Assignment 8: I'm a Blog Addict

Some might consider reading up on topics of interest to be a good thing, others might consider constantly reading up on topics of interest via blogs to be a form of Problematic Internet Use. I personally think reading blogs could potentially lead to PIU.

I am personally obsessed with music. I could, and in fact I do, spend hours on the Internet reading the latest music news. I once heard that enough science research is written in one day than can be read in one lifetime. I think music writing is catching up. I personally love to read BrooklynVegan and Idolator. Since I access these sites on my own, and I read them at my leisure, in my mind I believe I have a locus of control. But truthfully, I don’t just stop reading after one article or 15 minutes, I have to soak in every last word that is written before I can move on to the next thing I need to do. Also, there is an operant conditioning that occurs with sites like these. I constantly click on them in between writing a paragraph in an essay, or browsing other websites, but only on a variable schedule am I rewarded with a new post. Since there’s no telling when I may next see a new post, I constantly click and re-click until a new post arrives. These two major factors (lack of locus of control and operant conditioning) make me a believer that sometimes too much of a good thing, like reading about something I love, can possibly lead to PIU.

On the other hand, I don’t think this form of Internet use really qualifies as psychosocial use, like Caplan may lead one to believe. I don’t read these blogs out of loneliness or a discomfort in interacting in face to face situations, nor do I think the other readers of these blogs do so for those reasons. I think it is strictly interest in music that draws the readers to these posts. These blogs fulfill more of a pleasure affordance than any social discomfort.

Lastly, I’m not so sure there are any unique properties or affordances to these specific music blogs. They follow the typical blog setup: posts, comments, links to other sites that you might find interesting, even a search box, but nothing more that Caplan, Wallace, or any other person studying Internet Addiction would be too interested in.