"Addiction" in the Media

According to Dictionary.com, addiction is defined as "The state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, such as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma."After reading today's article in the Diamondback I was introduced to great insight on the topic at hand. Personally, I would agree with professor Kent Norman and his assertions that instead of being addicted to the internet, it has developed into more of a dependency on the internet. In school, all of the information for our classes is online, our textbooks are online, we register for classes online, this assignment is also due on the internet. In this day in age, the internet is simply unavoidable. An addiction is when you crave something so badly that you can't get through the day without it. I know I could survive without the internet, I attend camp over the summer where I'm without internet for 7 weeks. However for school, I am fully dependent on the internet because I need to access my work. Building off of that, I do think that it is in fact possible to become addicted to the media. When you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is check Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and  you repeat this process constantly throughout the day; that is the forming of an addiction. On the other hand, it is not an addiction when those aforementioned actions are sprinkled in throughout the day along with the likes of doing work and reading thoughtful articles to gain more knowledge.

I believe to a certain extent that having an electronic device in class is more helpful than distracting. When utilizing it for the right purposes, note taking is simplified and the ability to look up any piece of information is second to none. On the flip side, when you abuse the privilege and peruse social media sites and ESPN than it becomes a distracting issue, not only for one individual but for the whole class who has to see it. I personally enjoy using a device in class because I feel like it helps facilitate my learning and I don't feel like their should be any rules governing any type of technology because at the end of the day it is my future that I'm compromising if I don't pay attention.