Pathological Internet Use

[xshayla701]

P99 message board communities have the power to suck people in and create an internet world of cliques and power-seekers, a world where people never have to prove what they are saying is true , a world where people can afford to be "larger than life" because they do not have to worry about ever physically meeting the majority of people with whom they are forming "online relationships".

The following are real-life examples of the negative power of internet message boards, both from P99 message boards:

One administrator of a P99 message board wrote me and told me he had realized that he had spent far too much time on the computer--with the computer being on around the clock. He ended up losing real-life friends in this process.

Another administrator of a P99 message board sent me an email saying she had been crying for days because of the turmoil and stress caused from the "virtual actions" of the people on the message board. This administrator was being "forced" into making decisions about her life by the members of this board.

These are just two examples of people in message board administration. For these two, there are hundreds more who are members of boards who more than likely suffer from Pathological Internet Use.