Do you get mad when your internet goes down or is slow and all you want is to check Facebook? Are you compelled to check/respond to text messages or e-mails even when you have more important things to do? In fact, my internet cut out on me while typing this post and I got a little angry myself. But is there such a thing as internet withdrawal as a result of internet addiction?
I ran upon this interesting article:
Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction
This is an editorial from the journal Psychiatry that discussed internet addiction and whether it should be recognized as a common disorder. This disorder includes three different categories of internet use: Gaming, sexual preoccupations, and e-mail/text messages. These all include 4 components:
"1) excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives, 2) withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible, 3) tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use, and 4) negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue"
Other countries like South Korea believe internet addiction is a serious public health problem, but in America the problem is more private. It could also be considered an economic problem due to decreased productivity.
With such reliance on the internet these days, the lines could be blurry as to what constitutes addiction and restricts functioning versus what is actually required to function.
What does everyone think? Are you addicted? Is this a legitimate concern? Should treatment include medication? Why might people become addicted (intensely motivated to use) the internet?
I ran upon this interesting article:
Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction
This is an editorial from the journal Psychiatry that discussed internet addiction and whether it should be recognized as a common disorder. This disorder includes three different categories of internet use: Gaming, sexual preoccupations, and e-mail/text messages. These all include 4 components:
"1) excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives, 2) withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible, 3) tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use, and 4) negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue"
Other countries like South Korea believe internet addiction is a serious public health problem, but in America the problem is more private. It could also be considered an economic problem due to decreased productivity.
With such reliance on the internet these days, the lines could be blurry as to what constitutes addiction and restricts functioning versus what is actually required to function.
What does everyone think? Are you addicted? Is this a legitimate concern? Should treatment include medication? Why might people become addicted (intensely motivated to use) the internet?
It is absolutely possible to get addicted to the internet. Why wouldn't it be, people get addicted to far more bizarre behaviors, and sometimes ones that are more detrimental health-wise.
The internet can provide instant gratification, a source for entertainment matching or exceeding a variety of other mediums. The problem is that there is so much to do on the internet that it is easy to get side tracked and to fail to accomplish goals. Actually getting anything done is an act of will when doing something that is fun is just ctrl+tab away.
For the most part though, it shouldn't be a concern. Much like gambling is separate from gambling addiction, the people who fritter away their life on the internet is very small relative to the number of people who use the internet. It is a minority we should be aware of, but it isn't a major problem.
The real major problem of internet addiction is that we as a society are moving toward an internet based society. For people who have control issues related to responsible use of the internet, this is the problem. It'd be like being a gambling addict and having to live in a casino. It means the recidivism rates for true internet junkies are going to be even higher, and the recidivism rate was already going to be sky high because of the fact that it is not directly damaging as many traditional addictions are.
The public eye has been brought to this by a few deaths. I can't find any great statistics for computer usage related deaths, but the aforementioned article cites ten and I was able to find evidence of questionable evidence of two others, and one of those already had scar tissue on his heart that lead to his death. The best information that I've been able to run down is maybe twelve deaths throughout the entire history of the internet.
Ten of those deaths took place in internet cafes in South Korea, and the other one took place at a Starcraft tournament in Korea. It bears mentioning that professional Starcraft gamers can potentially make money off of this, sometimes exceeding $100,000 dollars. There were probably other factors in that death. I would suspect that there are other factors in the ten deaths in South Korea that merit looking into.
Those statistics are fairly low, especially when put into a global context. Locally, they are definitely alarming but it seems strange that the deaths occur most commonly in internet cafes in one country. The internet while it might be part of the problem is being scapegoated. If the internet was the base cause, it would be occurring other places because most other countries have internet cafes. Other facets of life in South Korea are more likely the cause and they should look into those as opposed to the internet which is almost definitely the wrong direction for research.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm
http://www.spike.com/articles/id98jf/the-top-10-deaths-caused-by-video-games