The reality of this disease and the scientist value of surveys on the subject are calling into question by most of psychologists, who see only here an e-hysteria. But an other discuss animate experts : is it the same kind of drug addiction or an addictive behaviour like pathologic gamer.

Do a profile of web addictive people exist ? A netaholic profile type. Before that survey allow to give an idea of this phenomenon, media has long time carried the image of lewd teenager and young wolf disciple of the new economy and creator of start-up.

But further than those clichés, reality is really different. According to M. Gautier, “people who don’t feel addictive to the internet are mainly young (15-30 years old) men (next to 75%). Their main activity is their participation to chatrooms (23% of cases), network games or consultation of sexual websites”. We are pretty far from young complex and antisocial teenager.

Many website about the Internet Addiction Disorder are proliferating. There is even cyberclinic. Among those websites proposing e-therapies, we can quote Center for on-line addiction created by Kimberley Young, or Virtual Addiction of the Doctor Greenfield, another American Expert on the subject.

Who does not know Second Life, that virtual world in network where each one can ride his character and go to meet others. Thanks to this real phenomenon everyone wants to be present in this “matrix”! But what are the motivation of its inhabitants? Are there dangers?

Virtual places are a true revolution, these are fictions where we can act by a virtual character who represent us. We can explore space, but also create objects and make services to send them. So we feel physically present. But many people come there to make sexual meet between two characters who mime sexual positions. You can also go to see an “Escort”, it’s a specialist in data processing codes who create a program for you and your desires if you pay him with some Linden Dollars (the official money in that world). Which attract people is the fact that is possible to make his own adult movie thanks to his character and with others people who have a character in this world. Thus there very few things prohibited except imposed to an other character to do something that he doesn’t want, for you just have to push the key “stand up”. There is also the attraction  for the sexual disobedience, an half of users use a character from the other sex. For men that enables for example to go in rooms reserved for lesbians, to enter girl cloakroom. But all these practice are so solitary.

In that world all is under control. You are just renting

time of server from the Linden-lab company who is the owner, and in only one click they can delete you and keep all your things made in this world. It’s a totalitarian world.

There are people who spend their night on Second Life to run away their daily life. They are especially people who don’t like really the human contact. But if you are not this kind of people, you are going to frustrate yourself quickly because of the shortcoming of human contact. Second Life could maintain a desocialization of his users in the way that in the real life we can’t go away our responsibilities and people who spend too many time in this world could disconnect themselves from the reality.