For those of you who may be wondering what my title is in reference to, congratulations, you probably don’t have the internet addiction which I’d like to talk about; obsessive stock market watching. The title I use is in reference to Jim Cramer’s wild and crazy TV show “Mad Money” where he more or less goes crazy for an hour screaming his picks of different stocks. While this phenomenon occurs on TV, it can be found ten times worse on the internet. Obsessive stock market watching is when one finds themselves unable to get work done or pay attention in class due to their constant watching of the stock market. While this may seem slightly obscure, I have seen first hand how distracting it can be, and have watched some of my friend’s grades fall as they watch their money grow in class.
According to Wallace’s take on problematic internet use (PIU), obsessive stock market watching would fall under an individual difference, locus of control. Locus of control relates to the degree to which one believes that they have control over their circumstances. I feel that stock market watching facilitates the feeling of control that the user needs. Although watching the market doesn’t truly give the user any more control, the feeling that they know exactly what is going on at all times leads to the user feeling much more in control of their investments.
According to Caplan’s study on PIU, symptoms of PIU can manifest themselves in two ways; excessive use and compulsive use. Excessive use is when the use of the internet exceeds the normal or planned amount of time online. Compulsive use is one’s inability to control their online activity which comes with guilt about not having control. Obsessive stock market watching would undoubtedly fall under both of these explanations as it not only can lead to more time spent on-line than normal, but can also lead to loss of control and a feeling of guilt.
Looking at Caplan’s factors of PIU, psychosocial and internet affordances, the phenomenon of obsessive stock market watching does not really apply to either. According to Caplan’s study, affordances of internet interaction deal with greater anonymity, greater control over self-presentation, as well as less perceived social risk. Unfortunately none of these really apply to my example. I believe this is because Caplan was looking at PIU’s that deal with people using the internet to interact with others socially. Obsessive stock market watching differs in that it involves the user interacting with news and updates, rather than with other people.
Obsessive stock market watching is a very interesting online space in that it is very solitary in nature. This behavior does not involve a user interacting with others as one might do in other online spaces such as Second life or chat rooms. I feel that this added lack of personal interaction, further removing the user from social interactions can further lead to loneliness and depression.
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2 comments:
Benjamin,
Great job! I really enjoyed reading your post for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the stock market is an interesting topic to analyze in terms of PIU due to the fact that the stock market has been in existence for far longer than the internet. It is the advent of the internet, however, that has made the stock market potentially problematic. Before the internet was at the tips of everyone’s fingers, as it is today on cell phones and PDA’s, people had to wait to be in front of the television, or prior to that access a newspaper, to see how the stock market was fluctuating. It is obvious that watching stocks more intently does not correlate with an individual’s control over the outcome. However, it is interesting to note how excessive and compulsive use on the internet can contribute to one feeling like they have a greater locus of control, when indeed, they do not. Another reason why the online stock market is an interesting forum to analyze is because of the fact that it is anti-social in nature. While other blogging or online gaming activities allow users to socialize, the stock market, as you say, is “solitary in nature”. It would be interesting to study whether or not the same types of personality types easily become addicted to both the stock market and other online forums that are more social.
Really good job!
Nice to see that I’m not the only one who watches “Mad Money,” I love how Jim Cramer discussion the otherwise boring world of the stock market. I know what you mean by compulsive stock market watching. In high school I took a marketing class and during the semester everyone joined on online mock stock trading website. We could buy stocks which were linked to their actual prices and we were all ranked according to how much money we were making (or losing). People soon became compulsive about checking their stocks and making deciding when to buy or sell. While this example does not fit into Caplan’s factors of PIU, it does support the idea that individual differences are more important than technological features because people have been able to check their stocks before the internet was around. Newspapers, financial TV shows, and the radio have offered stock information for years, and it was possible back then to compulsory check stock prices even without computers.
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