Addiction
Typically, addition is seen as a negative state of mind, and can be considered mental, physical or both, where the relevant capital in the field is the “fix”. The dehumanizing affect on agents can be linked to the hysteresis of the habitus, which is where the agent’s perception does not reflect current reality, but of a past one. The “fix” is the only capital in the constricted field.
The social field that my research focuses is on teenagers’ addiction to computer use. In my qualitative/ethnographic study, I have 8 case studies of teenagers aged 13 – 16 (5 males, 3 females). The 3 females denied being addicted, though two of them joked about it; 1 admitted that he was addicted; the other 3 did not mention addiction.
From my 8 case studies, I can confidently say that one of the forms of capital in this field is mastery, i.e. “making it [the computer] do what I want it to do”. One disposition found with each of the 8 participants is that of spending many, many hours experimenting on their computer. Each family demonstrates their level of wealth (symbolic capital) through owning 1 or more home computers – arguably one modern day indicator of Western wealth. In almost every instance, the participant has exclusive use of a computer. Each teenager has unlimited dial-up or broadband access to the Internet. The return on these investments (by the agents and their families) is the gain of further expertise of the participant whose habitus continues to pursue mastery of their computer. All these aspects contribute to giving the habitus the unrestricted opportunity to spend countless hours using the computer, which in turn could be viewed as having a level of addiction.
As the field of computer use is always changing and developing, so the habitus of these participants responds to changes in the field, which also requires time. This would suggest that hysteresis is not applicable in this field. Therefore, these participants are not addicted because they are simply using strategies the habitus has presented as advantageous.
posted by Nicola @ 7:56 AM
3 Comments:
Hey nic: i have been wondering about the addiction challenge: there is still a tendency in what you have written here to assume that addiction (in this context) is the same kind of thing that it must be in a drug context (ie BAD). But i think it is more interesting to think about the ways that the field you are examining clashes with the way the field is interpreted by adults: ie what is seen as a positive to the teenagers--eg regular use to improve their mastery--is read as a negative by adults--ie read as 'addiction' rather than 'skill' or rehearsal. when we think about the way people practice for tennis or swimming: they are rarely described as addicted, or if theyare, it is in an admiring kind of way. so i think you ned to watch out for the tendency to assume that they kids ARE addicted (you say that one girl 'admits' it as though the others are in denial...). it seems to me that the most interesting thing the addiction theme offers is a chance toc ompare how kids and adults read the same behaviours: this lets you make points about the different ways in which capital is understood by different participants in different fields, . i think this is more significant than talking about whether or not they are 'really' addicted. affter all, there is no way you can know this, and it possibly doesn't matter.
I totally agree. I will feature this in in-depth discussion.
and it relates back to your other points; one peson's addiction is antoehr person's cultural capital....
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