Some studies (and newspaper articles) are making a distinction between hard addictions (drugs, alcohol, nicotine) versus soft addictions (email, facebook, twitter).

Interesting that none of them included porn in their lists of addictins of either kind.

And, naturally, there are recommendations for addiction recovery from the soft drugs, such as not going cold turkey, increasing the time between 'hits', and having a buddy to turn to for support.

No article I read included gaming in the list of addictions, either, now that I come to think of it. I can remember when electronic games first became popular, playing all night, dropping one dollar after another into the kitty to keep playing, if I was on the road.

Or, at home, walking in from work, straight from the front door to the back room where the computer was, and booting it up, not even bothering to change my clothes or eat, playing until 3 a.m. Going to work the next day groggy and half-alive.

I really had to go cold turkey on the games, because for me there was no way to quit gradually.

Curious, though, about email, facebook, twitter, etc., I asked myself am I addicted to them? Well, that was answered easily today when I became so immersed in the book that I was reading that I'm just now, at 5:20, opening up my email and journal for the first time today.

And wondering if there is such a thing as soft addiction. What do you think?