Are You Addicted to the Computer

Internet addiction falls in five specific subcategories: Computer addiction, continuous online gaming, Information overload, inevitable web searching, Net compulsions, excessive online gambling or shopping, Cyber-sexual addiction, extreme use of adult websites, and Cyber-relationship addiction, attachment of online dating websites. We all live in a world of internet of things, meaning every device we use or mostly every device is connected to each other. Living the Amish way of life nowadays is very difficult to complete day-to-day tasks. First of all, the basics, the internet we use every day in our lives serves a purpose. That purpose may be work-related or for pleasure. Identifying the purpose of internet use can lead us to what specific internet technology consumes most of our time. The hardest part of the process is identifying the problem, once you identified the problem, there are many ways to find solutions to the problem. Before we dig deeper, we can ask

Some people believe that the Internet has a positive impact on students by providing a variety of resources for their studies. However, I strongly disagree with that claim since internet brings some negative effects on students such as internet addicts and the relying too much on the internet with homework. Teens spend more and more time on playing computer games or just surfing the net without any particular reasons. Accordingly, the time they spend on studying is automatically reduced, which in turns causes the low academic achievement. Moreover, some of them go to the extreme, becoming serious internet

Earlier, the term “addiction” was generally used with substance use but now it is been used with internet and gaming. There has been excessive use of internet found these days across people of all age groups. Excessive internet use is becoming widespread; also internet addiction is reported as problematic. There are many factors that cause internet addiction in adolescents. They are peer pressure, family communication pattern and academic pressure. Broadly, the effect of internet addiction can be divided into behavioral and psychological aspects. Behavioral effect includes academic achievement, family dysfunction and interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, psychological effects include lowered self esteem, well being and social isolation.

Internet gaming disorder deals with individuals who spend an excessive number of hours playing video games. Individuals who are addicted to gaming prefer playing video games than communicating with individuals in person. Individuals prefer to not eat just and rather stay awake playing.

The idea behind the internet was to revolutionize society and with over 3 billion individuals using it, it clearly succeeded (ITU, n.d.). However, individuals started coming online to check their email, watch a video, visit Facebook, or play an online game as a habit, may easily become addicted to these behaviors over time. According to the DSM-V, internet addiction applies to individuals who use the internet excessively, often without realizing how much time has passed, how much more they are using the internet and neglecting their basic needs, as well as, ignoring any negative impacts said internet use has caused (dsm). When not using the internet, the individual may feel withdrawal, angry, tense, and/or depressed; in addition, they may feel the need to have a better computer and more software, which is an internet-addicted individual’s form of tolerance (dsm). Time of use per day in those addicted to the internet is nearly double the time those who are not addicted spend online (Lee,

With the creation of an online world comes the creation of new problems. The great network system known as the Internet has allowed for huge advances in the world, while creating very serious issues as well. Perhaps one of the most common of these negative issues is Internet Addiction Disorder, or IAD. Doctors Aviv Weinstein and Michel Lejoyeux define Internet addiction as being “characterized by excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges or behaviors regarding Internet use that lead to impairment or distress (Weinstein & Lejoyeux, 2010).” One of the reasons this disorder is so prevalent, is the fact that it encompasses a large number of online activities which can lead to it.

Addiction online has become very common in this day and age. With 88.8% of Americans having access to a device with internet there are plenty of individuals who have started drifting away from from their friends and family because of internet addiction. Internet addiction can become very dangerous for youths who are beginning to develop core learning skills which become essential later on in their adult life. It can cause students grades to take a harsh dip. This type of addiction can even cause cause financial problems. It can cause financial problems because of online gambling where a person would end up losing their sense of time and continuously spend their hard earned money on a risky decision that can lead to depression and and has the potential to strain family

Nowadays, computers are emerging rapidly than never before in human history. Everywhere you go, either stores, malls or even your homes is filled with all kinds of electronics. We have come to a stage whereby everything we do or placed our hands on must be computers. We don’t even need to ask our parents questions anymore, all our answers or solutions including problems are all in the internet. According to Theodore Roszak in “Shakespeare Never Lost a Manuscript to a Computer Crash,” argues that “the computer contributes nothing essential to the life of the mind.” I strongly agree! We are created to use our minds to solve problems and think critically. Although computer usage might be a benefit to the majority of the new generation, the fact is that computers can do harm to the society such as lack of memory and isolation.

Goldberg presented the first definition for Internet-related disorders, Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD), as a behavioral addiction that serves as a coping mechanism and borrows from substance-dependence criteria from the DSM-IV (Garrison & Long, 1995, p. 20; Goldberg, 1996). Expanding the definition to include six "core components" of Internet addiction (salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and

Kwiatkowska examined 100 students aged 19 to 24 years old and resulted that due to long term stay online, young people have problem in learning, work and family’s duties, online stay above 5 hours a day maybe followed by increased risk of addiction (Kwiatkowska et.al, 2007). Excessive user and addictive user may face some problems due to their Internet usage problem.

“Internet, mobility, and multimedia are important technology tools that are used in education industry” (Hameed 372).Although the internet is an important tool in the classroom and out, it does have downsides. Websites have become more commercialized, and this has made searching through websites difficult since not all websites are reliable. In the Journal done by Shihab Hameed he says that statistics show that teenagers use the internet more than adults, they use the internet to play games, listen to music and meet new people. Hameed also mentions that it reduces student activity. Students are able to get solutions to homework and as result

Under the new DSM-5 framework, Internet gaming disorder refers to the “persistent and recurrent use of the Internet to engage in games, often with other players, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress…” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The diagnostic symptoms include difficulty controlling use, continued use despite knowledge of psychosocial problems, using gaming to escape or relieve negative moods, loss of interest in other activities, and significant impact on relationships, work or education (Petry et al., 2014). There are 9 criteria for characterising a person with Internet gaming disorder and 5 out of the 9 criteria must be met within one year, such as preoccupation or obsession

Although Internet-Use Disorder is not an official health disorder for the books yet, there’s plenty of research to support the idea that addiction is real and extremely unpleasant. “Sufferers” display symptoms of withdrawal when they are unable to access the internet, while those that do appear to experience a process in their brain that is very similar to heroin and cocaine addicts. UCLA Researchers released to CBS the following in regards to test results of brain activity through the stages of high internet usage and withdrawal, "The (Internet addiction/ withdrawal) results in brain activity results also suggest that IAD may share psychological and neural mechanisms with other types of substance addiction and impulse control disorders." Many

The second case to be reviewed is a study that took place among 594 in-patients, aged ten to 24 years old, of one of the largest Internet addiction clinics in China. (Jiang, 2014) The study aimed to investigate the relationships between internet addiction, internet connectedness, wherein various factors of Internet usage are considered to measure an individual’s Internet usage pattern, and online gaming. Online gaming is a major contributing factor to Internet addiction, particularly in the young adult male demographic. (Hsu & Yu, 2007) Due to online games’ massive immersion and interaction features, they can be really engaging and time-consuming, as well as give the player a sense of belonging. The data retrieved from the surveyed patients were split into 5 parts, namely: Internet connectedness, online gaming, Internet addiction symptoms, academic performance decrement, and demographics. The results showed a strong correlation between the hypothesized aspects.

There is not a clear stated definition of digital addiction however Shaw and Black (2008) characterize Internet addiction by excessive or poorly preoccupations, urges or behaviours regarding computer use and internet access that lead to impairment or distress. However as the term addict is a strong description DA is seen as a general misuse of the internet in various forms, as no formal definition exists the author sees the disorder as problematic computer usage resulting in negative consequences. According to Young et al DA is a broad term covering a wide variety of behaviours and impulse control problems. K.Young (1999) also categorised DA into five subtypes of DA, they are cybersexual addiction, cyberrelationship addiction; net compulsion (e.g. gambling or shopping on the internet); information overload (e.g. compulsive database searching); and computer addiction (excessive game-playing). This project highlights social network addiction which falls into the category of cyberrelationship addiction but also contemplates all other types.