Could It Be Addiction? Essay

Internet addiction has become a huge problem in today’s society. In Greg Beato’s article, he discusses the growing phenomena of internet addiction disorder. The writer explains that more and more people are becoming addicted to the internet. For example, he tells of a teenager in Ohio, who shot and killed his mom and injured his dad because they took away his Xbox. He tells how it is stated that five to ten percent of the 52 million internet users were addicted. The author is telling us that the internet has become very addictive in our everyday society.

Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, questions the impact the technology has upon our lives. He argues that the internet prevents our ability to engage in deep reading and thus restricts our ability to think critically. He says this is due to the idea of neuroplasticity, which is where our brains change in order to adapt to the different stimuli it encounters. When books were first introduced, our brain had to rewire itself in order to achieve the ability to focus for long periods of time on text and to think deeply about it. This resulted in a literate deep thinker. However, the internet has forced our brain to rewire itself again. Carr says that “there is evidence that the cells of our brains literally develop and grow bigger with use, and atrophy or waste away with disuse” (22). Our brain has many structures that perform specific functions and the structures associated with deep thinking can decrease and eventually will serve no function if we don’t use it. We are much better thsn our ancestors. According to Carr, “the oral world of our distant ancestors may well have had emotional and intuitive depths we can no longer appreciate” (56). In other words, Carr believes that people in the past engaged in focused, immersed thinking. I believe that Nicholas Carr is right when he says that the internet is changing the way we think, however I don’t believe that we need to turn off the internet in order to reduce the chances of losing

The Internet has replaced the canine as man’s best friend. In our world today, we have been consumed by the internet and have adopted an obsession with it. In “The Juggler’s Brain,” the seventh chapter from his book, The Shallows, Nicholas Carr discusses the change in the human brain, both physically and functionally. He claims that the internet is probably the “most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use” and that because we have become so accustomed to using it, we have been subject to its effects on our cognition and comprehensive depth (Carr 116). The Internet has become an essential part of society without which we seemingly can’t function; although, because of it, our functionality has suffered. Throughout his argument, Carr very thoroughly supports his claim of the Internet’s effects on the human brain citing numerous experiments and much experimental data on the subject. His argument is logical, clear, concise, multi-faceted, and well supported across the chapter. Carr successfully argues that the Internet is producing grave changes to the human cognitive process through the use of sound, supporting examples and seemingly contradictory evidence that actually gives more merit to his claim.

Have you ever thought about the effect technology is having on your mental abilities such as your brain? Well I didn’t until I came across “Is google making us stupid.” Never have I thought the internet and what it was doing to me would affect me from an academic standpoint. Now a days no real effort is being put into research or writing or even reading. Google is making us stupider because it is causing our memory become very lazy, it is causing the individual to lose knowledge, and lastly it is causing the individual to have a short attention span. The essay Carr wrote with his strong introduction, and different sources used convinced me of the dangers that technology is having on a individuals brain.

The internet today has become an increasingly essential element that makes receiving information and communicating with others easier for our everyday human life. By accessing the internet, you are provided with a wide range of options when it comes to what exactly you’re looking for. The internet is used for social networks, online dating, shopping, research, gathering information, and much more. You are given unlimited access to everything published on the internet which can often result in loss of time and excessive use. Although the internet may make life easier for many, it can also become an unhealthy habit that could cause deficits in social encounters. Addiction is when you are

The world as we know it has begun to turn into one of modern technology and reliance on modern technology. The coming generations will grow up with even more technology surrounding them in addition to mp3s, cell phones, computers, convenience machines, and the internet. The internet is always expanding and encompassing more as time passes on. From its’ development to today, the internet is used for more than information gathering, such as playing video games, games, socializing via chatting, Skype, social networking sites, watching movies, and more. With so much to do on the internet, it can become time consuming and even become addictive to some, leading to excessive overuse or addiction. Internet addiction behaviors include

We are going through some changes the Internet is changing our brains. We can go back a century ago where children would play outside and read from actual books and playing with toy. This New generation is constantly using electronics for everything we are not learning the same way and it's affecting the way the brain is developing at a younger age. It has become nearly impossible for us humans to get rid of our electronics. "If you grow dependent on your smartphone, it becomes a magical device that silently shouts your name at your brain at all times" (Meyer). Our brain is constantly reminding us that we need to check our phones. Technology is also affecting our memory. There's different ways in the way that the Internet is affecting our brain. "As our bodies are shaped by the food we eat, our brains are shaped by what we put into them. So of course, the internet is changing our brains." (476 Alderman). technology and the Internet have become like an agenda for us. We no longer must remember peoples phone numbers, or people’s emails, because we have all that in our electronic. Another way that it's affecting us, is through our youth children are learning differently now. Children no longer must pick up a physical book and start reading it they have access to that same book from their electronics, but the problem with that is that there's so many distractionss that they can start reading a book and end up playing a game and lose focus. Having technology in our hands makes it

Nowadays, the Internet is one of the most important means of modern technology, which occupies and invades minds and souls. This technology is exploited by some to satisfy their curiosity, to learn about new discoverers, and to be challenged by adventures and to satisfy other desires. Despite the privileges it has brought to people's lives, the Internet however has its own disadvantages. Internet addiction is one of the most dangerous and frightening problems that has swept the world in all societies, and it is a new disease of this modern age. Internet addiction in people can be expressed in terms of the excessive time and intent that is being put in its use. Young people are usually victims of Internet addiction. Therefore, the compulsive

While both authors present some of the positive effects of technology, as mentioned above, to us, each of them addresses different issues on how exactly uses of technology and technological improvements negatively impact human life. As people become addicted to the valuable web efficiency, it turns out that the Internet serves to be quite harmful towards human cognition in such that it diminishes the capacity of human concentration and contemplation. As Carr says in “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, “media supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought” (Carr 2). In other words, Internet is controlling and changing the way we think or consume information and thus, flattering our own intelligence into “artificial intelligence” (Carr 8). People nowadays are so used to the information provided by the Internet that they do not rely on their own knowledge or think on their own like they used to prior to the advent of Internet. An instance that reflects this idea of self-manipulation is shown in Carr’s own statement, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Carr 2). Even though Carr does not go onto to say that he is becoming vacuous, he believes that his mind is changing due to spending so much time on the web over the last several years. Before, he was very much engaged

Internet addiction is a new-age phenomenon that not all people are active in the modern world fully understand. According to (Kuss & Griffiths 2015) “internet addiction has been conceptualized as behavioural addiction involving the excessive use of the online applications and leading to detrimental impacts on the affected individuals lives (2). To many people think or even say, it is simply “playing on the computer too much”, however, those same people do not even realize that they are apart of the

Internet addiction is a common topic nowadays due to the rather easy access it poses. It is described as an impulse-control disorder fairly similar to the one suffered by pathological gamblers and drug addicts, minus the use of any psychoactive substance (Young, 1995). There is a video of Dr. Kimberly Young called “What you need to know about internet addiction” in which she argues the dangers faced by the increasing amount of people that engage daily on the Internet.

Throughout the duration of the twenty first century, the United States has been advancing in technology drastically. From the developments of touch screen phones, tablets, and computers the United States has been known for being one of the most successful countries within the electronics industry. In the modern day; however, more and more people seem to be skeptical about the easy access to these electronics. The latest concern comes from whether or not the internet is a health concern to minors. Teenagers seem to be more and more involved with technology since the creation of social media and instant messaging. Although social media like Facebook and Myspace have been available since the early 2000’s, minors became tech savvy with other social networks like Instagram and Snapchat more recently. These advancements in technology have caused a great deal of addictiveness to technology in the past ten years. This addictiveness causes people to judge minors and to question their future because of the laziness that the internet encourages. While most Americans agree that young people should have a restriction on how often they should be on their phones or online, those people need to understand that the internet is not created to be addictive and that it was made just for informational purposes. The unhealthiness does not come from the internet itself, it is provoked by the user. The internet is actually proven to encourage minors to grow socially and mentally.

Although many people believe that the internet is making people smarter, better workers, and more focused, is a major misconception. Nicholas Carr, a writer about technology and culture, proves this wrong in his book The Shallows. Where he explains the negative effects of the internet, and how it is changing the way people think and process information. He explains this information by interviewing people who study in neuroscience, and by getting the opinion of other people such as bloggers who blog about technology and how it is affecting them. The internet is making people dumber, less focused, and rerouting people’s brains to think in another way.

Today in our world, teenagers are constantly using the internet and sometimes it can get out of hand, but for the most part, teenagers use the internet to their benefit.With our growing society and our new inventions in technology associated with the internet, there are many pros and cons when it comes to having the internet around and I think that the pros outweigh the cons. “Chatting online with others helps young people build social skills,”(Source 2, Step 3) states how most parents think the internet and social media makes teenagers less social, when in reality, many teenagers learn several social skills through online chatting which helps them face to face. Although there are a handful of teenagers who use the internet to move away from social interactions, using the internet more often could help teenagers become more confident in being social. “Most of us learn the hard way to back up data, avoid clicking on mysterious links and save often. As kids explore on the computer, they are picking up

In today’s world, the development of the Internet is getting better and better. We can expand more knowledge to open our vision and communicate with others through it. But when we enjoy the benefits of the Internet to bring us, we should also be careful not to indulge in the Internet at the same time. More and more people are addicted to the Internet, especially the teenagers, they have a strong psychological dependence on the Internet which is harmful to them. Research indicates that the Internet affects adolescents in four areas: physical health, psychosocial development, academic performance, and family relationships. (Cynthia Sau Ting Wu1*, Ho Ting Wong2, Kin Fai Yu1, Ka Wing Fok1, Sheung Man Yeung1, Cheuk Ho Lam1 and Ka Man Liu). I will talk about the disadvantages and solutions of adolescents addicted to the Internet in this article.