Posted 4. April 2009, 10:28 by Louise Juckes
Category : Home   Academic developments

“Are you addicted to the Internet? You may not be alone!!”

It has become evident that just like our mobile phones becoming a part of our daily lives, so in turn has the Internet. The gap between the ways the commodities emotionally make us feel is becoming less distinguishable. It seems that objects of desire may have for some, become objects of necessity.

I admit that I can’t leave the house without my phone and if I notice that I have I will often go back to collect it – feeling lost and weirdly isolated without it!! I recently discovered that these same emotions can be associated with how the loss of the Internet makes us feel.

I check my Yahoo account, University email and Facebook daily as well as using Google in search of some random answers and questions. Only recently with the loss of our Internet for a week that I realised how important my daily habitual routine of checking the above had become to myself and others. Without it I felt isolated (out of the loop if you like), lost and anxious to resume Internet connection asap! Myself and one housemate went into University on the sole intention of checking our emails and Facebook despite these not being a necessity!

For a few, the Internet has become a recognised addiction but how easily can habitual Internet use escalate to become a real concern for the average person? A recent article in The Times (2008) newspapers showed that a study conducted last year proved that ‘problematic internet use was present in a sizeable portion of the population’ and that ‘1 in 8 people’ in the US were addicted to the internet’

The question I want to ask others is, do you feel isolated without the Internet and do you consider the growing use of the Internet a problem or have you rather embraced it?

(McLaren. E., 2007. “Is Internet addiction a problem�. The Times, May 2007)

The Guardian, 2008. “Addiction to Internet is an illness�.
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/23/news.internet?gusrc=rss&feed=technology – 87k
[Accessed 16.03.09]

“Disgraceful NHS Anti-Smoking Advert�

Advertising is used to communicate a message to as many people as possible, but as we all know there are thousands of adverts that we observe each day, but how many do you actually remember?

The ‘Fish Hook’ (and other NHS campaigns) is a form of shock advertising to break through the fragmentation of todays media clutter, and therefore is purposely made shocking to make smokers/ex-smokers/people thinking of smoking to remember and reinforce the message – smoking could lead to ‘more pain than pleasure’. The shock tactics of the NHS used has caused some strong emotions among people which is exactly what its intention is -further publicity of the intended message. Cliché, but bad publicity can be pretty effective – it has all of us discussing it.

One theory by Walster and Festinger (1962) states that people who are aware of the intent to persuade will be less persuadable – therefore iterates those who will smoke in defiance of the adverts intentionally. Some comments above have proven this.

Joffe.H (2008) research has proven that strong emotions such as ‘disgust’ and ‘fear’ are used to penetrate and help illustrate the message deeper, evoking cognitive thinking, stronger pathways = remembering advert better etc. NHS campaigns have used this emotion to evoke fear and disgust making sure we remember the advert.

Despite the above, an article in The Times (2008) has argued that although the NHS has spent £500 million on the recent smoking campaigns there has been no discernible impact on the population of smokers in the UK which has stayed at approx 24%.

As a ‘social-smoker’ I feel these adverts do make me think about smoking and I have definitely remembered most of them while lighting up my next ciggie – especially the clogged up artery mentioned so many times. In fact, I think after conducting so much research for a research project that it’s time to quit. This is my own choice and was not because of the NHS ads we see everywhere.

One question I would like to raise for a research question is whether the recent graphic images on cigarette packets influence smokers in any way to stop? Or do you just turn the packet the other side so you don’t have to look?! After all, ‘ignorance is bliss’!!

Joffe. H, (2008). “The Power of Visual Material: Persuasion, Emotion and Identification�. Vol 55. (1). pp 84 – 93

Walster, E., & Festinger, L. (1962). The effectiveness of “overheard� persuasive communications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 285–290.