How Technology addiction affects the notion of morality in our present society?
Answers
During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries addiction was viewed as a sin. Drug-dependent people were considered morally weak, and addiction was seen as a fault of one's character. Under the influence of this model, users were punished with whippings, public beatings, stocks, fines, and public ridicule being relatively common. (In some British towns people were made to walk around wearing nothing but beer barrels.) Spiritual direction was also a common treatment. Jail sentences were another form of punishment and at the turn of the century many more drug users were put in mental hospitals as the jails became full.
Disease model
The disease model assumes that the origins of addiction lie within the individual him/herself. This model adopts a medical viewpoint and suggests that addiction is a disease or an illness that a person has. It believes that:
Addiction does not exist on a continuum – it is either present or it isn't.
Addicted people cannot control their intake of a given substance. Once they consume some of the substance (such as one drink of alcohol) they are powerless to stop themselves having any more and are overtaken by almost irresistible cravings when they cannot have it.
The disease of addiction is irreversible. It cannot be cured and can only be treated by lifelong abstinence.