webpsychosis.com A condition associated with long-term exposure to the internet

What is an Internet Addiction?

Compulsive Internet Use, Computer Addiction, Internet Dependence, Problematic Internet Use, Internet Addiction and Internet Addiction Disorder - all of these are essentially terms that have been applied to those that spend excessive amounts of time online at the expense of and to the detriment of other aspects of their lives. The obsessive behaviour takes the form of particular activities, and might include any or all of the following:

• Relationships: spending excessive amounts of time starting and maintaining online friendships in chat rooms, which replace real-life friends and family.

• Money: compulsively gambling online, trading online, and partaking in online auctions.

• Information searching: compulsive web surfing or database searches.

• Gaming: obsessive computer game playing, including multi-user games.

• Sex: addiction to adult chatrooms, cyber sex or pornography on the Internet.

There has been an increasing amount of attention given to this phenomenon, and attempts to quantify the problem have produced some staggering statistics: for example, figures suggesting that as many as 6-10% of the 189 million US Internet users have a dependency on the Internet, and there are as many as 1 million German Internet addicts. There have also been cases recorded of addiction to texting on mobile phones.