What defines an addiction? Is it a noun, a verb, a place? To everyone it’s different. Howard Becker says that the “meaning of the behavior, and perceptions and judgments of objects and situations, all of which make the activity possible and desirable.”
To me, that means that if the activity is desirable it can be considered an addiction. But what if the addiction isn’t so desirable. There are a lot of things that I like to do, I like to drink coffee, go running, and clean. I don’t think I’d go as far to say I’m addicted to coffee or running, but I could be addicted to cleaning. It’s weird, people tell me that’s something that should be on TLC’s My Strange Addiction. So what makes it so strange?
I like a clean apartment, cleaning is good, and it doesn’t hurt anyone. Why is it more acceptable to be addicted to coffee or marijuana than cleaning? I would argue that society has shaped our culture to believe that certain things are better than others, more acceptable to be addicted to. So you want to be addicted to coffee-great you probably just need it because you work over twice as many hours as you sleep. So you want to be addicted to marijuana, perfect everyone needs some relaxation time. So you want to be addicted to working out, that’s good at least you won’t be adding to the obesity epidemic.
I really try to enjoy everything I do, but as far as addictions go I try really hard to not be addicted to anything. I don’t like the dependency that comes along with an addiction. But, that’s just me. Some people are addicted to addictions, and if that’s how you have to live then feed your addiction.
You bring up a good point when asking what addiction is exactly...and I liked your definition when you said an addiction is anything desirable. I agree that society has shaped our culture to believe certain things are better than others when it comes to be addicted to them, what is morally accepted in society and what is not. It is morally more acceptable to be addicted to shopping in society than it is to drugs. It is interesting how we as a culture and society decide what is morally acceptable and what is not when it comes to be addicted to something. Personally I don't think being overly addicted to anything is healthy, there needs to be a fine balance between enjoying to do something and being obsessive about it and having it consume your life. The show on TLC "My Strange Addiction" is definitely a great example for this because society is deciding that this addiction is weird and abnormal. Like a lady who depends on her blowdryer to sleep at night. She has to have it plugged in and blowing on her to fall asleep. I mean I personally agree that this is kind of weird but I would argue that culture and society has helped shaped me to think that this is abnormal.
ReplyDeleteI agree your point about defining addiction. For most of time, people will addicted to something only because they have time to spend on it or they evaluate it higher than other thing. But you evaluate things you like equally and eager to spend fair amount of time on each, that is why you'd rather say you like or love cleaning other than you are addicted to it. Also, there is not a commonly acceptable theorem that defines addiction, somebody like smoke pot, but they also spend time on eating and sleeping, so nobody tells me how many time and energy we should spend on doing something in order to “addict" to it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough wikipedia isn't credible, I want to inform a line it said that is rather compelling.
ReplyDelete"over a period of time, involvement with the substance or activity is needed to feel normal," to which i presume is at a psychological level. If such definition is what it meant to be addicted, than it means that anything we do, and must continue to do in order to make us feel normal, than that would mean we are addicted to such means.
I'm rather intrigued by the point you brought up, society has coded what it is that is socially accepted. And that is true, society did built on ideas on what is acceptable and what is not. this too also varies by culture and religion. although some forms of activity/addiction is more socially acceptable than others, i think it's great that you have your own preference. it's better to be an individual, having one's own identity than being part of the crowd and adopting a similar set of addictions.
I totally agree with above that mentioned our family, society and culture have shaped us into believing certain things are better than others or even it's okay to be addicted to, but what is more important is that we need to know when to stop. I think it does not have to be balanced because there must be something that we like and we spend more than fair amount of time on it, there must be something that we don't really like and we try to spend only a little time on it. I don't think anyone's school time/study time is equal to their play time. Is student supposed to be "addicted" to studying? In this case, it really depends on people, I just think that we all should have our own timetable that helps us to have a organized life.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a strong point. Just because someone is addicted to something socially unacceptable does that make them a bad person? Let's say that there is a president that makes his country a lot of money, finds jobs for every worker, and solves nearly every economic problem; but he is addicted to cheating on is wife with sleezy women and hookers. Does this make him a bad president? Who is to say? Maybe he is a terrible husband, but a great president. Can both of these coexist? I don't see why not.
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