Internet addiction
Jordan Sims 4/14/03 English 111-1 Gronning Internet Addiction, It’s Real Internet Addiction Disorder, or IAD, is to some a false disorder. Becoming addicted to the internet seems far-fetched and even impossible. ... Young has conducted many case studies and tests on heavy-internet users to see if they were addicted (Center for On-Line Addiction). ... Of course, there are two sides to every argument and the opposition to the argument of IAD being real is that, rather than a medical addiction or disorder, its a bad habit or behavior. Internet addiction has been shown to exist through several case studies and surveys, which were ironically enough, online surveys. The on-line surveys that were conducted in 1996 by Brenner with a total of 185 responses depicted 17% of the participants using the internet more than 40 hours a week, 58% said others complained about the amount of time spent online, and 46% indicated getting less than 4 hours of sleep due to late night log-ons (Young). ... 128), Dori JonesYang is quoted as saying FiveYears ago, poking fun at his profession, psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg coined the term “Internet Addiction Disorder” as a joke. ... Though still ill-defined and poorly researched, Internet addiction has emerged as a serious- and growing- problem. ... Young, in order to perform research offline, conducted telephone surveys in 1996 to formally study pathological Internet use based on similar criteria for chronic gambling. ... These case studies show that there is apparently a problem arising with Internet addiction, and that if left untreated, will have impact to major life functions. ... The interpretation of this is clear, that on the surface, it seems only a small percentage of the population suffers from Internet addiction, but six million people is no small number. ... According to studies, heavy Internet dependents experience symptoms of withdraw when offline, such as anxiety, nervousness, thinking about whats happening on the Net, and are easily agitated. These are classic examples of other forms of addiction. Addiction to the Net is one reason many people may get online so much, but honestly, there are other reasons to do so. One example comes from the past, where people would leave their computer signed on overnight, not necessarily to surf the Internet but rather to download a file so it could be viewed the next day. ... Now, with the advent and accessibility of high-speed Internet for the home, people are spending more time in front of the screen as material becomes more quickly accessible and available (David Bursky).