Social Problem on Internet Addiction - Essay Example

Internet Addiction and Section # of Introduction Human society is under the continuous process of change, as rightly quoted by some wise person that nothing in this world is permanent except change. Over past few centuries, science and technology has become the major driver of change. Though the rapid pace of advancement in the fields of science and technology has accelerated the pace of evolution of human society and has brought innumerable blessings to the mankind, yet some negative repercussions have also emerged through the outcomes of those scientific endeavors over the period of time. Internet is one of latest and most widespread example of such dual effect nature of science and technology. This paper is intended to explore the nature, types, causes, gender influence as well as the treatment options of the internet addiction. We would start our discussion by exploring the definition(s) of internet addiction. Moving further, we will look into various types of internet addiction. After this, we will be exploring the effect of gender difference on the internet addiction. Furthermore, the discussion would be led to the causes and the development of the internet addiction. Last, but not the least, we will be looking over various treatment options for the internet addiction. Internet Addiction Addiction in literal terms is, "The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something" (American Heritage Dictionary) So we can say, in general terms, that addiction is the process of getting habitual to the use of something. In the same connection, internet addiction is, in layman terms, the habitual use of internet or being compulsively occupied with the use of internet. "Internet addiction, also known as pathological Internet use, is a psychiatric condition that involves both pathological behaviors and maladaptive cognitions". (Davis, 2001) There are a number of terms used to define the term internet addiction. In broader context, it is termed as the technological addiction. "Technical addictions... non-chemical (behavioral) addictions which involve human-machine interaction. They can either be passive (e.g. television) or active, (e.g. computer games) and usually contain inducing and reinforcing features which may contribute to the promotion of addictive tendencies". (Griffths, 2000) Various experts have also called it cyber addiction. "Cyberspace Addiction: an addiction to virtual realms of experience created through computer engineering... Some cyberspace addictions are game and competition oriented, some fulfill more social needs, some simply may be an extension of workaholicism". (Suler, 1999) All in all, internet addiction, with whatever term it may be referred, is the excessive use of internet to the extent that a person become compulsively engaged in using the internet. Types of Internet Addiction The internet addiction can be classified into a number of typologies. However, the most commonly used typology among the scholarly circles is that based on the usage. On this basis, the internet addiction can be divided into following types: Addiction for Internet Sex Addiction for Games over Internet Addiction for Making Money over Internet Addiction for Chat Addiction for Web Surfing This typology has been adapted from the works of Young (et al. 1999) and Davis (2001). Addiction for Internet Sex According to some estimates, the total worth of the online sex industry is somewhere between 1 and 5 billion US Dollars. Moreover, the sex industry over internet has become one of the major contributors among the total revenue generated through the paid websites (McDonald, 2001). There are also some estimates that the highest search queries on various search engines, such as Google and Yahoo etc, are related to pornography, especially among teens. The internet is heavily with the sex related material. That includes, sex related text (stories), images, video, audio stories and entire DVD format full length movies etc. All this lead us to conclude that there are terabytes multiplied by terabytes (probably peta bytes) of data related to sex over internet. As the data so huge in volume, it is simply impossible to explore all of it. Moreover, some of such sites have the highest update rate than any other sort of website, excluding the news and live update sites (Davis, 2001b). To attract more and more visitors, these sex-related sites have further classified their contents on the basis of the sexual orientations, fantasies, sexual activities etc. so that the user can directly go to what he really wants out of the gigantic ocean of the sexual world. Another version of the sex related internet addiction is cyber sex. Cyber sex is usually done in various chat rooms over internet. A chat room serves as the virtual meeting place for such sexual internet addicts. In cyber sex, the person chatting in the chat room perform various self satisfying sexual acts as a result of getting excited from the sexual conversation of the chatters doing cyber sex (McDonald, 2001). Addiction for Games over Internet Traditionally, games have always been associated to children. Moreover, it has always been termed as an addiction. Especially, those tricky games that add level after level, leading to a never ending desire of winning, they make the people addicted to these games. Thus, we can say that the games have always been a major source of addiction. However, the advent of internet has glorified this addiction. With the help of internet, now the addicts can play games online. Now just this, there are also games which are multiplayer games. There is a possibility that in a game of some war craft, one of the warriors is from the mountains of Tibet, another from the deserts of Africa, whereas, the third warrior in the team is from some chilling province of Canada. Since these games are computer and server based, they are made in such a way that usually, there are no ends, after completion of each level, there is a new and harder level, as a result the people keep on playing and playing in the desire to win. Addiction for Making Money over Internet There is a large variety of activities involving money making over internet, for example, gambling, shopping, online auction, stock trading etc. All that you need to get into these activities is a credit card. In today's time, getting a credit card is not a big deal. The possibility of online gambling is an addiction as it appears to provide an opportunity of making money without much effort. It is also attractive for those who have got retirement and are with sufficient amount of extra funds and wants to multiply their fortunes. Furthermore, the severity of this type of addiction can be highlighted from the fact that the economic resources are at stake in such addiction (Davis, 2001). Addiction for Chat Besides being the root for many other types of addiction, the chat, in its basic form too, is a great source of addiction. It is so because, unlike the emails, the chatting provides opportunity to interact SAME time different place, thus more rapid communication than email. Chatting is also the alternative to telephone calls, reducing the telephone bill that the guys used to spend on calling their girl friends. It has made possible for people to make friends from round the world. The chatting has also led to development of real relationships, starting from the 'virtual' one. Addiction for Surfing This has also been one of the sources of addiction. These are the people who surf just for the sake of surfing. They want anything from anywhere; the purpose is to surf only, not to get to any specific thing. Internet is the world of hyperlinks; these addicts keep on switching from one site to another and so on, through the hyperlinks, leading the person way away from what the person had initially targeted to search. Gender Differences (Feminine & Masculine) It is usually said that 'men are from mars and the women are from Venus'. Whether this is true or not, yet it is an agreed fact that the man and women have different psychologies and so do their habits. As a result their addiction should also be different. Though not unanimously agreed, yet it is agreed by the majority among the scholarly circles that the trend internet addiction does exist among the males as well as females. The degree to which it exist in each gender is however a debatable issue. However, what aspect of the internet addiction is influenced by the gender is the typology of internet addiction. The researchers, as well as the authors have found that men and women differ on the causes of their addiction. Men are considered to be more in the search of sex and thus are more attracted to the sex based addiction. Likewise, most of the games on the net represent 'man' nature such as aggression, adventure, thrill etc. As a result of it, men are more attracted to the internet games, thus man are more games based internet addicts than do women. Furthermore, the money based interaction addiction is populated by both. Men are more tended to do gamble and stock trade while women are active in terms of online buying and selling. Chatting and surfing based in dominated by the women. Causes and Development of Internet Addiction Diversified Motivating Factors The first and foremost reason for getting addicted to internet is the factor that attracts the person. It may be sex, pornography, cyber sex or it may be online games, it may be the willingness to make really fast money. It can also be the pleasure that one gets from doing IM-ing (chatting) or surfing over web. The more a person is attracted to these factors, the more are the chances for a person to become the internet addict. Mood Altering Behavior Mood altering behavior refers to the change in the mood that one observes due to getting logged on to the internet. For example, when a person is really depressed and he starts reading some erotic story on net and that makes him feel good, this may become a reason for him to become the internet addict. Getting Rid of Family Conflicts Internet is the silent world; you go wherever you want to go in this world. A variety of stuff is waiting for you to change your mood and to let you forget your worries. This trend has led to the increasing number of surfing based internet addicts. Peer Pressure Peer pressure, especially among youth, play a major role in getting the young girls and guys into different undesirable things, internet addiction being the major one. It is a usual practice that first time a young guy visits the pornographic material upon his friend's pressure. As in, when all are doing, if you will not do this, you will be called the outlier, a baby boy. To avoid this, the person starts to visit such sites, and as mentioned above, the amount of pornographic material is way too much for the guy to see all; as a result he starts constant visits to such sites and then becomes the internet addict. The same trend goes with other types of addiction as well. Modeling When a person sees other person using internet for such a long time and getting some benefit, he also starts to do that. For example, a person sees another person making a lot of money doing stock trade online, he also pools into this world, as he knows it is very easy to enter in this world. What you need is just a credit card. Trend Another usual cause for this is that the people, especially youth do it considering it as a trend and it they do not follow this trend, they will be left behind. Never Ending Behavior Most of the things that make people addict over internet are never ending one, such as sex data, money making opportunities, games etc. Thus, people never quit its usage and become addicted to it. Treatment Options The internet addiction is the relatively newer phenomenon, thus no definite treatment is suggested for it. Various common treatment options are as follows: To date, the most popular treatment of the internet addiction includes individual psychotherapy or counseling as well as support groups. Such treatment plans usually utilize the cognitive-behavioral strategies as well as psycho-education and bibliotherapy. These approaches and strategies aim at reducing the addictive behaviors. Rather than total abstinence, 'harm reduction' behavior is aimed though the treatment. If the addiction is due to some biological reason such as anxiety, anti depressant and anti anxiety drugs may be used. Trainings to make the people more socialize will help them getting away from internet and more social, thus reducing their internet addiction. On the whole, what treatment should be done is based on the reason which has led to the internet addiction. Conclusion To sum up, internet addiction is the growing trend. Sex, games, money, chatting and internet are the major contributors. The first two factors affect males more than the females. There is the mixed trend for the third one, whereas, the last two are most causing the females to get addicted. It they need to be treated, the most effective strategy is to reduce the harm causing behavior, rather than abstaining from the use of internet, because of excessive dependence on internet for many of the transactions and other activities. 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