Internet Addiction Leaves Man Homeless
Writer Winston Ross said that Internet addiction ruined his brother's life.
There's a lot of talk about Internet addiction lately, and there has even been mention of Internet addiction bootcamps opening in both China and here in the States. But is Internet addiction actually real? Ask a name simply known as "Andrew" who now sleeps in a tent thanks to the problem.
This report on Newsweek, written by Winston Ross, opens with his visit to the ReSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program center located in Fall City, Washington. He said that walking into one of the sessions was like walking into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. When asking for a Wi-Fi connection, he felt as if he was asking for a single-malt Scotch.
But the real story here is about his 36-year-old homeless brother who, by the actions that led him to his present situation, proved to Ross that the problem is real. The brother, as previously stated, sleeps in a tent upon three mattresses set between a set of railroad tracks. To eat he uses food stamps to purchase microwaveable meals, or he heads to the local soup kitchen to catch a meal.
But for most of the day, he camps around a computer at the Oregon State University playing World of Warcraft, reading blogs, online news, and so much more. "He goes 'home' only when the lab closes," Ross said. "He's recently acquired a laptop, after much fundraising from sympathetic relatives, so he can now stay connected day and night, if he can find an open Wi-Fi hot spot."
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lol
"Ask a name simply known as "Andrew"...
I tried, but the NAME would not answer.../spellcheck
otherwise, pretty sad story
This is the reason I hate our government, we give people like this food stamps. I think food stamps should require the same proof of effort that unemployment does. Proof that you're out looking for work. I can't believe that my tax dollars go towards expanding this guy's large gut
that sucks dude its sad to see that some can reach so far,
Addiction can be summed up as anything a person brings him/herself to become dependent on. So yes Internet addiction is a real thing, as is gaming addiction, as is cocaine addiction, etc. One could say the pervs from the Modern Warfare Goggles article are addicted to their moms basement\care\etc.
Compulsion. Insufficient self-control, but can you blame the guy for hangin' with more stimulating fare than with the doofus types that snivel about his behavior?
Someone should start an online support group for people with internet addictions....
kind of like having an AA meeting at the local pub
And of course, he's a WoW player....
So, is playing on a computer without an internet connection akin to that of drinking non-alcoholic beer?
They could no longer call it an "internet addiction".. then they would begin boot-camps for computer addiction I'm sure.
lol guy is my hero! I will be there soon my friend, we can share mattresses
He's a lucky guy to have a family willing to enable the behavior by helping him get a laptop...
actually, thats WOW addiction. this is like saying a heroin addict is addicted to needles.
wow.... tried to use "supporting group in WoW" as keywords on google... it actually leaded to quite a few interesting website. Some are about the support for the game addiction. Some of them are the supporting groups for the WoW "widows". Talking about how some guys choose the game instead of sex.
hmmm....maybe WoW can be an effective way to help those people who have sex addiction..lol.... or maybe even drug addiction!
By the way... I remember somebody set up a WoW supporting group "in WoW"... Since that is the place they can find the person who needs "help".
If said article is written by a one Winston Ross, and it's his brother, wouldn't it be Andrew Ross? Whoa, I need to sit down.
I mean really, simply known as Andrew? Why not just say, 'meet Andrew Ross'. I don't know why you were trying to shoot for anonymous here.
I had a period of excessive online gaming years ago and forced myself to pull away from it, so understand to some extent how it could become problematic.
I've never played WOW... for this very reason. The only people I know who do play it prefer that to any other activity. I offered to take someone boating last summer and he wanted to stay home and play WOW.
So I do understand that it could become a problem. Living between railroad tracks and continuing this type of destructive behavior is not a solution however.
This is just a sad story of a person with little to no self control. Not everything is a disease. People need to start taking some responsibility for their own choices.
that sucks dude its sad to see that some can reach so far,
Food stamps are not just for people without jobs...Actually if you have no job and you dont qualify as homeless you cant get foodstamps.Its only for homless and people who are WORKING and cant afford to feed themselves after paying all the bills.
anyways back to the article. I cant really feel sorry for this guy because I dont think it a legitimate addiction.Id go as far as to laugh because the only addicition you can get is the same as weed or sweet foods.Its all in your head
If it wasn't the internet or WoW, it would be something else. The guy needs to learn self control. Eat well, exercise and meditation or something....
I dumped WOW and went EVE Online
If you play wow, this guy is probably your guild leader.
WoW
For some reason this guy makes me think of the guy in that South Park episode about WOW, laughed my arse off at that.
Addiction can be summed up as anything a person brings him/herself to become dependent on. So yes Internet addiction is a real thing, as is gaming addiction, as is cocaine addiction, etc. One could say the pervs from the Modern Warfare Goggles article are addicted to their moms basement\care\etc.
Yes, I'm dependant on the internet.
It has yet to do me any harm, quite the opposite though I believe.
However, MMO addiction has brought me far...
Although I'm not sure if it's his problem in particular, social anxiety can contribute to something like this, instead the idea that some people have bearing down on him for lacking self control.
Just as some jerks here can carelessly make joke comments about how much better they think they are than that man, some people get stuck to online social interactions because it's not a skill they have in person. It can also be extremely difficult to ask for help.
well, he could goldfarm in wow and sell characters on ebay? that's good income... if you honestly spend that much time playing wow, you CAN make enough money to get by, if you really want to...
Why does his brother not shelter him?
he doesn't have an internet addiction (another excuse) he is f'ing lazy...
The reality is that an addiction is defined as the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. I doubt very much that cessation of internet access would cause this guy severe trauma. Having said that, this is one person who has chosen to spend his life online instead of the real world, let him be, I am sure he is happy as a pig in sh*t even though the outside world does not understand this. He is not addicted to anything, he is choosing to live this way, even though the choices that humans make are skewed and heavily influenced by our environment and this fellow obviously views his ideal environment as a virtual world instead of the real one. My point is this, it is very cumbersome to many (the pussies) to deal with the struggles that reality regularly doles out, so they choose to escape; some spend vacations in an opium den, some murder prostitutes, and others spend mostly their entire waking life in front of a computer screen...
does he have children ?
having spent about 8 years of my adult life homeless. i can say that h3llf1r3 pretty much hit the nail on the head.