After having just spent almost two full days without an internet connection, I can certainly understand the impetus behind designing a 12-step program for email addiction (besides the obvious hope of getting legions of super-thumbed Blackberry users to fork over some quick cash). For news junkies like myself who spend the majority of their day online, it’s somewhat jarring to step out of the news and blog cycle for any length of time. What clever and funny things did Mark Steyn say? What if I miss almost half of a really neat Oscar blog? What if someone from Nigeria really, really needs help retrieving a huge sum of cash and wants to cut me in?

In other words, I understand. However, I think the idea of treating heavy internet use as a serious addiction is a little bit goofy. Our cultural impulse is to identify everything as some sort of malady or addiction—you might say we’re addiction addicts. And in many instances, that tendency leads us toward accepting less personal responsibility. Case in point, this story (via Adam Thierer at TLF), an AP report about a former IBM employee who is suing the company because he got fired looking at lewd material at work. He claims it’s not his fault; he’s an internet addict! Since when did addiction become an excuse for poor judgment? Can I demand compensation from someone for my YouTube addiction? Perhaps some of these people do need professional help, but that’s no reason for them not to be faulted when their lack of self control gets them in hot water. Anyway, didn’t he hear that email addiction is good?