游戏劳累过度而死。

 

The South Korean government has since asked game developers to adopt a gaming curfew for children, to prevent them playing between midnight and 8am. It has also opened more than 100 clinics for internet addiction and sponsored an “internet rescue camp” for serious cases.

 

此后，韩国政府要求游戏开发商采取电玩宵禁，禁止儿童在半夜到早晨8点之间玩游戏。同时，政府还增开了100家网瘾治疗诊所，并资助针对严重案例展开的“网瘾拯救营”活动。

 

But compulsive behaviour is not limited to gamers. E-mail or web-use behaviours can also show signs of addiction. Getting through a business lunch in which no one pulls out a phone to check their messages now counts as a minor miracle in many quarters. A deluge of self-help books, most recently “Alone Together” by Sherry Turkle, a social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offer advice on how to unplug.

 

但强迫性行为并不仅仅是玩游戏。电子邮件和其他网络行为也可能导致上瘾。很多时候，如果一个商业午餐中没有一个人拿出手机查邮件的话，就已经是个小奇迹了。现在有许多自救书目，包括最近MIT社会学家谢里·特尔可的《一起孤独》，提供了如何摆脱上述强迫性行为的方法。

 

Pornography is hardly new, either, but the internet makes accessing it much easier than ever before. When something can be summoned in an instant via broadband, whether it is a game world, an e-mail inbox or pornographic material, it is harder to resist. New services lead to new complaints. When online auction sites first became popular, talk of “eBay addiction” soon followed. Dr Young says women complain to her now about addiction to Facebook – or even to “FarmVille”, a game playable only within Facebook.

 

色情作品由来已久，但是网络让人们更易接触到色情资源。无论是游戏还是电子邮件，或是色情资源，只要能够通过宽带轻松获得，人们就更难抵挡其诱惑。新型的服务滋生新抱怨。当初线上拍卖开始流行时，随之而来的是“eBay上瘾”的说法。杨博士表示，现在很多女性向她抱怨，Facebook和只能在Facebook上玩的“FarmVille”游戏让她们非常上瘾。

 

Treatment centres have popped up around the world. In 2006 Amsterdam’s Smith & Jones facility billed itself as “the first and, currently, the only residential video-game treatment program in the world”. In America the reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program claims to treat internet addiction, gaming addiction, and even “texting addiction”. In China, meanwhile, military-style “boot camps” are the preferred way to treat internet problems. After several deaths, however, scrutiny of the camps has intensified.

 

这样一来，治疗中心在全球如雨后春笋般出现。2006年，位于阿姆斯特丹的史密斯与琼斯治疗中心自称其为“目前世界上第一家也是唯一一家居住式线上游戏治疗中心”。美国reSTART网瘾康复项目声称能治疗网瘾、游戏瘾，甚至还有“短信瘾”。而在中国，人们更倾向于通过军事化“训练营”戒除网瘾。但是，经过几起受训者死亡事件之后，对训练营的监管也更加严格。

 

Yet many people like feeling permanently connected. As Arikia Millikan, an American blogger, once put it, “If I could be jacked in at every waking hour of the day, I would, and I think a lot of my peers would do the same.” Bob LaRose, an internet specialist at Michigan State University, doesn’t believe her. In his research on college students, he found that most sense when they are “going overboard and restore self-control”. Less than 1% have a pathological problem, he adds. For most people, internet use “is just a habit – and one that brings us pleasure.”

 

许多人喜欢一直保持连接的感觉。就像美国一位博主阿里克亚·米里坎曾经说过，“如果可以的话，我愿意在我醒着的每时每刻都在线，我相信很多同龄人也是一样的。”然而，密歇根州立大学互联网专家鲍勃·拉罗斯表示质疑。在他对大学生的研究中，鲍勃发现当学生们“一旦玩的太过头了，就会开始自控。”只有不到1%的学生会出现病态的问题，鲍勃补充道。对于大部分人来说，使用网络“只是一种习惯——并且是一种带来快乐的习惯。”

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