gumdoctor

One can be "addicted" to various things, but the test of whether it is healthy or pathological is how it affects you and your relationships and other activities that make you happy. Obviously if you are spending too much time doing anything and it is interfering with your enjoyment of other things, it is pathological and you must rebalance your priorities in order to ensure you are not harming yourself and others. For example, you could have an "addiction" to gardening, which at first sounds hilarious as it seems to be quite benign. However if you are doing this to the detriment of other responsibilities and obligations, denying time to family and friends, and not taking g care of your health, not paying attention in school so your marks drop, performing poorly on the job, etc... it is a problem. SL is another example of an activity which can be abused. It has that more realistic interactive component which does make it more absorbing than other games. There is no denying that. I found myself also absorbed in SL quite a bit several years ago. I finally decided to pull the plug and was in and out for a few months until finally I completely uninstalled it and took a hiatus for several years. I even asked to cancel my account. Recently I purchased a new "older" laptop and wanted to try out some 3D games to test the performance and so decided to get SL again. I reinstated my account and was glad to find out that my laptop actually sucked at rendering and my experience playing the game is not anywhere close to what I remember it being a few years ago. So I lost interest in it on my own and will likely rarely if ever log in again. I agree however that "addictive" behaviours are inherent in your psychological makeup but most people will not act out necessarily more dangerous addictions, while much more easily get involved in SL which is much safer. The same reason why many men (and women) who may constantly watch online porn in the privacy of their own homes will otherwise never have visited an adult video store or been to a strip club. Yet the results can be the same, if it causes your behaviour to change and you alienate those around you or it replaces real life behaviors that would reinforce relationships that are critical to a healthy mental state. As much as SL can be a release for you, it can also work the other way... it may not release you once you get in too deep. If you need to constantly log in, check your messages, can't unplug and become dependent on the net (like many other social apps) and fill your life with anonymous long-distance virtual relationships instead of real ones, you are escaping at that point.