The Causes and Effects of Internet Addiction

The audience Beato address in this essay is anyone who might be addicted to the internet and the general public in order to inform them about internet addiction.

In the article “Addicted to Distraction” by Tony Schwartz, he argues that the internet has a relentless pull on humans. He goes into detail on how the internet interrupts all daily activity. Schwartz also explains how he is also a victim to the internet and how he is overcoming the overuse of it. The internet does have a grasp on the attention of humans. People willingly give up their primary focus and activities just to check their devices. People are imprisoned to the internet and don’t even realize that it is leading to a deterioration of their learning ability.

Tony Schwartz wrote an article called “ Addicted to Distraction” on November 28, 2016 to inform the readers about how the internet is a distraction and how distractions can affect your life. One of the main points in this article is that people use the internet for non important things. Another point is stated in paragraph 14, “ The problem is that we humans have a very limited reservoir of will and discipline.” Through out the article, Shwartz did not only write the article to only talk about his own addiction, he also wrote it to where the readers can relate to it and to compare it to their very own distraction.

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.

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,

In the article, “Caught in the Web: More People Say Heavy Internet Use is Disrupting Their Lives, and Medical Experts are Paying Attention” by January W. Payne argues that using technology too much, has consequences that can affect the people around, and the individual’s health as well. At the same time, many people use internet excessively, and do not realize that, they might get further from the outside world. According to a research by Stanford University, demonstrated, that people spend on the internet about 3 or more hours daily. Many people are getting addictive to the internet, because they see it as an escape from problems, while others use it as a way to relax themselves. As people addiction to the internet increase, people isolate

Behaviors speculated to be addictive in nature include gambling, Internet use, sex, exercise, and eating. The negative outcome of devoting an increasing amount of time to the Internet can potentially lead to misuse which can result to social isolation, poor interpersonal relationships, family, instability and low academic performance.

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

Users who spend too much time in cyberspace are typically fleeing problems with relationships or trying to address deep feelings of insecurity or loneliness…and as with other addictions, what at first seems like a pleasurable retreat from pain, gradually becomes a tyrant, interfering with work, family life and normal, healthy contact with other people (Macklin).

Meeting the any of the five symptoms which include always thinking about what your missing online, feeling uneasy when you offline, lying to family and friends to hide how much time you spend on the Internet, lacking control on how much time you spend on the Internet, putting your relationships and education on hold to spend more time online, and going online to escape reality and problems, could be signs

We must also learn why the user depends too much on the internet. We must identify the reason behind this study. According to Kaye (1998), he identified that six possible motives for using the internet are entertainment, social, interaction, pass time, escape, information and website preference.

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

Conversely, internet users do not frequently move as they should to exercise. The human body needs daily any physical exercise to be healthy, but this cannot happen if there is an internet connection. Unable to exercise leads to obesity, which is significant reasons for so many diseases. As reported by Anne Cocke article Internet Addiction and Health Effect she shows overuse of the internet leads to sedentary lifestyles, weight gain, and a decline in physical fitness. The other symptoms are headaches, dry eyes.

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.

Users who spend too much time in cyberspace are typically fleeing problems with relationships or trying to address deep feelings of insecurity or loneliness…and as with other addictions, what at first seems like a pleasurable retreat from pain, gradually becomes a tyrant, interfering with work, family life and normal, healthy contact with other people (Macklin).