Internet Addiction it Is Thought That Nearly

Internet Addiction

It is thought that nearly five million people today are addicted to the Internet. With that many people experiencing addiction symptoms, it is important for the mental health community to develop methods of treatment. In an article in the March-April 1998 issue of Psychology Today, author Carol Potera explores the questions and realities of online use and addictions.

Although use of the Internet became common in the early 1990s, it wasn't until 1994 that an associate professor of psychology, Kimberly Young, discovered that some people were spending a large amount of time online and suffering negative consequences for it. Not having a real name for the condition, she called it "Internet Addiction."

The survey of 500 Internet users led Young to classify people as dependent or non-dependent on the Internet. Dependent users claimed that they used the Internet 38 hours per week, compared to 5 hours reported by the non-dependent users. Thirty-five percent said their favorite activity was talking in chat rooms. Another study done two years later showed that dependents spent twice as much time in chat rooms as non-dependent users.

Young's study asked about financial, personal, work, or school problems caused by Internet use. Half the dependents said they had problems but none of the non-dependents did.

But another study reported even more serious statistics. Counseling Net reported on a study by Dr. Janet Morahn-Martin at Bryant College wherein she concluded that 72% of those with high Internet use experienced problems with work, school and relationships. (COUNSELING.)

It's not really known how many people have Internet Addiction, but since there are similarities to other addictions, numbers can be estimated. Since about five to ten percent of people who drink or gamble develop addiction problems, it can be estimated that of the 47 million people online (at the time of the study) possibly two to five million developed Internet Addiction.

Young was surprised to discover that middle-aged women, instead of young men, were the most likely to become dependent users. Yet other statistics that same year claimed that the typical Internet user was a while North American male, aged 35-44, with a bachelor's degree. (SULER)

Sixty percent of users who became dependent were women who reported a preference for chat rooms because they could talk online with others without telling anything about themselves unless they chose to. Another psychologist, Sherry Turkle, believed that one component of Internet Addiction is that being online lets people pretend to be someone else.

Why do people become addicted in the first place? The answers can be very simple -- and deceptive in their simplicity. Richard Davis wrote in "The Treatment of Internet Addiction" that reinforcers include the computer room environment, the chair one sits on, the feel of the keyboard and mouse in one's hand, the sound of the computer's fan running, and various audio signals, (e.g. beeps, clicks, bells, etc.) that are elicited in computer software programs," and "cognitions about the self include such thoughts as, "I have control and power online, whereas I don't have such power offline," "I am worthless offline, but online I am someone," and "I get respect online, but offline I don't." Maladaptive cognitions about the world include, "Nobody offline loves me," "everyone is addicted to the Internet in some way," and "the Internet is the only place you can really get to know someone."

As the concept of Internet Addiction grew, it became apparent that the label itself was incorrect. Psychologists don't approve of the term "addiction" and instead prefer the term "dependence." But whatever the label, as the number of people with the problem rose, psychologists had to be prepared to deal with it. The initial problem, which still exists, is whether or not Internet Addiction behaves the same way as other accepted addictions, specifically whether or not Internet Addiction produces chemical changes in the brain. Either way, Young writes, even if there are no chemical changes in the brain, there are social problems just like those in the accepted addictions.

John Suler, in his article about Internet Addiction says that a diagnosis "must meet two important criteria: 1) identification of a consistent, reliably diagnosed set of symptoms that constitutes the disorder. 2) correlation of similar elements in the histories, personalities, effective treatment, and prognosis of people who are diagnosed with the disorder (i.e., etiologic, concurrent, and predictive validity of the diagnosis)." (SULER2)

The social problems of Internet Addiction cover the whole spectrum of life and can include being fired from a job, failing classes, divorce and marriage problems, and legal trouble. The legal profession has found itself in a brand new area as the problems resulting for Internet Addiction make their way into the courts. New defenses have had to be developed for employees who are fired for spending too much work time on the Internet. Child custody battles have been fought over the amount of time a former spouse spends on the Internet, with the additional claims that there is child neglect because of it. The courts are just now beginning to realize that, while they might not completely understand the concept of Internet Addiction, something is happening to cause problems, and those must be addressed legally. The Center for Online Addiction reports that "in the past year, the credibility of Internet addiction has become a legal issue in both civil and criminal courts. The president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers indicated that there has been a notable rise in the number of divorce cases involving cyberaffairs and online addiction over the past year. Furthermore, the issue of Internet addiction has played a significant role in child custody hearings. Frequently, such Internet abuse leads to neglectful behavior on the part of the custodial parent, often times the mother, leaving the non-custodial parent to fight for full custody." (LEGAL)

The tracking of a person's online use has become big business. In support of the courts' new willingness to assign blame based on Internet Addiction, software manufacturers have come up with dozens of programs that will do everything from record each keystroke typed into the computer to taking secret snapshots of the monitor screen. This information can either be stored in a hidden location on the computer for later retrieval, or it can be send instantly to another computer in the form of a log or file of images. All the aggrieved party has to do is take the evidence into court.