What is internet addiction?

Question

i want the definition of the internet addiction

Answer 1

It is a psychological rather than physiological "addiction" -- and "addiction" is probably not being properly used in terms of the internet. It is more a matter of being a coping mechanism.

I have no "textbook definition" for you, but would say that basically it is when a person prefers being on the internet to anything else -- internet friends over real friends, chat rooms over telephone conversations, digital pictures over reality, websites and blogs over books and newspapers (though this last can just be an issue of preference due to content, so should not be judged in isolation).

There is a feeling of safety which comes from the physical isolation found on the internet. Your internet friends can only hurt your feelings, they can't steal your boyfriend or girlfriend. Your chat room buddies can be ignored by just clicking one box, you don't have to take calls from them at 1 in the morning. It is safer and cheaper to look at a picture of a volcano than it is to fly to Hawaii and go climb one to see it for yourself. And if you only listen to writers who agree with you (or "bash" anyone who posts opposing viewpoints), your world view is never challenged. Thus, for people with insecurities, the internet provides a low-risk way of staying in touch and up to date -- but it is a very shallow connection, a fact which is often not clear to the "internet addict" because just as with any othr coping mechanism, they will invent justifications for it.

There are deeper psychological addictions that do go hand in hand with "internet addiction" such as gambling addictions, pornography addictions, etc (where the internet provides a convenient, fast, and relatively cheap way to supply these addictions), but these are seperate issues of their own.

Answer 2

Jerald block has an editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry, in which he explains why he believes Internet Addiction should be considered a psychiatric disorder.

His reasons include the usual: excessive use, withdrawal (anger, irritability), tolerance (need for more or better), and negative impact on life.

Saying you can be addicted to the internet is like saying love is an addiction. Although it may share some behavioral features, such as obsessions, it is not an addiction. And it should never be featured in the DSM5 as a substance of abuse. Or we would all be doomed to be mentally ill in some point in our lives.

The debate as to whether or not this belongs in the DSM or not entirely misses the most obvious point: no one is addicted to the internet. Ever. And you can’t compare it to ,let’s say, cocaine addiction.

“Yes, but there’s a common addiction pathway…” Oh, I don’t know. If this was true, chemical addicts would have generally substitutable addictions, and they don’t. Experiments with mice strongly support the idea of substitution (e.g. cocaine addicted mice will thirstily self-administer amphetamine) but humans don’t really do this. (1) And chemical addicts should also have very high rates of other (non-chemical) addictions as well, and they don’t. (2)

These non-chemical, behavioral addictions are more properly labeled obsessions but– and this is the point– an obsession is not a disorder. Obsessions can cause harm, we can try to help people with them, but they are not themselves the problem, they are symptoms of something else.

That something else may not be a disorder, either: fragile self; guilt or shame; low or high self esteem; flawed but automatic assumptions, whatever– but trying to “treat” internet addiction without addressing the underlying problem is like treating cancer with Tylenol. Not only does it not help, it actually makes the situation worse.

In the article of Jerald Block, cites a research from South Korea, where the average kid (supposedly) uses the internet 23 hours a week, and thus is at risk for addiction. Compare that to the U.S. 20 years ago, where the concern was 20+ hours of TV a week. I do not recall discussion about kids becoming addicted to TV; we worried they were becoming stupid. What’s changed isn’t the medium or the amount of time on it, or the harm to the intellect or society; what’s changed is the social movement to pathologize, rather than condemn, behaviors.

I’m not saying let’s go back to condemnation, but to put “Internet Addiction” into the DSM legitimizes the symptom-is-disease approach that has caused such great difficulty for patients, and nearly irreparable harm to humanity.

(1) Don’t even think in “dopamine” and “nucleus accumbens”. These explanations could not be more general and useless. Using those two in support of a common addiction pathway is like involving “gasoline” and “spoons” in the diathesis for serial rapes. Even though these are involved in various “addictions”– cocaine, alcohol, internet, sex– these “addictions” and their associated behaviors are so disparate that the pathway serves no useful clinical target. Haldol blocks dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, but you can’t cure alcoholism with it, can you?

I’m not denying that such a pathway exists, I’m doubting the utility of this information, even if true. Call me when science catches up to your lies.

(2) Here’s an example: why do so “sex addicts” or gamblers have such high rates of drug abuse, but the converse is not true?

Answer 3

do you know what the definition of "addiction" is? I know you know what the Internet is because you're on it right now so... now put the two definitions together and you have the answer to your question.

Tada see that wasn't that hard was it?

Answer 4

if you here some one is addicted to drinks .same way if u r always going on doing internet working what ever you are doing ,that is addicting to internet.

Answer 5

Yahoo Answers = Internet Addiction

typically, the people who spend time answering questions on the web are deeply involved with the internet......
(wow, that sounds like me..)hahahaha

Answer 6

Internet: a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange.

Addiction: the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

Answer 7

2nd time study this immediately, all i will respond to, which replaced into an identical answer to the 1st time seeing; 'happy I actual have not been shown to have any of the above indicators' or words to that result.

Answer 8

when one craves the information of the internet if not on it wanting to be on it. Waits for spouce to leave so you can run to the computer.......does anyone do that?

Answer 9

it's when you EAT internet, you SLEEP internet, you DREAM internet, you THINK internet, you PEE internet, that is, when INTERNET is ALL you think about and ALL you do 24 hrs a day.

Answer 10

when your on this site. Tell-tale sign.