Running Head: Internet Addiction

Community Problem Report: Internet Addiction

Margarita Campos

The University of Texas at El Paso

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Internet has been a controversial matter in modern life, on whether it is good or bad for

people, but it also has been an important advancement for obtaining information and

communication, converting the world into a global village. Internet can be bad when people give

it a dysfunctional use, such as excessive time spent on a computer doing, reading, or watching

pointless videos, articles, posts, etc. The background purpose of internet was to facilitate

communication and promote research, however excessive self-indulgence and pathological use

of this medium has led to development of a proper term that is internet addiction disorder.

(Carlisle).

Internet addiction disorder (IAD) refers to the problematic use of the Internet, including

the various aspects of its technology, such as electronic mail (email) and the World Wide Web. It

is also known as problematic computer use, pathological computer use, and Internet overuse

(Beard). Unbelievably, Internet addiction can enclose serious matters, such as dependency from

internet or electronic devices, loss of time, procrastination, social life damage, change in

behavior and even carry health issues and negative consequences for irresponsible users of

internet.

Theres no exact or proven by science information about what causes a person to be

addicted to the internet, but there had been certain factors proposed, for example, mood altering,

its said, in the article by Keith Beard, some researchers think that there are chemical changes

that occur in the body when someone is engaging in an addictive behavior. Furthermore, from a

biological standpoint, there may be a combination of genes that make a person more susceptible

to addictive behaviors, just as researchers have located genes that affect a person's susceptibility

to alcohol. In addition to having features of a process addiction, Internet use might be reinforced

by pleasurable thoughts and feelings that occur while the person is using the Internet.
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A person addict to internet tends to escape or relieve their mood by using internet,

but at the same time hiding it, its use and even lying about it, which basically would be not

accepting this obsession to internet. There have been studies that proof that there are

psychological factors such as using internet to escape from self-dissatisfaction, linked to personal

problems like self-control, stress, having poor attention control and emotional regulation, these

types of symptoms are related to the development of IA on a person.

Internet addiction is a problem to worry about and take care of, because it is affecting the

younger generations on the age between 12 and 25, they are not interested on hobbies or other

type of entertainment, such as going out, walk their dog, go to the park, etc., The young

generation has seen this facility from birth, is accustomed to its 24-hour access and cannot think

of accomplishment of their daily tasks in its absence. (Prabhakaran). IA might affect differently

depending on gender, for example, statistics say that on males this addiction to internet is related

to gaming and pornography, while for females would be shopping online, texting, blogging, etc.,

the uncontrolled use of internet could be a risky behavior, and at the end is not only unhealthy for

adolescents but everyone.

There are a lot of health issues related to internet overuse, from physical effects to even

depression and sleep disorders, for example on the physical effects, vision problems, headaches,

migraine, back aches, etc. It could lead a person to a sedentary life, it is proven that people that

exercises more, is less probable to spend a whole evening sitting in front of a computer, because

of being more active. Depression can be present since people wants to replace real-life

socializing and situations, for an online fake world full of random thoughts that might not be

legit that only confuse persons, for example, Tumblr is a blogging site full of pictures, phrases,

quotes, and most of the times teenagers post suicidal thoughts, pictures, etc.
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IA goes together with portable or handheld devices that can access the internet, such as

tablets, smartphones, which makes it easier to access internet and to spend even more time

connected to the web and social media. Youth and particularly college going young adults are at

an increased risk of problematic internet use due to free internet access at college campuses and

absence of strict parental supervision. Excessive internet usage in university students results not

only in psychological but physical problems which leads to deterioration in their academic

performance (Khan). Locally, while going to school and observing a lot of different people

every day, most of the persons are always on their cellphones, computers, laptops, etc. it is clear

to see how people now depends on their personal electronic devices, to do homework, to

communicate, or just spend time. Procrastination by being connected to internet could be one of

the main reasons for low grades, assignments and homework turned in late and bad performance

on school, which totally affects students throughout the process of their whole career.

Internet addiction can be hard to predict, since theres no medical process to get reliable

results, but symptoms could be the excessive time devoted to Internet use, a person might have

trouble when trying to cut down the time spent. Other symptoms may include apathy, lack of

sleep, fatigue, declining grades, or poor performance on school, while socially, there might be

decreasing time invested on social relationships and activities. All of these behaviors have to be

treated with therapy or counseling.

No medical treatment or treatment procedure exists to fix this internet addiction, since

this disorder is a relatively new circumstance. Since our society is constantly growing with

internet, it is becoming more and more dependent on electronic devices and internet, and it

would be impossible to completely cut the use of internet, as it is necessary too. One solution

would be learning to use internet moderately and managing time and changing behaviors little by
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little. A method to try to prevent IA would be that people engage in social activities outside

internet, in the case of adolescents, parents should limit internet use, Facebook, Instagram,

Snapchat, etc., and mainly teach them how to properly use social networking sites. On the

journal article of Factors associated with internet addiction among school-going adolescents in

Vadodara. It is suggested that Internet use should be monitored either by self or family

members, regarding younger people, ensuring adequate amount of sleep, managing time for

different tasks, and encourage face-to-face socialization.

Consider that even though theres no medical explanation and process to treat with this

phenomenon, all of these facts are real, internet overuse is not healthy and its engaged with so

many negative aspects that could bring consequences. IA is notoriously wrong morally as well,

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend and nowadays society is spending it

connected to internet. It is very important to start analyzing self-internet usage, and other persons

too in order to help and create new habits to use Internet responsibly, to not damage health, but

the most important thing, to not lose communication by socializing, face to face.
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References
Anam-ul-Malik, & Rafiq, N. (2016). Exploring the Relationship of Personality, Loneliness, and

Online Social Support with Interned Addiction and Procrastination. Pakistan Journal Of

Psychological Research, 31(1), 93-117.

Bach Xuan, T., Le Thi, H., Nguyen Duc, H., Long Hoang, N., Bao Nguyen, L., Vuong Minh, N.,

& ... Zhang, M. W. (2017). A study on the influence of internet addiction and online

interpersonal influences on health-related quality of life in young Vietnamese. BMC

Public Health, 17(1), 1-8.

Beard, K., & Frey, R. J. (2012). Internet Addiction Disorder. In K. Key (Ed.), The Gale

Encyclopedia of Mental Health (3rd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 829-833). Detroit: Gale.

Carlisle, K. L., Carlisle, R. M., Polychronopoulos, G. B., Goodman-Scott, E., & Kirk-Jenkins, A.

(2016). Exploring Internet Addiction as a Process Addiction. Journal Of Mental Health

Counseling, 38(2), 170-182.

Khan, M. A., Shabbir, F., & Rajput, T. A. (2017). Effect of Gender and Physical Activity on

Internet Addiction in Medical Students. Pakistan Journal Of Medical Sciences, 33(1),

191-194.

Prabhakaran, M. A., Patel, V. R., Ganjiwale, D. J., & Nimbalkar, M. S. (2016). Factors associated

with internet addiction among school-going adolescents in Vadodara. Journal Of Family

Medicine & Primary Care, 5(4), 765-969.

Seungsin, l., jungkun, p., & lee, s. B. (2016). The interplay of internet addiction and compulsive

shopping behaviors.
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Younes, F., Halawi, G., Jabbour, H., El Osta, N., Karam, L., Hajj, A., & Rabbaa Khabbaz, L.

(2016). Internet Addiction and Relationships with Insomnia, Anxiety, Depression, Stress

and Self-Esteem in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Designed Study. Plos ONE,

11(9), 1-13.

Wu, C., Lee, M., Liao, S., & Chang, L. (2015). Risk Factors of Internet Addiction among

Internet Users: An Online Questionnaire Survey. Plos ONE, 10(10), 1-10.