Tulasiewicz, Joseph Roman;
(2024)
When Good Things Go Sour: An Ethnography of an American Internet Addiction Rehab.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
In 2009 “Reset”, an internet addiction rehab, was founded in the US State of Washington. Since then it has attracted hundreds of clients looking to understand and manage their obsessive screen use. But it has also developed a second, overlapping stream of clients; wealthy adult men sent against their will by parents looking to deal with unwanted behaviours. Based on a year of participant observation conducted between 2021 and 2022, this thesis has three interwoven focusses: medicine, technology, and social malaise in America. First, it argues that the contemporary disease model is not effectively explaining or treating internet addiction. The thesis develops an alternative explanation for internet addiction; a humanistic interpretation that does not treat the problem as if it were a disease, a disorder, or in need of diagnosis. It argues that, in the case of my interlocutors, internet addiction was a consequence of a lack of hope and purpose, a destructive need for comfort, and an unchallenging upbringing in wealth. Second, the thesis reframes digital technology not as a neutral “place” or a “world”, but as an active, oppressive influence on people’s behaviour and lives. Through an exploration of the psychological effects of internet use on my interlocutors, the thesis shows the almost unbelievably capacity digital screens have to engage on a deeply precise, personal level. Third, drawing on Lauren Berlant’s writing about the decline of the American Dream, the thesis will argue that internet addiction was the expression of a profound cultural malaise; a crisis of values, meaning, and spirit. This crisis took root in things that seemed to be good and promising; turning prosperity, comfort, and freedom sour. The thesis will use this isolated case as a parable to try to understand this prevailing sense of rot and waste in the country at large.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | When Good Things Go Sour: An Ethnography of an American Internet Addiction Rehab |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10190178 |
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