Internet+Addiction

What is Internet Addiction Disorder?
toc //Internet Addiction Disorder//, “is characterized by seven basic diagnostic criteria, among them increasing tolerance of long online hours, withdrawal, and unsuccessful efforts to control Internet use”. It was coined in 1997 by Ivan Goldberg, M.D. Internet usage around the globe has been increasing significantly every year, a 182% increase in the last 5 years, with people gaining access to the web every day. The enormous amount of information and interaction available to people can lead to individuals spending the majority of their free time browsing, chatting, and playing games over the internet. Over time, people may begin to replace normal social actives with ones that take place over the internet. For example, you may decide to have a conversation with someone over a messaging program available to you instead of physically going to them or using a telephone. A study has showed that the majority of the time people were hooked on the internet for chat rooms, pornography, online shopping and email. Many people have also admitted in surveys that they use the internet to escape from their everyday lives. Some studies have even shown that internet addicts tend to be males because of their tendency to view pornographic sites.

Criticisms
Despite many studies, research, and the continual dependence and upgrade in technology, many do not believe that internet addication disorder is even one or should be classified as a mental disorder. It has been challenged by some saying that because it is a social medium. People cannot be addicted to a social medium. In addition, there is a difference between internet addiction and online gambling. Most of the time people will consider online gambling as internet addiction. Although they are associated with each other, online gambling is a separate addiction to internet addication.

Diagnosis
There are 7 different criteria used to diagnose //Internet Addiction Disorder//:

1. Tolerance: Amount of time one needs to use the internet to be satisfied 2. Withdrawal symptoms: Symptoms that develop soon after internet usage is stopped, such as anxiety, trembling, obsessive thinking about the internet, etc. 3. The use of the Internet is engaged to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms 4. Internet usage is longer than the person intended to use it 5. Significant amount of time is spent in activities related to Internet use 6. Real life activities are neglected or less common in favour of Internet activities 7. The individual’s use of the Internet causes a risk of major loss in their life, such as job, education or relationship

Future Problems
Being a mental disorder or not, more people are using the Internet everyday and for longer periods of time. If the amount of daily Internet usage grew to a large number of hours per person, national economies, societies, and cultures would begin to suffer. Additionally, one must consider the possible effects on crossing the digital divide. Non-users are likely not to have Internet access due to their financial situation, such as those in third world countries, and in turn likely have little else to do in terms of activities. If the Internet was suddenly provided to such people, because of it's endless variety of activites and amounts of information, those newly introduced users could stand a high possibility of Internet overuse and possibly worsen their society, which is the exact opposite of what efforts of crossing the digital divide mean to do.