How to Become Addicted

In Howard Becker's essay on smoking pot he explains the three steps into becoming a pot user. You have to learn to smoke the drug to produce real effects, recognize the effects of the drug, and learn how to enjoy these effects. As we talked in class on how the person does not actually get addicted to the drug itself but the social culture and acceptance, it made me think of other situations where these steps could be applied similarly.

I grew up a very active child engaging activities of a common young boy and playing many sports. Thus I became really involved and committed to sports growing up over the years. This is where i made the connection from Becker's steps to sports.

To become a committed athlete, or subject, in high school and beyond you must follow almost identical steps as to what Becker explained. You must learn to play the sport first. Practice to become better. In most scenarios, you want to be good at what you do. Otherwise there is no point in practicing. Second you must recognize the effects of participating in sport. This was harder for me to make a connection. I believe in the recognition in the so called "effects" is seeing a difference in you due to the sport or how it has impacted you. For example maybe you developed leadership or became more obedient from being disciplined in the sport. Third you must learn to enjoy the effects of the sport. Basically just learning to have fun and enjoy the sport for what it is. You wont win every game but its playing the game with your closest friends is what makes it most enjoyable. Also cherishing the long lasting frienships you build over the years. These steps is what creates sports addicts and for some they are life lasting. They never quit it meaning they join adult leagues or coach children when they are older. For some lucky few they turn it into a career.

I understand that this does not work for everybody, but these steps can be applied to many other cultures like sports. It could be music and playing instruments, or drawing and creating art. Whatever the culture is, when following these steps the subjects are surely guaranteed to become "addicts" more often then not.