Internet Addiction

A NEW LEARNING
This is a serious entry. I won't apologize for it. It might be beneficial.
I have become aware that since I retired, I have been exploring the internet for more hours per day than I realized it was possible to do. I am seeking information, supportive material for articles and blogs, reading news. That’s all quite legit. What I am asking myself is whether I am an addict. I don’t think I am. The internet is a resource for me like any library and it’s a mouse click away. I do wonder however, whether people can become addicted to the internet.

Now I have come across the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery and its director Dr. Kimberly Young. She has been finding that study respondents report marital problems because of internet use. Customarily the difficulty arises because of the amount of time users spend on the internet. The Stanford University School of Medicine asserts study results of one out of eight Americans suffering from Internet Addiction: 14% of respondents claimed they found it difficulty to abstain from Internet use for several days; 5.9% said their relationships were suffering because of excessive Internet use; 8.2% said that the Internet was an escape from real life. Get this, 71% of office workers abuse Internet use during work hours as they socialize at networking sites, shop online, do personal email, and browse porn, gaming and gambling sites.

Several categories of this impulsive control problem have been identified.
1. Cybersexual Addition: viewing, downloading and trading porn or using fantasy role play chat rooms;
2. Cyber-Relational Addition: addiction to chat rooms, IM, or social networking sites or engaging in virtual adultery;
3. Net Compulsions: addiction to online gaming, gambling, eBay;
4. Information Overload: compulsive behaviour regarding excessive Web surfing and database searching.

I am putting myself on alert. I will be more evaluative about my time on the internet so that my wife doesn’t at some point claim that I have deserted her. Perhaps it is a good thing for me that she has her own laptop and now spends some time communicating and exploring the places we will soon visit. So she understands the vehicle.

You can received more information about Internet Addiction Recovery at Dr. Kimberly Young’s web site http://netaddictionrecovery.blogspot.com/index.html