How much of a media junkie are you?

[fearmeforiampink]

theweaselking is contemplating the idea of disconnecting himself totally or largely from the information flow of the internet when he goes on holiday in a while. He commented "Bets on how soon I go completely barking mad and reconnect?"

As well as striking at least a bit of a chord with me, this reminded me of something from Shadowrun; a negative quality (aka flaw in other games; a mechanically backed up problem/weakness your character has, with extra points to put elsewhere granted in return) where you had a psychological addiction to being online, to the flow of information and interaction available through the way.

Given the Shadowrun setting is fifty and more years in the future, it's much easier to keep up with such things, and presumably easier to 'catch' it, given that your glasses, contacts or cybernetic eyes can display your contacts, a local map, or ads from the shop you're standing outside of.

But still, I myself feel slightly weird/disconnected/out of the loop/distracted if I'm spending days disconnected from the internet, and habitually check and keep up with various things even on relatively busy days.

So, I was curious exactly how addicted we all are to the internet. Thus this poll.

I've also put tickyboxes for what areas your addiction is in; the in-game flaw assumes that everyone who's spending four hours a day online and suffering penalties if they miss even a day has to be fixated on fanfiction (amongst other things), for instance. Which is less than realistic (but it is a for a game), so you can confine your problem areas.

Finally, given it's a negative quality, if you've got any level in it, you must've been given bonus points in return for the downsides, as otherwise you wouldn't be balanced against all the other characters. So, what did you spend those bonus points on? I could find and give you a list of example things at the various BP levels, but I can't be arse, so just wing it. Or if you have the books, and feel like it, use them.



Negative Quality: Media Junkie
Bonus: 5–30 Bp
This obsession with news, information, videos, forums, and social networking sites is a form of the Addiction quality (p. 80, SR4), and acts as a mental addiction. It requires that the character have Matrix access, either via commlink or by virtue of being a technomancer. The BP bonus of this quality is dependent on its severity:

Mild (5 BP): At this level, the obsession seems more like a hobby. The character spends about two hours a day on the Matrix browsing through various public nodes and sites, but can skip a day without adverse effect. She also suffers a –2 dice pool penalty to Willpower Tests to resist the urge to surf the Matrix and to Addiction Tests.

Moderate (10 BP): The character has an obvious Matrix habit. If she does not spend at least four hours a day surfing the Matrix, she obsesses about her Matrix friends and the trivia she is
missing, suffering a –1 dice pool penalty to tests involving Mental attributes, Resonance, or Magic. She takes a –4 dice pool penalty to Addiction Tests and to resist subscribing to her favorite nodes.

Severe (20 BP): At this level, the character clearly has a problem. She needs to spend at least eight hours a day browsing the Matrix, and she is fixated on the fan fiction, viral videos, email threads, and other trivia in which she is involved. Without her fix, she suffers a –2 dice pool penalty on tests involving Mental attributes, Resonance, or Magic. She also suffers a –6 dice pool modifier to Addiction Tests and to keep from logging on to her “My Favorites.”

Burnout (30 BP): The character lives in a daze of Matrix sites and AR windows. She spends almost all of her time cycling through sites, constantly refreshing them to see if anything new has been posted. She sleeps very little and misses meals. Her Essence is reduced by one. If she fails to kick the habit, her Essence or one of her Mental attributes (gamemaster’s option) will be reduced at a rate determined by the gamemaster.

[Poll #1761259]

Comments

[ladybirdintheuk.livejournal.com]

I put my comment in the wrong place. I shouldn't fill out polls early in the morning.

[fearmeforiampink]

I'll note that you can change your answers to an LJ poll just by clicking on the 'Poll #xxxxx', then clicking 'fill out poll'; it shows you what you've filled in already, but also lets you change any of it, then submit.

[ladybirdintheuk.livejournal.com]

ah, noted!

[arachne.livejournal.com]

I go from Severe when I'm not in a field to None when I am, so... hard to say what I am.

[omniscient-fool.livejournal.com]

Not going to fill in your poll as I am in the process of changing my behaviour and so may skew your results. I disconnected for a week recently (even turned off my phone) while on holiday and it was amazing. Trying to bring myself to make bigger steps (like quitting facebook) but not quite there yet as there is always the fear of what you will miss out on. I love the access to information the internet offers, not to mention opportunities for communication which would otherwise be impractical or expensive, but I hate those days when I fall into a junkie cycle of doing nothing productive, but constantly and compulsively cycling through email/facebook/twitter/news feeds checking for updates. What a waste!

[chess]

I am having trouble filling this in as I ought to be up at Severe except I can entirely switch off my addiction for up to four days by indulging in my other addiction, LARP events...