Internet addiction even worries Silicon Valley | Facebook considers showing page views

Internet addiction even worries Silicon Valley | Technology | The Observer

• Although the idea of a clinical disorder of internet addiction was first mooted in the 90s and is now regularly treated by doctors on both sides of the Atlantic, attention is shifting from compulsive surfing to the effects of the all-pervasive demands that our phones, laptops, tablets and computers are making on us.
• Psychologists are deeply worried about the effects digital relationships are having on real ones. Facebook is working on plans to curb anonymous "stalking" by allowing users to see who has visited any group of which they are a member ? with the possibility in future of extending that to allow people to see who has looked at their page. "Checking Facebook to see what the ex is doing becomes a drug," according to psychologist Seth Meyers, who said the checking could quickly decline into obsessive-compulsive behaviour (http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/7286795/Facebook-stalkers-may-be-outed)
• However, some doubt the notion of technology addiction, pointing instead to the rising demands of the workplace, where employees are working longer hours and then going home still tethered to devices pinging them emails and messages. "Are we addicted to gadgets or indentured to work?" asks Alexis Madrigal, a writer for the Atlantic. "Much of our compulsive connectedness? is a symptom of a greater problem, not the problem itself."