Article summary of Internet Addiction in Malaysia Causes and Effects

Recent studies have sought to determine the level of Internet addiction

amongst Malaysia youth. In this century, Internet does apprise the human
society by making available all the information needed for human well being,
growth and prosperity. However the positive growth has negative impacts as it
created its own set of problems-one of the key ones being Internet addiction. Dr.
Jerald J. Block, from the Center for Internet Addiction, defined Internet addiction
as an obsessive activity involving excessive use, withdrawal and negative
repercussions including social isolation, lying, low achievement and fatigue. As
the Internet grows in Malaysia, Internet addiction is surfacing as a key problem,
particularly amongst the young generation. Thus, researchers Ashish, Choo,
Sureswaran and Nibras (2013) conducted a study to identify the use of Internet
among Malaysia youth and the relation of excessive use to the addictive level.
They hypothesized that the youth are indeed susceptible to Internet addiction.
Indubitably the Internet has revolutionized the way we think and place an
important part in our private lives and the society as a whole. Internet addiction
can be well defined through the observations of ones behavior. Behavioral
addictions can be seen as a repetition of a habit that cause imbalance in
lifestyle or social issues or worst of all affect ones health. In addiction there is
always a sign of uncontrollable force when the addicts try to cut back the
amount of addictive use. For the last couple of years, Internet addiction has
become a global concern and can be classified as a health issue. In relation to
that, it is also proposed as a cause of mental disorder. Apart from that addictive
behavioral were suggested to cause improper life style and deterioration of
personalities, especially amongst the young. Children and teenagers are the
most exposed to this technology as they were encouraged to utilize it in
education system. The study on the usage of Internet among Malaysian youth is
to evaluate the causes that make them surf for long hours and the types of
activities engaged by them while online. Hence, a set of questions was devised
to diagnose the pattern of online behavioral among the youth by launch an
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online survey on Internet Surfing and Addiction nationwide. The aim of the
survey is to identify the Internet addiction among the youth caused by surfing
long hours.
The next section sheds lights on topics that are relevant to their proposed
research. Firstly, the degree of the internet use was rated by using Internet
Addiction Test (IAT). The questions range from personal daily life, social life, life
performance emotional feelings and so forth. Then, the total IAT scores are used
as a measure of addictive level. Highest score suggested that a person is
addicted to internet and vice versa. Subsequently, the addictive behavior to the
Internet develops

when an individual starts engaging in activities of obsession

such as excessive gaming. Common signs of gaming addiction can be seen

through several ways like gaming preoccupation and social retreat. Next
addictive activity is online sexual preoccupation. Internet users who are
addicted in this category, find this as an easy alternative activity to access
sexually explicit materials while remain anonymous, thus are allured into this
form cyber addiction. The last one is emailing or texting. It was observed that
internet users who are addicted in this usually suffer from loneliness and lack of
confidence. In short, emailing or texting addiction is about finding alternatives
to avoid face-to-face communication. The social and cultural implications of the
internet are perceived to have both pros and cons. The internet benefits the
society by joining the global network of like-minded people. Besides, it
facilitates expressing of ideas freely. On the other hand, it is also suggested that
the Internet causes temptation and poisons the mind of the young as it affect
them to neglect their roles in the real life. Excessive use of the Internet has
become one of the leading challenges of the modern society and causes both
physical and mental impairment.
The methodology of this research was conducted through an online
survey to study the Internet use and addiction among Malaysian youth. A
questionnaire was created on the basis of Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and it
was structured on the following information: 1) Demographic information, 2) A
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modified version of the Internet addiction Test (IAT), 3) Factors affecting the
Internet addiction, 4) Internet Surfing Addiction, 5) Impact of Internet addiction.
The survey was participated by 2013 Malaysian youth from all over Malaysia
and it was conducted for a total duration of seven days. Based on the survey,
58 participants (29%) were considered to be at risk of addictive behavior.
As mentioned earlier, a total of 203 participants took part in the survey.
The participants were categorized into 4 segments based on the hours spent on
the Internet usage: 1) normal user, 2) moderate user, 3) at-risk user, and 4)
extreme user. A question was asked to self-identify if they considered
themselves as Internet addicts or not before they proceed with the IAT test. A
large number of participants (64%) considered themselves as Internet addicts
whereas the opposite (36%) did not consider that they were addicted. Most of
the participants were ranging from 20-25 years old (64%) and studying a
bachelors degree (51%). It can be observed that through this survey the factors
affecting Internet addiction were found that 83% of the participants go online
for task-related purposes such as distant learning, working online and so forth
while the remaining 17% of participants do not use it for that reasons. It is also
because of the ease of access make user stay connected to the Internet. In
addition, most of the findings show the motive that compel Internet user to
engage in online activities was due to entertainments. Impulsive surfing was
also noticed as one of the factors affecting Internet addiction. The researcher
also discovered several impacts of Internet Addiction. Firstly, the addicted would
likely to get insomnia due to late night log-ins and problems related to sleep.
Next refers to immediate impact on the physical changes such as weight loss
and backaches. Third impact is inferiority which refers to a feeling of low self
esteem. Among the other impacts are loss of concentration on daily activities at
work or at school, loss of productivity, and withdrawal syndrome that when a
person stops using the Internet, they experience unpleasant feelings or physical
effects.

In conclusion, Internet Addiction is generally described for internet

overuse or excessive use of computer. It has lead to interfere or changes in one
regular daily life and begins to have a deep effect on them. The data supported
the hypothesis that Malaysian youth are at high risk of Internet addiction. Based
on their study, it can be described that those in the age range of 18-25 are
found susceptible to Internet addiction, especially those going to college or
university. Addictive behavior however may not be all that harmful and is
subjected to the individuals intentions, actions and self-discipline, which
ascertained the real harm to the individual and the society. However, it can be
noticed that the findings of this research is preliminary and empirical works
need to be done to complement this research due to some limitations of this
study.