If only Pavlov knew what he is missing. He wouldn’t have to have bothered with those silly dogs if he had only had the opportunity to witness the extremely comparable behavior of (mostly) boys and men of all ages around the world. No, this post is NOT about pornography…I mean fantasy sports. I often watch my boyfriend throughout various seasons settle in front of his computer and habitually return to espn.com to check on the progress of his roster. As soon as he first sees the red banner across the top of the page, he practically begins to salivate in anticipation of his reward: points for his team. No bell or Alpo required! Now, I am being slightly unfair to my better half. His “habit” is limited to a few times a week. But his case is extremely mild compared to many boys and men who spend an incredible amount of time and energy on their rosters. Even during football season, when professional teams mostly play only Sunday and Monday, many people (not just men, I’m being unfair to the male population as well) return to their respective fantasy sites almost compulsively to make trades, sign free agents, adjust their starting rosters, and even purchase projected stats and points.
For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon, fantasy sports offer a network for fans of football, baseball, basketball, etc to join in “leagues” against other participants and build rosters of professional players from different teams. For example, I am in a girls-only league along with my boyfriend's sister and step sister. Users gain points based on the performance of starting players in their selected rosters each game. Fantasy sports can lead to PIU for several reasons. Most obviously applied is Wallace’s concept of a locus of control. Sports fans are notorious for screaming at coaches and managers whom they believe have made a bad coaching call. While the fantasy teams are not real rosters (hence the name), fanatics have a say in who plays when. The only factors the users cannot control is player peformances and injuries. Also (pointing back to Pavlov), operant conditioning plays a large role by rewarding users with points when players on their team perform well.
While fantasy sport participants are often guilty of compulsive use, I do not believe Caplan’s model applies. Most often these compulsions are not born out of social dysfunction, but a constant desire to “check up on” one’s team and its progress and to quickly remedy any problems it may have. Fantasy sports do have unique properties in that it is one of few Internet phenomena that causes PIU that is heavily asynchronous (online shopping being another example). It also has special affordances in that it allows users almost complete control. While fantasy sports PIU is not as much cause for concern as are addictions to things like pornography or online gambling, it is certainly present in the online world.
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