p2pnet - rss feed: Are you a Net addict?
p2p news / p2pnet: You can interpret the state of being addicted in more than one way. For example, you could be totally and unhealthily obsessed with something to the virtual exclusion of all else, as with alcohol and/or drugs.
Or you could be so absorbed with something that it occupied most of your attention, as with writing code or publishing a web site.
So are you addicted to the Net?
Canada’s Dr Diane Wieland published a study in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care which says some five to 10 percent of Net users have problem compulsions.
"Just like all addictions, it takes you in a direction that you don’t want to go," the Globe & Mail quotes her as saying. "It’s slow moving at first and all of a sudden it takes over. It’s probably very subtle, but people who are antisocial would be most vulnerable to this form of addiction."
Net addiction is as an, "overarching term applied to five different compulsive online behaviours: excessive use of adult websites, or cybersexual addiction; cyber-relationship addiction, where there is an over-involvement with online relationships; net compulsion, such as gambling, shopping or stock trading; information overload from Web surfing and database searching; and addiction to interactive computer games."
Moreover, "most Internet addicts have reported some sort other addiction in the past".
Not only can the addiction lead to neglect of real-life relationships, Dr. Wieland says, but it has also been reported to have detrimental physical affects.
Below is a test by Dr Kimberly Young, executive director at the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery and published in the Globe & Mail. The idea is rate your response on a scale of 1 to 5, ie, 1 2 3 4 5. Then you add up all numbers and check the result against the scores at the bottom.
1. How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended?
2. How often do you neglect household chores to spend more time online?
3. How often do you prefer the excitement of the Internet to intimacy in your relationship?
4. How often do you form new relationships with fellow online users?
5. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend online?
6. How often do your grades or school work suffer because of the amount of time you spend online?
7. How often do you check your e-mail before something else that you need to do?
8. How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the Internet?
9. How often do you become defensive or secretive when anyone asks you what you do online?
10. How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the Internet?
11. How often do you find yourself anticipating when you will go online again?
12. How often do you fear that life without the Internet would be boring, empty, and joyless?
13. How often do you snap, yell, or act annoyed if someone bothers you while you are online?
14. How often do you lose sleep because of late-night log ons?
15. How often do you feel preoccupied with the Internet when off-line, or fantasize about being online?
16. How often do you find yourself saying, "just a few more minutes" when online?
17. How often do you try to cut down on the amount of time you spend online and fail?
18. How often do you hide how long you’ve been online?
19. How often do you choose to spend more time online over going out with others?
20. How often do you feel depressed, moody, or nervous when you are off-line, which goes away once you are back online?
20—39 Points: average online user. There is control over Internet use, although use of the Internet may be lengthy at times.
40—69 Points: frequent problems exist regarding use of the Internet.
70—100 Points: internet usage is causing significant problems in life. Issues need to be addressed.
Also See:
Globe & Mail - Study illuminates perils of Internet addiction, May 9, 2006
May 11th, 2006 at 1:43 am
How in the hell did I manage to score 834?
May 11th, 2006 at 2:12 am
Sounds like the same rubbish that “prove” looking at titty magazines turn you into a monster. I can remember a time a parent would be thrilled if their kid used a computer instead of driving around looking for trouble. Now they want to pry the kid away from the computer, to do what? Who knows. Maybe go to church.
May 11th, 2006 at 3:45 am
I live, sleep, eat and drink online. Although I have a source of income from doing so.
May 11th, 2006 at 4:25 am
I don’t doubt that there are ppl out there who are seriously addicted to the net to the point of damaging their health, BUT.
How much of this hype is just the lamescream media trying to scare parents into preventing their kids from using the net as their primary source of info and entertainment? Instead of tuning in or buying the papers. I wonder.
I’m sure if MediaBigBiz owned the net you’d never, ever, hear about net addiction. Certainly not if they were charging by the hour for access.
May 11th, 2006 at 10:59 am
“Although I have a source of income from doing so.”
gay porn?