Gouglas Rushkoff : Online
Is the Internet a source of psychological problems, or does it provide a cure? For every book or article I read about the detrimental effects of spending time online, I see another listing sites where people can turn for psychological counselling.
I receive many letters from psychologists asking about the effect of the Internet on the psyche. There has been a lot of speculation, but not a lot of substantive research. The few reported cases of “Internet addiction” would have to count as anecdotal evidence and usually involve someone using the Internet as a way of avoiding some other life trouble.
If people have no one to talk to, it’s no wonder that they might get addicted to the Net. In fact, the only two people I’ve met who I would call addicted are both young mothers who, though great parents, long for some contact with human beings capable of speech.
While we can all lament the fact that many young people would rather socialise on the Net than in “real life”, we only have ourselves and our elected officials to blame for what led them to this sorry state. Bad urban planning has effectively de-socialised our communities, such as they are.
The other main accusation made against Internet users is that by developing alternative personas, they can fracture their own sense of self. A few books have emerged claiming that if people present themselves online as someone they are not – a man creating and playing the character of a little girl, for example – an identity crisis will ensue. I’m not entirely convinced that such role-playing isn’t healthy.
The Internet might be much more akin to a public dream space. Role-playing is a common form of social therapy. Rather than repressing our behaviours in the ether, we should invite even more daring forms of play within safely contained environments. Instead of blaming the Internet for eliciting perverse behaviours, we might look at what sorts of social repression in daily life leads people to vent their alter egos online.
I believe the Internet is itself psychologically curative. Mere participation in the right sorts of activities and conversations forces a level of social intimacy and self-observation that can’t help but teach us about ourselves and our ability to maintain relationships.
But many psychologists have decided to take this even further. An increasing number of psychological counselling sites have appeared on the Web and within subscription services like America OnLine. Some are simple peer-to-peer counselling groups on issues ranging from eating disorders to cancer. Others are hosted by professional therapists, who use private chat rooms for “group therapy”. Their clients pay.
Some psychologists accept patients who they never meet in real life, but simply counsel in one-on-one chats. Sites like Cyber shrink, Le Ritz Homepage, and Cyber Counselling Interactive Network offer the services of licensed therapists for about the same rate as live striptease sites. I doubt that they are any more curative. These therapists claim they can tell almost as much about a patient from their words as they could from being with them in person. As any of us who have been fooled on the Net can attest, that’s a pretty hard claim to back up.
No, the Internet itself is a form of social and psychological therapy. Unless you live in the Antarctic, to seek professional counselling online is redundant. c Douglas Rushkoff
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