Case Studies

Case study 1
Robin prides herself on her discipline. A 29-year-old public relations consultant, she works hard and takes care of herself: healthy food, regular exercise; plenty of rest. Until recently she went to bed at 10 P.M. every night to make sure she’d get her full eight hours sleep before her alarm rang at 6 A.M. That left her plenty of time for her morning jog and a leisurely breakfast before heading off to work at 7:45.

A few months ago, Robin subscribed to America Online and quickly discovered chat rooms. The first few times she only visited for an hour or so, finding the chat rooms a pleasant diversion. But then she stumbled upon a few groups of people who sounded more like her, and she began to engage in fascinating discussions about business, travel, movies, photography, and relationships. So much for discipline.
“Now I stay up until at least 2 A.M. every night,” she admits. “I never intend to stay on that long, but every night it’s the same.”

In the morning, Robin hits the snooze button on her alarm several times before dragging herself out of bed. There’s no time for morning jogs, and those leisurely breakfasts are gone, replaced by the bagel she grabs as she runs out the door. She arrives at work exhausted, and those bursts of creativity that once flowed easily on the job when her mind was fresh and clear seldom come to her anymore. Where she used to limit herself to two cups of coffee in the morning, now she needs six or seven just to get her through to lunch. When she staggers home, she knows that she should go to bed early to catch up on her rest, but by 8:30 P.M. she’s back in cyberspace, where she quickly forgets those rational ideas about sleep.
“One time,” Robin recalls, “I stayed on-line so long that I heard the birds singing and could see the sun rising out my window before I realized it was 6 A.M. – time to get up.”

Case study 2
Scott, a 19 year old second year college student, inducted an interview at the counseling center in his college. He came to this small but well established engineering/technical school in the northeastern United States, after initially being rejected by one of the military service academies. He achieved good academic results in the first three semesters, but began to face difficulty in the second semester of his second year. During this semester, he began to experience symptoms such as depressed mood, changes in his sleep-work schedule, frequent absence from class, poor academic achievements, and dispute with his parents. Scott was able to discuss his recent problems, but he was either unwilling or unable to identify the possible cause of his problems. During direct questioning, Scott unwillingly confessed that he spent close to 2000 hours engaging in an online Multi-user Dimension (MUD) during the semester. MUDs are mostly games “inhabited” by a fluctuating number of people who communicate with each other in a text-based format. MUD members can logon from any computer terminals in the world.

As Scott continued to discuss his participation in the MUD, it became increasingly evident that he was having difficulty retracting from the community, even at the cost of his academic preparation. Scott would still look for other ways to connect to his MUD community even when he is out of the campus. Scott acknowledged that the MUD was his main medium of interpersonal communication; in fact, he did not know his next-door neighbors whom he lived with for an entire year. Contrastingly, Scott drove 1900 miles instead to meet up a woman he met on MUD.

In addition, Scott showed other measures of dependence. Scott noted that his statistics of Internet usage uncovered the propensity to stay online for increasing amounts of time. He also admitted that, on a few circumstances, he had made unsuccessful attempts to reduce his Internet usage. Finally, Scott also admitted that he had pulled out from engaging in his hobbies in addiction to his academic coursework. Despite a period of initial denial, Scott became aware that he would be academically expelled - yet his MUD use continued.

It is clear that not only is Scott heavily influenced by his need to connect to the Web to engage in MUD activities, Scott had also turned the Web into his main channel of social interaction, sacrificing interpersonal contact with those near him or more immediately in touch with him. Scott had not only displayed the symptoms of a regular Internet addict, he is beginning to suffer the harm caused by the virtual realm too, and the price he had to pay were real-world problems such as being expelled from college.