The myth of Internet addiction
Internet addiction is a passion, not a disease. The term Internet addiction appeared in 1996. It was invented to describe a very long, presumably pathological stay behind a computer on the Internet. Topic gladly picked up by journalists. There were headlines like, "all the younger generation of rows that will go into the "virtual world"".
Soon there were psychologists who made a name for himself on Internet addiction. Professor of the University of Pittsburgh Kimberly young has produced books with catchy titles: "Caught in the net" and "Tangled in the Web".
On the website of the Kimberly young you can take the test on Internet addiction directly and immediately to undergo treatment in a virtual hospital. On this occasion, the competitor Kimberly young Dr. Maressa Orzack quipped that treat Internet addiction in the Network is the same as to treat alcoholism at the bar.
In addition, Yang heals not only Internet addiction but also their relatives. And take everything serious money.
According to Yang, most of the Internet addicts go into viewing pornographic websites and spend hours in chat rooms. Young and Orsak believe that 5-8% of users visiting porn sites, dependent on them. Most of these users were men. They go to the porn sites, usually with a working computer. Dependent women pictures often prefer chat rooms, stories of erotic or pornographic nature.
Many of these people are single, or do not have a permanent partner. One of the reasons they started using this kind of resources is anonymity. Also, it is safe: no one can catch or meet aggressive response, and responsibility that inevitably occurs when personal contact. For people who have physical disabilities, shy people is a way of expression.
Dependence?
The Internet is just a communication channel. There are many very different services. Therefore, to talk about Internet addiction as a separate disease, at least strange. You can assume that there is a telephone relationship. Addiction is a medical and psychological term. It implies a number of testable factors. Perhaps that is why the Internet addiction was not included in the American classification of mental disorders (DSM-5). This means that the professional community considers it a real disease.
But Yang and some of her other colleagues very much want to make the dependence on the Internet is true, accepted by the medical community disease. In this case, Internet addiction would be included in the directory of mental and behavioural disorders. And then she would have recognized insurance firms that publish the list of diseases that are paid by standard insurance. If insurance will include dependence on the Internet, therefore, will be guaranteed to be paid by the insurance agencies clients, and those doctors who first began to "treat" the addiction will be for the rest of their days living happily ever after.
What is it?
Professional psychologists believe that the development of any of this according to need, so the person coming to the Internet a few months ago, can not be considered dependent. Rather, it is in the euphoria of the opened opportunities and actively developing cyberspace.
The phenomenon of Internet addiction are viewed as behavioral addiction. These include telemania, workaholism, the pathological sexual addiction, overeating, gambling. A behavioral addiction is different from drug addiction, alcoholism, Smoking fact that the human body is not doing the undesirable chemical substances.
The only specificity lies in the fact that it is connected with the Internet. By itself, Internet addiction is defined as a compulsive need to log on to the Network and unwillingness to get out of it. Furthermore, there is an escape from reality. The person ceases to perform the functions to which he was accustomed in everyday life, communicates less in the family.
Some experts believe that having Internet addiction if a person starts to lie to his family that he never spends much time online as it appears; or deceiving, that fulfils an urgent task. If a person begins to neglect life's routine hygiene procedures, satisfied with what you eat and drink directly on the keyboard. If he believes that it is possible to neglect work or school functions, unmotivated to refuse business or personal visits for the Internet. Finally, if the person feels a sense of guilt for these actions, and only when he browses the Internet, he lost the feeling of anxiety, there is a euphoria and joy.
But all this is very uncertain — where is the line between passion and addiction? The same can be said of any passionate, creative man, only instead of a computer connected to the Network, it will be a chess Board, violin, easel or experimental setup. Also people fall asleep on the job, eating, looking at the hands of the devices and the screens of the oscilloscopes, as they can't wait wives and children.
Online person open a huge world where lots of new opportunities for creativity, entertainment and communication. Therefore, the dependent call more people living alone or having problems in personal and family life. Maybe on the Internet they just saved from loneliness and boredom? In one American study has shown that adolescents who have problems with parents or friends, are more prone to dependence on the Internet than their happier peers. On the Internet they seem to start a new life.
The main thing is to have a sense of proportion!
