Electronic 'addiction' and self-actualization: Ethical concerns for the computerization of America

Addictive qualities of electronic media interaction are considered against A.H. Maslow's final tier in his hierarchy of human motivational needs--- self-actualization. Findings suggest that electronic media addiction is growing due to user-defined computer applications, aiding the interest and ability for individuals to exploit and substitute face-to-face human interaction for virtual environments. This discourse suggests that self-actualization is not possible in a virtual context due to a potential neurosis, or fixation, on Maslow's third and fourth tiers of belonging, love, esteem and value needs. Likewise, the potential impossibility to self-actualize occurs in face-to-face life because of the neglect of physical human interaction due to the individualistic and isolated aspect of electronic media interaction. Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics and Politics and Amitai Etzioni's communitarianism provide a backdrop with which to compare whether electronic media addiction is healthy for humans and how the electronically addicted individual might obtain a healthy integration between electronic media interaction and face-to-face human interaction. Ethical analysis of the nature and possibilities of interactive electronic media use is proposed.