9: Online Shopping Gone Bad...

Due to convenience and ease, the act of online shopping has become very popular. If you can think it, you’ll find it online. With online shopping you can immediately find out if your items are available and sometimes you can be offered free shipping with a minimum purchase. Online shopping includes activities such as clothing purchases, movie rentals, etc. Even for Cornell students, online shopping is useful for purchasing cheap textbooks that the Cornell store overprices or making an late night order when you become to lazy to make a phone call. As a result, online shopping can lead to problematic internet use, since it can be conveniently shipped to your door step.

Caplan’s theory of problematic internet use is described as a person having problematic behavior related to spending too much time online. First of all, he stated that individuals with psychosocial problems hold negative perceptions about their social competence (although it might not be true, they think believe it). For example, a person suffering anxiety might find it hard to leave their homes and face others. They constantly fear that other individuals may be looking or talking about them when they really aren’t. As a result, people with that problem are more likely to stay at home and potentially find online shopping useful to avoid leaving their homes. They can order everything they need to their door instead of having to interact with other people face to face. Caplan also claims that individuals with psychosocial problems prefer online interaction because it’s less threatening and they feel more efficacious. Once again, this supports what I mentioned earlier. An individual suffering from anxiety would find online shopping as less threatening than going out to shop for what they need. Online shopping doesn’t involve a salesperson and doesn’t involve others customers but just you and the company you’re trying to purchase something from. Only the companies know what you purchased but their intentions are just to make money from you, not what you purchase. When you make purchases in person, this is different because while you wait in line to pay, other customers will most likely look at what you’re purchasing because they’re bored waiting online. Finally, Caplan talks about a preference for online interaction will lead to excessive and compulsive online interaction which then worsens their problems at school, home, and work. As an individual with psychosocial problems realize the convenience of online shopping and the relief from interacting with others, they may increasingly shop online to the point they have a problem. The process is simple, you find what you want, provide your billing information, and then you wait for your shipment. The addiction becomes a cycle where people with psychosocial problems develop more severe psychosocial problems due to excessive, compulsive internet use (in this case, online shopping). It is especially harmful to online shop because individuals tend to lose track of online transactions with credit cards (so beware!).

Online shopping has unique features. Individuals can look for anything they want to purchase without stepping out of their homes or leaving their computer. In the previous sentence, it is important to recognize two features, purchasing ANYTHING and the fact that you won’t have to leave your home. Especially around holidays, many items you are looking for become out of stock in stores so the internet becomes very useful to find those items. In addition, the internet is always accessible and the websites are most likely always available (except under maintenance), so individuals can shop online any time of day. When I’m sick of doing work or I’m bored, I tend to “window shop” online, looking for things I want without making any purchases (just to make sure I don’t go broke). Also, many sites online include shopping guides where individuals can list what kinds of things they are looking for and the site gives results based on your preferences. Moreover, they can also compare the different items.

http://comm245red.blogspot.com/2007/11/just-google-it.html

http://comm245red.blogspot.com/2007/11/9-celebrity-gossip-blogs.html

9: Saving the World Through Wikipedia?

While browsing through random articles on Wikipedia, do you ever find yourself wondering “who the hell sits down and writes this stuff?” While I certainly feel that wasting countless hours browsing through this online encyclopedia is an example of problematic internet use (when virtually infinite information is at your fingertips, why ever leave your computer?), I believe that a much more severe instance of PIU is the addictive behavior of contributing to Wikipedia.

When a user contributes to Wikipedia, he or she can create articles, edit articles, or upload files (images, music clips) to help add to the collective knowledge of the database. One can do this anonymously with only the computer’s IP address being logged, or the user can use a free, registered account (with a username, password, and profile page) to make an unlimited amount of contributions.

The simplest definition of Problematic Internet Use is the activity of spending too much time online, leading to negative consequences in the user’s life. Most users I know make an edit here or there if they see something incorrect, but the bulk of the content comes from a small portion of the contributing population (these users make thousands to hundreds of thousands of edits!).

Those who actively write and edit Wikipedia articles this much are certainly spending massive amounts of hours interacting with the site—enough time to negatively impact their “real” lives. Now I can’t go and interview the top editors to see if they are lonely and depressed people (Caplan’s model suggests they are), but I am going to make the assumption that because they contribute so much edits (and time), their social lives are probably not too active. These people will definitely favor the online action of becoming the author or editor of encyclopedia articles—this role provides the user with a boosted sense of competence and efficacious action—all while preserving the internet affordances of FtF anonymity and control over self-presentation.

As an obsessive Wikipedia editor contributes more and more, he or she will enjoy this sense of accomplishment and start to view other contributors and the task at hand in a hyperpersonal manner. Thus, the editing behavior will seem increasingly important (often Wikipedians believe that creating a free, infinite knowledge pool will save the world), and it will become excessive and compulsive. Because there is no reward or end-result to contributing beyond knowledge-based philanthropy and self-gratification, a user can complete Caplan’s suggested cycle again and again. Excessive amounts of time dedicated to editing should cause the user to retract solely into his or her online existence and feel even more dedicated to Wikipedia.

However, as addicted to editing as some people may be, I still personally love and support Wikipedia. I just feel (very idealistically) that it will become a more accurate and useful tool if less people obsessively edit; and instead, the world population contributes equally.

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Assignment 9: Online Shopping

Online shopping is an activity that can definitely lead to problematic internet use (trust me, I know). There are millions of items people can buy now without ever having to leave their homes. Websites have also made it easier to search for your favorite items and make the online shopping experience more pleasant. There are also tons of websites geared completely toward bargain shopping, making online shopping an option to almost everyone.

In the case of online shopping, I would have to disagree with Caplan’s (2004) theory that leads to problematic internet use. This is because when you shop online, you’re not really interacting with anyone else, and the things you buy will be seen by people in the real world, not online. I think the four dimensions that Davis, Flett, and Besser (2002) came up with to predict problematic internet use are more applicable to online shopping. One of these dimensions is diminished impulse control, which can be costly when combined with retail stores online. People who are lonely, another dimension, might turn to online shopping because they are looking for material things to fill in for that loneliness. The third dimension is social comfort, and this can apply to online shopping if people feel that having the latest trends and gadgets will help them fit in. And finally, online shopping is a great source of distraction and procrastination, the fourth and final dimension, even if you don’t buy anything.

I also don’t see the affordances of Internet interaction coming into play for online shopping. This is because again, you are not interacting with anyone else, there are no other people making you feel like you are a better person online than in the real world. Online shopping is one instance in which I think the Internet properties are more important than the individual ones. People can browse millions of items for as long as they like, which is not possible when shopping offline, and there are many more places online to find cheap or sale items, making it affordable to more people. Take it from a person who has bought one too many pairs of shoes online in an attempt to put off doing homework, if left unchecked, online shopping can lead to problematic internet use.

Assignment 9. Gambling.

An online activity that can lead to Problematic Internet Use is gambling. A few examples of different games one can play online are: card games, bingo, and horse racing. If someone wants to participate in one of these online games, assuming they are of twenty-one years of age, they create an account directly connected to one of their credit cards. If one wins playing one of these online games, their winnings typically come in the mail in the form of a check. My father and my grandmother once a week participate in gambling online. They opened an account on a horse racing website, where they place their bets online and watch the race live on the television. The account is directly connected to my father’s credit card and once in awhile a check comes in the mail.

Although my dad and my grandmother bet the horses online, their form of online gambling is different from most other forms of online gambling. Since my father and grandmother bet on live races, there is no 24/7 access. One can play card games or bingo any time of any day they want to. This feature of online gambling can lead to Problematic Internet Use. Another characteristic of the online gambling psychological space that leads to PUI is that physical money is not changing hands. Since, money is being withdrawn from your credit card connected to your account, losing money is happening invisibly.

Caplan’s model states that individuals with psychosocial problems hold negative perceptions about their social competence. Caplan states that this leads to these individuals preferring online interaction because it is less threatening and they feel more efficacious. Preference for online interaction leads to excessive and compulsive online interaction, which worsens their problems. The cycle continues and becomes more and more detrimental. This could apply to online gambling but applies much more intensely to other online activities, specifically areas where there is direct interaction with other individuals. Online gambling does not center upon interacting with others online, therefore Caplan’s model applies but not so intensely.

There is one very unique property about online gambling. Although all the online gambling spaces require that people are twenty-one years of age, many people lie and gamble illegally underage. Twenty-one is the legal age for gambling for a reason, people under twenty-one are more likely to not know when to stop gambling. Younger people cannot control themselves with the temptation of winning millions of dollars even though that is very, very improbable. People under twenty-one who gamble online are more likely to have Problematic Internet Use because they get “addicted” to the thought of possibly winning a large amount of money.

9 Why talk about it if you can blog about it?

Consider the effects of writing a blog and reading blogs. In order to participate in those two activities, some time is required. In those 10 minutes spent reading a post and then forming a comment, you could easily have made yourself a sandwich or skimmed over a section in a textbook. Unfortunately, when someone doesn't have this time and continues to participate, negative consequences can result. This is characteristic of Caplan's definition of problematic Internet use as resulting in negative academic, professional, and social consequences.

Caplan describes excessive use as use exceeding normal, planned time online. If an individual plans to spend a certain amount of time catching up on a blog or writing a new blog entry, it is very easy to exceed the allotted time. It's true that many blogging front ends allow saving of a draft copy and you can always bookmark an entry to read later. However, it is often easier to blog a little longer in order to complete the train of thought. During the course of blog writing, the user may proceed into a rant. A common result is continuous ranting without considering elapsed time. Similarly, when a user is reading a blog, he or she may become absorbed in an entry and exceed their original planned time. This excessive use is also characteristic of compulsive use, the inability for one to control one's online activity, along with guilt for lack of control. When an individual is too involved in reading or writing blog entries, the realization of excessive time spent online leads to guilt over the overdevotion to blogging. Excessive use and compulsive use are both characteristic of problematic internet usage.

In Caplan's model, individuals with psychosocial problems view themselves as more socially inept. This causes increased propensity for internet usage due to less threatening characteristics. Consequently, this leads to more actual internet usage, which further complicates the original psychological problems. For blog writers, blogging offers a venue to express themselves anonymously and more intimately with greater control over self-presentation. A blogger can present personal details without ever revealing his identity if he is posting to a blog under a pseudo-identity. These traits of blogging are affordances that Caplan believed lead to increased preference for internet usage. However, individuals may choose to blog in lieu of expressing their opinions in face to face social context. That decision leads to decreased self-disclosure in physical social interactions and negative social traits. For blog readers, blogging allows them to gain knowledge of social experiences via posts concerning events in the social lives of others. Due to the ease of self-publishing, devout blog readers can become engrossed in the opinions and experiences of random individuals. This leads to less personal experience and thus has a negative social impact.

Blogging can be considered an example of problematic internet use, but in the case of COMM 245, if we do not blog, it will hurt us academically. Therefore, there is no need to panic if you feel doing the weekly blog posts is becoming a chore. It isn't exactly problematic internet usage. Posts also force us to state our thoughts on topics discussed in class with the hope of bringing up similar discussion points in real life. However, if blogging allows expression of opinion in a computer mediated context, a drop in real life expression is expected. In this way, blogging can be examined both positively and negatively.

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9. Youtube

Ahoy

For this assignment, I decided to consider excessive procrastination on youtube. I don't think this is one of the most problematic overuses of the internet, but it's one that probably does cause some problematic use of the internet. We often use youtube for things like procrastination when there's too much work to do. In fact, I think that youtube is more addicting than even facebook, although everyone has his or her own opinion.

Why is youtube more problematic than facebook? I think youtube functions almost like a support system in the model proposed by Walther and Boyd. It's similar to the way TV is more popular than hanging out with friends. Youtube is always there - it's your friend 24/7 and it never has prelims to study for or classes to wake up for or essays to write. In other words, it's very accessible, which is one of the characteristics of online support. Also, you can watch whatever you want comment on anything anonymously. And another significant fact about facebook is that it offers content on absolutely any subject for free, meaning that it scores higher in the social distance category.

Does this mean that youtube can be seen as a source as support for us when we're down? On those nights where nobody is around, or when you're feeling down cause you have way too much work to do (only making the situation worse, because you're going to procrastinate more on it), youtube feels like the only way we can relieve our stress. It's a sort of emotional support in my opinion, though not in the conventional sense.

And naturally, when we depend on something like youtube for emotional sustenance, there's always a chance that PIU develops as proposed by Caplan. The first time we use youtube, it's there to relieve our stress and we're grateful for it, and after a while we continue on our way. Then another night comes when we have a lot more work, and we depend on it a little more. Then before you know it, we regularly rely on youtube to distract us from our work.

How is this similar to Caplan's model? Well first, we have burdensome problems that we need to take care of (part 1). Then we go to some CMC source for relief (part 2). And then we find how useful and helpful this diversion can be, so we rely on it more (part 3). This leads to a cascade effect similar to the one proposed by Caplan. Our real-world problems cause greater emotional needs that we feed more and more through these reliable CMC sources.

And if we woke up the next morning and found that youtube wasn't there anymore, it would probably not cause a terrible psychological epidemic, but we would definitely find it harder to get through those long nights of work.

(Like tonight)

peace out.

ashish

7: Addiction to Second Life

One online activity that can lead to Problematic Internet Use is participating in an online phenomena known as Second Life. Second Life, created by a small boutique company in San Francisco has elements that can make it an addictive online space that can be problematic for some people. It is basically an online world where people can create avatars of themselves and hold a “second” life online. According to an internet blog about Second Life addiction, “you simply roam around, chat with people, play games, buy land, build homes, create objects you may want to sell for the local currency (Linden Dollars) and so on.” Caplan (2004) describes problematic internet use as being excessive, where people exceed their planned amount of time online, and compulsive, where people cannot control their online activity and have guilt about their lack of control. Certain people display both of these factors when they are on Second Life, qualifying it to be a problematic use of Internet.

One of the factors that makes Second Life to be addictive is that a user has to be online at all times to play the game and interact with others. Wallace explains this property of the internet as being maintenance of virtual presence, where one has to be in the virtual space to control characters or support other team members. I saw an example of this being problematic when one of my friend explained to me how his neighbor would not take care of her kids because and ignored her kid various times just to play this game. Also, I found another example of this on a Second Life blog which stated, “My wife has been staying up all night on SL. Worse, she has started lying about it…Recently she missed work to sleep all day because she was on SL all night.”

Other aspects that would make Second Life problematic is explained by Davis et. al. (2002)’s individual factors such as social comfort and diminished impulse control. Social comfort is when one uses Internet as a tool to increase one’s social network. One of the features on Second Life that exhibits this is how you can have people over and play games with them. Furthermore, diminished impulse control can be seen when some people blow off their children and jobs to spend more time on this “fantasy life”.

Caplan (2004)’s model, “suggests that lonely and depressed individuals may develop a preference for online social interaction, which, in turn, leads to negative outcomes associated with their Internet use.” (pg 625) This does hold true for Second Life as it gives individuals chance to create their own characters, displaying greater control over self presentation, and through CMC chat they can have more anonymity. If one is depressed and lonely they will hold negative perception about their social competence and Second Life gives them a chance to present themselves in an anonymous way. Moreover, this interaction can lead to a viscous cycle and present a problematic internet usage which will affect their school, life and work environment. And by reading the blog examples given above we do know that interactions on Second Life do affect real life for some people.

All in all, Second Life is a very fun but addictive tool where one can get absorbed and forget their real life. A unique property of this space is how closely it resembles real life, since people can have jobs, houses and even friends on this space. As one blogger puts it, “In the past few days, my character has bought land, designed and built a home, had guests over, gone to a strip club, gone to a dance club, bid for new land in an auction, participated in movie trivia games for Linden Dollars, and much more.” What a life!

The web address for the blog used above is:

http://elliptic.typepad.com/elliptic_blog/2004/01/second_life_add.html