What is Internet Addiction?
The Net contains an abundance of information on Internet Addiction. This page provides some of the best definitions that we have found. Click on the websites after the quotes for a more comprehensive study of Internet Addiction.
"Internet
addiction (also known as 'pathological Internet use') is a disorder that affects
millions of Internet users throughout the world. Often, people joke about
being addicted to the Net, but most people don't realize that there are people
out there who are essentially slaves to their computers. Often times they
miss work or school, spend hours and hours online, carry on extramarital
cybersex affairs, and participate in various online activities that end up
affecting their own offline worlds. Make no mistake about it, Internet
addiction is real, and chances are good that someone you know has it."
http://www.internetaddiction.ca/
Susan Griggs Keesler, from KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) writes:
"Dr. Ivan Goldberg, a New York City psychiatrist who coined the
term "Internet Addiction Disorder," explained IAD is not a recognized
medical addiction like alcoholism, but "more like an out-of-control
behavior that threatens to overwhelm the addict's normal life.
"Such
use continues despite knowledge of a persistent or recurrent physical, social or
psychological problem caused or exacerbated by net use, such as sleep
deprivation, marital difficulties, lateness for early morning appointments,
neglect of occupational duties and feelings of abandonment in significant
others," Goldberg said.
"Internet addiction has gained credibility among mental
health professionals as a clinically significant disorder which negatively
impacts social, occupational, family and financial functioning," said Dr.
Kimberly Young, director of the Center for On-line Addiction at the University
of Pittsburgh-Bradford, and reviewer of more than 400 IAD cases.
"Anyone with access to a modem and the Internet may
become addicted," Young warned. She said home-based computer users are most
at risk of developing IAD. Contrary to the stereotype of the computer nerd, a
typical addict is a middle-aged female with limited education, although persons
of all ages and social groups are prominent in her study.
Dr. Nancy Wesson, a clinical psychologist in Mountain View,
Calif., pointed out people can develop behavioral addictions like IAD even when
there's no true physiological dependence. She asserted obsessive net-surfing can
be just as addictive as excesses of other ordinary activities such as eating,
sex, work and exercise.
Bill Cooley, a drug demand reduction specialist with Keesler's
mental health clinic, believes the anonymity of Internet communication, which
allows a person to escape from reality, has great potential for compulsive
behavior or misuse."
ARE YOU ADDICTED?
The
following are traits of someone addicted to the internet.
"1) Using the online services everyday without any
skipping.
2) Loosing track of time after making a connection.
3) Goes out less and less.
4) Spending less and less time on meals at home or at work, and eats in front of
the monitor.
5) Denying spending too much time on the Net.
6) Others complaining of your too much time in front of the monitor.
7) Checking on your mailbox too many times a day.
8) You think you have got the greatest web site in the world and dying to give
people your URL.
9) Loggin onto the Net while already busy at work.
10) Sneaking online when spouse or family members not at home, with a sense of
relief." http://www.addictions.org/internet.htm
