Slaves to the Internet Slavery

Slaves to the Internet

Slavery is a strong word to use about the connection that Americans have to the Internet. However, Internet addiction as a disorder is a relatively new area of discussion among researchers. This paper will examine how well the research on the subject reveals the true nature of this malady as a disorder and what its effects can be.

Several reports imply that the Internet addiction can be characterized by the same criteria as a single, anti-social behavior that has very little socially redeeming value. A report that is in this vein was published in Reuters. In the study, researchers at the University of Maryland asked some 200 students to give up all media for one full day. They then found that after 24 hours, many of them showed signs of withdrawal such as craving and anxiety along with an inability to function well without their media and social links ("Reuters.com").

However, the media is new. Today's American society is changing technologically very rapidly and it is necessary to develop new methods for measuring addiction, which are based on the new society that exists today. Researchers are therefore finding new ways of communicating and interacting with each other. This influences our perspective on Internet addiction. If American society is characterized by a widespread growth in Internet activities then the definition of Internet abuse comes in a whole new perception. This would therefore mean that there is a need for treating the disorder. It is in this vein that the Heavensfield Retreat Center near Seattle is offering a 45-day detox program to help those who are hopelessly addicted to the Web or gaming. For $14,500, a patient can be saved from themselves and their virtual world (Matyszczyk ).

However, one would think that given popular the Internet and online gaming is, we would all be checking in. Perhaps we just need to look at the Internet as a new tool that is neither good nor bad, but like everything else must be taken in sustainable quantities. After all, can not anything become addicting? How many disorders can we create?

The Internet is a world wide network which has much to offer to the users which now a days seem to be teenagers. They grew up with a mouse and a keyboard as second nature. They have also grown up addicted to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and texting is something they do all of the time. The Internet goes on to provide many applications such as entertainment. However, like anything else too much of a good thing can be addictive. Kids are spending more and more time in front of the screen than other more influential things in life. The Internet addiction disorder is not only spreading within the kids but adults as well. Experts are trying to cure the problem, but without the addicted peoples' cooperation nothing will be solved. Teens today are spending too much time in front of the computer and are not taking an interest in their school work. They are at a point in their life where decisions in their life affect their future and sitting in front of a computer unless it is your field of study is not getting them anywhere. The factors of this addiction are the lack of socializing, entertaining the user, and the rising of technology.

However, again we have to ask ourselves if it is a disorder, then what does it do to the human brain? In Scientific American, a study was published that indicates that brain scans hint that excessive time online is tied to stark and lethal physical changes in the brain. The work suggests that self-assessed Internet addiction, primarily through online multiplayer games, rewires structures deep in the brain. Even more telling, surface-level brain matter appears to shrink in step with the duration of online addiction. Loosely defined, addiction is a disease of the brain that compels someone to obsess over, obtain and abuse something, despite unpleasant health or social effects. And the internet addiction definitions run the total gamut, but most researchers have similarly described it as excessive Internet use that interferes with the rhythm of daily life. However, unlike addictions to substances such as narcotics or nicotine, behavioral addictions to the Internet, food, shopping and even sex are touchy among medical and brain researchers. Only gambling seems destined to make it into the next iteration of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, the internationally recognized bible of things that can go awry with the brain (Mosher).