Internet Addiction

What phrase should describe when people loose control of internet behavior

When I am speaking in public about what we have named internet addiction I often start by asking people about the phrase we have been using to describe this problem "Internet addiction". Because it seems that many people a rejecting this problem to be a real problem because people think addiction should only be related to chemicals induction.

Behavioral addiction is well know by professionals as a problem that seems to lead to the same vicous cycle as we know from chemical dependency. These problem are e.g gambling addiction, shopping addiction, pyromania, sexual addiction, kleptomania and eating disorders
At the same time we often prefer to use other words than addiction e.g gambling addiction is often named compulsive gambling, pathalogical gambling. We talk about overeaters, compulsive shoppers, sexual disorders, eating disorders and etc.

Maybe we should use compulsive surfing, pathalocical internet use, ( and for more descrption of the behavior on the internet) compulsive gaming, obsessive chatting, pornograpic compulsion. Maybe professional will start using internet disorders, computer disorders or technologcal disorder or keep on using internet addiction.

In the end I think the most important thing is look beyond the phrases we use we describe this problem and start acknowledging that for some people (luckily minority of surfers) internet use leads to problems that negativily affects other parts of their life as other addiction and compulsion does. So lets face it even though most people do not have problem with their internet and computer use for some people it is a real problem and we should start knowing the signs and try to manage it before it becomes an addiction

Internet gambling addiction
Gambling is a growing buisness on the internet and people who have gambling addction are know not just at risk in casinos. Know the casino is on every computer the compulsive gambler has access to

Internet gaming addiction
Gaming addiction is probably the most talked about internet addiction. Probably because we are seeing so many children and adolescence losing control on this type of internet addiction. The games that are most addictive are those that are played real time with real people (MMORPG= Massive multiplayer online role playing games and MMOFPS = Massive multiplayer online first person shooters)

Internet chatting addiction
Everyone is chatting and now some cannot stop chatting. First people who lost control chatting was mostly lonely housewives, but now just people who are social isolated, lonely, social phobic are at risk

Cybersex addiction
People often say sex is most search topic on the internet and cybersex is probably the web 2.0 version of sex on the internet. We are seeing lots of cases of cybersex addiction and online adultery is a growing problem

Pornographic addiction
More sex (but not web 2.0). Access to pornography has never been easier on never be so easy to hide your interest in it. So lots of people are getting hooked on pornography on the internet

Auction addiction
Auction like eBay can also be addictive and it is probably similar to shopping addiction but with a gambling twist to it

Researches on Internet Addiction
According to research the prevalence of Internet addiction has been shown to
be between 8% and 13% of undergraduate students reportedly addicted to the internet, impairing
individual psychological well-being, peer and family interactions and academic performance.

Criteria and statistics
According to preliminary diagnosis of internet addiction by a leading expert on internet addiction
Kimberly Young, addiction is considered to affect those that spend 38 hours or more online
and is considered to have various effects on school and work.13 A study from 2007 on online
gamers revealed that 11,9 % fulfilled the criteria for Internet addiction.

Depression
Those that have been clinically depressed are at risk of developing addiction to the internet.

Social Phobia
Those that have signs of social phobia seem to be at higher risk.
You can be anybody you want ,
people do not flush
it is easier to misspell in chat (you can hit delete and start again) than say something wrong in real life

Lonely and isolated people
Those that are lonely and isolated are at higher risk.
First we saw the lonely housewife's,
Next we saw few old people that had topped working,
Third came lots of homosexual individuals that had easier of opening up and finding friends on the internet than in real life

What these people had all in common was being isolated in some way and the internet became a place that made them feel more as a part of some group

"you find so many friends on the internet"
"people understand me on the internet"
"people who are just like me there",
"there is always someone there to listen"

History of addiction (addiction jumping
People that had history of other addiction seem to sometimes jump to other addiction