A study by Sharon Kirkey says that this our brain on the internet: Messed up where there should be connections for making decisions and having normal emotions.

Results of a new study suggest people who cannot control, cut back or stop their use of the Internet have abnormal white matter structure in the brain similar to what is seen in cocaine and crystal-meth addicts.

According to the study’s authors, as the number of people logging onto cyberspace soars, “Internet addiction disorder” — which is poised to enter the official lexicon of psychiatric illnesses — “is becoming a serious mental-health issue around the world.”

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/11/internet-addiction-has-same-effect-as-cocaine-on-brains-study/

• Do you feel preoccupied with the internet?
• Do you feel the need to use the internet with increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction?
• Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop internet use?
• Do you feel restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop internet use?
• Do you stay online longer than intended?
• Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the internet?
• Have you lied to family members, a therapist or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the internet?
• Do you use the internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a distressed mood (eg feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety and depression)?

Participants answering yes to questions 1 to 5 and at least one more answer were classed as suffering from Internet Addiction Disorder

Web addicts have brain changes similar to those hooked on drugs or alcohol, preliminary research suggests.

Experts in China scanned the brains of 17 young web addicts and found disruption in the way their brains were wired up.

They say the discovery, published in Plos One, could lead to new treatments for addictive behaviour.

Internet addiction is a clinical disorder marked by out-of-control internet use.

A research team led by Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan carried out brain scans of 35 men and women aged between 14 and 21.

Seventeen of them were classed as having internet addiction disorder (IAD) on the basis of answering yes to questions such as, "Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop Internet use?"

Specialised MRI brain scans showed changes in the white matter of the brain - the part that contains nerve fibres - in those classed as being web addicts, compared with non-addicts.

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Internet addiction is a real problem for college students and teens today, and here are several trends that are worrisome.

1. Students have feelings similar to drug and alcohol addiction

200 students were asked to abstain from all media for one day, and were then asked to blog about their experiences. Words the students used to describe their feelings during the restriction period were the same words associated with a substance abuse addiction: "withdrawal, frantically craving, very anxious, antsy, miserable, jittery, crazy." It seems that these students are addicted to media, particularly in its online form.

2. College students are especially prone to Internet Behavior Dependence

A college student case study revealed that college students are a "population of special concern" when it comes to Internet addiction, and they are extremely vulnerable due to psychological and environmental factors in their lives. When faced with an Internet addiction, college students have a hard time forming their identity and building intimate relationships. Online, students can "develop relationships devoid of the anxiety found in face-to-face relationships," and they "can take on any persona they desire, without fear of judgment on appearance or personal mannerism, and can avoid racial and gender prejudice."

3. Online poker is widespread on college campuses

Online poker joins two addictions together: gambling and online interaction, so its use on college campuses is especially worrisome. The University of Pennsylvania predicts that over 20% of college students play online poker at least once a month. Although it can be a fun game, and many students may be able to maintain healthy lives while enjoying playing online poker, some simply can’t. At the University of Pennsylvania, researchers noted that among college gamblers that played weekly, over half of them had a serious problem with the habit.

4. Students can’t go one day without the World Wide Web

When 1,000 college students took part in an international study on electronic media, they were asked to go without media for 24 hours. But many students in the study were not up to the challenge. A majority of them did not actually go without media for the one day, giving in and checking in with their phones or email. Students confessed, "I sat in my bed and stared blankly. I had nothing to do," and "Media is my drug; without it I was lost. How could I survive one day without it?" The study revealed a physical dependency on media, especially Facebook and (...)

Read the whole story here.

More and more people are getting addicted to technology, more and more people also experience sleep disturbances. Not experiencing difficulty to sleep due to busy using a cell phone, but sending random text messages without knowing while you’re asleep.

This behavior is referred to as “sleep texting” or sending text messages while sleeping. Under the mechanism, the behavior of this sleep disorders is grouped in the same category by walking during sleep (sleep walking), delirium (sleep talking) or having sex while sleeping (seksomnia).

“Usually I roll back and forth in bed for 2-3 hours before actually falling asleep,” said Elizabeth Hammonds, a 16-year-old, according to MSNBC, Monday (11/21/2011). Once Hammonds is asleep, something unexpected happened. If others start talking, experience nightmares or sleepwalks, she does something that is actually difficult to do while you sleep, which is typing and sending text messages. Hammonds did not realize his behavior at all, until her friends complained the next day for receiving unclear text messages from the girl. Hammonds did not believe initially, but all the evidence was recorded in the cell phone. “You send a text at 3 am and I don’t understand what you mean,” said her friend. Hammonds types and sends text messages randomly to her friends, in fact she sometimes sends longer texts through an email. Her mother, Betty Hammonds is worried that her son would send things that are not appropriate given today there are a lot of cases of “sexting” or obscene text message.

Sleep health expert, Dr. Marcus Schmidt acknowledges the current tendency to have sleep texting tends to increase among teenagers. Another cause is not due to addiction to technology, to the extent that the cell phone are also taken to bed and not turned off. “Four out of five children who have cell phones always carry their cell phone to bed. While those who actually turns it off are only one of 10 children,” said Dr. Schmidt. Dr. Schmidt said, sleep texting behavior tends to increase when the sufferers do not sleep soundly or when they experience lack of sleep. When they do not sleep soundly, they tend to be restless, the presence of cell phones in bed can stimulate motor reaction to reach out and use it. To be able to reduce sleep texting behavior, Dr. Schmidt suggested that children and teenagers do not stay up too late, so that they can sleep more soundly. In addition, the phone should be placed as far away from range, or turn it off during sleep.

Read more here and here.

As broadband and mobile internet access continues to penetrate every corner of the US market, some individuals are now seeking help for what they claim to be severe internet addiction and search help through psychiatrists specialised in internet and technology addiction.

This BBC video shows a family from Hartford, Connecticut, trying to help their son to win the fight against his internet addiction.

Social network sites may be changing people's brains as well as their social life, research suggests. Brain scans show a direct link between the number of Facebook friends a person has and the size of certain parts of their brain.

It's not clear whether using social networks boosts grey matter or if those with certain brain structures are good at making friends, say researchers.
The regions involved have roles in social interaction, memory and autism.
The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, looked at 3-D brain scans of 125 university students from London.

Read more here.

One of the most interesting parts of the website is the one where Ulilillia describes his "mind game":

"This animated GIF above shows some of the few thrills and crazy stunts I do in my mind game, a futuristic-like video game I play in my mind often. It takes a day or two to climb a mountain 6900 feet high, but in my mind game, with the use of the float run and numerous other special abilities, it takes under a minute. The above animation is in true time and is scaled realistically with very strong 3D effects. The behavior exactly matches that in my mind game. The animation loops forever and lasts about 80 seconds per loop, the time it takes to go up and down the mountain."

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The couple went on to have two other children, and it was at that point they cooked up a scheme to sell off all three of their children to fund their obsession. They sold their second child, a baby girl, for around $500. They then sold off their first boy for around $4,500 and, upon having their third child, a boy, sold him off as well, also for $4,500.

According to the source, the couple sold their children because they didn’t “want to raise them, [they] just [wanted] to sell them for some money.” The source reports that the couple had no idea that selling their children was illegal.

See the original story here

Excessive internet use may cause parts of teenagers’ brains to waste away, a study reveals. Scientists discovered signs of atrophy of grey matter in the brains of heavy internet users that grew worse over time.
This could affect their concentration and memory, as well as their ability to make decisions and set goals. It could also reduce their inhibitions and lead to ‘inappropriate’ behaviour.
Researchers took MRI brain scans from 18 university students, aged 19, who spent eight to 13 hours a day playing games online, six days a week.
The students were classified as internet addicts after answering eight questions, including whether they had tried to give up using computers and whether they had lied to family members about the amount of time they spent online.

See the original story here