What we need to do to arrest internet abuse
An apparent question that popped up during a recent seminar presentation on internet abuse among high school students in Bangalore was about the difference between use and abuse itself. A subtle and a more logical question it certainly was not in the ambit of the presentation as such which was more statistical in nature providing a list of factors and reasons for internet abuse.
The study presented identified abuse at two levels; one, the amount of time one spends before internet and, two, the contents that are browsed during its use. The audience included some social scientists who were more interested in looking for nuances that were outside the numbers being presented.
One among the audience rose to his feet and talked about the conceptual problematics involved in calling something as addiction. He discussed that our early philosophers who did spend long hours - stretching to days and nights - reading and writing, would be interpreted as addicts requiring treatment and other interventions if one followed the standards as the study did. He also sarcastically commented about the contents element in the definition. Contents obviously referring to pornography often accused as spoiling our teenagers.
That whenever the element of pleasure is involved the questions of abuse and addiction somehow intrude in discussions. Online surfing for pornographic materials was a case of internet abuse, according to the presenter.
Evidently unsettled by this unwelcome interjection the presenter responded through some technically loaded jargons. And, by the time she was done with her response the session had to be called off as it was time already. This left some of the obvious elements untouched and incomplete. Is the distinction between use and abuse really difficult and hard to arrive? Was the question more a trivialising attempt and a play of logic than making actual sense?
Even though there is a need to make a clear distinction between use and abuse the question still sounded a bit overstretched as the difference between spending long hours before books and pornographic materials is glaringly clear for anyone. There is no comparison in that sense. The question sounds even nastier if one looks back at the target population among whom the study was conducted, that is the student groups. Would anyone be happy to see a teenaged child from his or her family watching porn? Forget about watching it for long hours. In fact the question could be an instance to start a discussion on use and abuse.
The relationship between use and abuse
When do we have instances of abuse? When we overplay with the freedom to use or do something it can easily become abuse. Just as the questioner in the previous instance. The freedom to ask questions and initiate discussions should enrich the prevailing intellectual environment. If it is not properly used it may become an abuse where not only the purpose of the gathering is failed but the presenter, above all, feels that an injustice is done to her and her presentation. Such instances are not sporadic. There is an element of commonality associated with this; a commonality emerging from the very fact that abuse is just an extension of use. So there is a possibility that every instance of "use" has the element of "abuse" in it.
This makes sense in the context of internet abuse also. For instance internet usage is compulsory in almost all walks of life today, both personal and professional. One may to keep it away from the personal domain, but keeping it away from the official and professional domains is literally out of question in 21st century. One of the important distinctions between internet and substance abuse (or drug abuse as it is commonly called), as discussed by scholars working in the area, comes from their impacts on the biology. That substance abuse has definite impacts on the biology of the individual whereas in the case of internet abuse the impact on biology is only visible at a hyperactive state, that also not necessarily coming from its abuse. Overuse (of computer as well as internet) is a common factor behind such physical ailments.
So when it comes to internet the element of use has three facets, use - in a normal sense, abuse and overuse. At least In the case of internet, overuse is not abuse, as it may be in several other instances, like alcohol consumption. In the case of internet, overuse is not abuse because it has become a norm in our existence. Anything and everything has a virtual element behind it. Whether in study or work, one has to spend long hours with internet.
This is unlike the early intellectuals as the discussant gave the example, which we saw. Rather this is a question of livelihood. With a very few exceptions in, the use of internet is directly related to the salaries that people draw. In an environment where competition is made the norm, salaries are not unconditional.
It depends upon, more importantly, the amount of work one does. Thus the overuse of internet is naturalised, although "it has more or less the same effect on individuals as its abuse or addiction". For instance the effect on family relations as well as on one's own psychic conditions, two major factors commonly discussed, can directly result from both overuse and abuse.
Use, abuse, overuse and mandatory use
There is also an additional factor of the mandatory use. Unlike any other forms of addictions or abuses there is an element of statutory-ness associated with internet. Computers and internet are inevitable components of our current lives. This is quite distinctive of "internet abuse" as a category since in most other forms of abuse this is absent. For example it is not a compulsion that people use drugs or cigarettes or alcohol in their life. On most occasions, such use begins from one's volition rather than an external compulsion. It may or may not become an addiction later in one's life.
The same with the case of the freedom to ask a question. Just as there is a freedom to ask question there is also a freedom to not to ask and be a passive listener. During the course of asking the question, it may or may not become a case of misusing that freedom. But in the case of internet this element is missing altogether. "In order to survive as a civilised human being in the modern world one has to use it".
So, on the one hand its use is compulsory, and on the other, we complain about its abuse. This is a case of modernity's artificiality which several philosophers, like Baudelaire and Max Weber for instance, have talked about.