It rather depends where they put the boundaries as to whether this gets taken seriously or not.

"The Telegraph notes that early studies showed "highly educated, socially awkward men" were most likely to suffer from net addiction, .."

I imagine more recent studies would conclude that highly educated, socially aware men were most likely to suffer from net addiction, although they would elevate IT to a Network InterNetworking Passion.

A Gift which Appreciates XXXXPeriences Taught and Enjoyed and Heartily Learned.

I'd take this more seriously if it wasn't an american psychiatrist saying this. In a country where taking anti-anxiety medication, anti-depressants or even anti-ADD medication is considered the norm, are we really surprised that someone's trying to resolve yet more issues through medication? (Do we know whether this psychiatrist is being bankrolled by one of the big pharmaceutical corporations, incidentally?)

So, you are arbitrarily told you can't do something and this makes you argumentative and distracted?

Try this with any pastime and watch the same results.

people who only suffer from this whilst at work. Just interested you know, not that I'm trying to cover my back in case I get the boot for abuse of resources or anything.

So, when is the study on socially awkward educated men, the net, and serial killers going to run?

I want to know how many might have turned to the net to fix some of their already screwed up lives rather than having to find real life alternate hobbies.

Usually people who are prone to an addiction get addicted to something, now, I'm not saying web addiction is a good thing, but it always makes you wonder what they might find as an alternative if it was not available.

That's happened a few times - both in net cafes and at a person's home (though I think they've been Chinese and South Korean) - but it was coupled with very serious sleep deprivation, and involved the addicted person dying, not their kids (I think they were all single males anyway - so no kids).

@Kyle But a non-American head-shrinker would be ok, right? lol

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3545684.stm

"Burn the PCs, burn the Intarwebs. Smart, awkward men are addicts, and addicts support terror and all that." Leave it to some outsider who doesn't understand it all to say that ARGUING with your spouse is a better way to spend time than reading El Reg.

That right there's the problem. They've got wives and they're tired of them, no news there.

It's just like a new game, you play it a lot at first, then it gets boring - after a while you forget you put it under the bed and the next time you take it out to play with it the damn thing is all scratched up and won't play right any more - leading to further neglect.

The moral of this story is rent, don't buy.

I can stop whenever I want!!!! I just have to get through all my feeds! Then I can go to bed! Aaaarrgggghhh! They just refreshed. 1000+ unread!

A psychiatry addict is someone who has to label anything a serious mental illness. Some psychiatrist become so absorbed in this labeling and classification they forget to eat or wash.

If removed from psychiatry and the ability to label and classify others, they become fatigued, argumentative, and violent. They often replace a significant other with their psychiatry text books, and see the world only through their own deluded classification system, often alienating everyone around them.

The addiction tends to afflict all of those in psychiatric profession, who should immediately seek hospitalization and heavy medication. They tend to be socially maladjusted men and women off all ages, often with inflated egos, expecting society to pay them to keep up their psychiatric fix.

To be honest I don't think there is anything left, that is not covered by Psychiatry, and labeled as a mental illness, anything you do they can treat you for it. Oddly enough, this is the police state through the back door. I have wondered if a group of psychiatrist could pull of a coup d'etat, just by sectioning the cabinet. They have got most of the US and the UK on some form of medication; it is now normal to be mad. And wow are the pharmaceuticals raking it in, wonder what the kickbacks are like.