Virtual Addiction Comprehensive David Greenfield, PhD, author of this book, seems like a very smart addiction specialist but where his breadth of knowledge in general addiction fails in the specifics of the Internet. His attempt to give common citizens a starting point to understand cyber addiction is a good one, he uses everyday definitions of addiction (adapted from those used by Alcoholics Anonymous) (42), and he relates many simple cases in which he was personally involved …showed first 75 words of 269 total…

…showed last 75 words of 269 total…a parallel to gambling. He says the glitzy nature of casinos and the way you lose sense of time and become hypnotized is very similar to the multimedia presentation that the Internet offers (36). The problem with this is that the intent of the casino is to keep you there, the intent to stay online is fully in the user – the Internet does not offer you free drinks or hide clocks and daylight signifiers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**