1. What is internet addiction? (60 to 80 words) Internet addiction is a condition when a person is spending a lot of time on the internet and cannot control the habit. It is a serious problem and can affect the person’s relationships, work, schooling, and health. Internet addiction can be in the form of computer gaming, website blogging, surfing, social media like Facebook, chatting, Instagram etc.
A study on the influence of internet addiction and online interpersonal influences on health-related quality of life in young Vietnamese. BMC Public Health, 17:138, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3983-z This article explores Internet Abdication in young people in Vietnam and other Asian nation, and how gender affects the addiction. It provides healthcare professionals effective intervention that can be used to counter negative effects of IA. Wu, C-Y., Lee, M-B., Liao, S-C., Chang, L-R. (2015). Risk Factors of Internet Addiction among Internet Users: An Online Questionnaire Survey.
This is attributed to the fact that the country has made massive steps towards effective technological advancements. These technological advancements have enabled the country to make improvements in their digital infrastructure; resulting in the high speed internet connections in the country. According to Youngs (2013), over 618 million people in the country were ardent internet users. This number shows the prevalence of internet use in the country. Additionally, the number of people in the country using mobile devices included an astonishing 83.4 percent (Wallis, 2013; Holloman, 2013).
Multiple countries throughout the world have internet access at their fingertips and are able to find the answer to their questions instantly. “As of June 2017, 51% of the world’s population has internet access. In 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2 billion people, or almost half of the world’s population, would be online by the end of the year” (Gordon). Billions of people use the Internet each and every day to research topics, check their social media, and communicate. The nation as a whole has become extremely dependent on technology to do their work and survive through the day.
In the 21st century, thanks to the growth of technology, the Internet plays an important role in daily life. It provides people with entertainment; loads of information, however, easily makes users can be addictive. In China, ten million (13.7%) online users are internet addicts (Smith, 2008). In particular, Internet addiction is stated as an issue of people spends lots of time for Internet to play games or surf the Internet, especially the younger generation. Therefore, “Internet addiction makes big leagues” was written in The Daily Courier (2012) to show us Internet addiction is a serious problem for anyone.
The Internet is a global network connecting millions of computers and is being incorporated as part of our everyday life because the usage of internet has been rising worldwide. People from all ages use the internet whether it is at home, work or schools in order to get work done, get news from all over the world and also to find entertainment. In 2005, a research conducted by Wieland reported that 9 - 15 million people in the United States used the internet daily and in every three months the rate of use would increase by 25%. Because of this constant usage of internet, internet addiction is becoming a serious problem especially among youths and young adults. Internet addiction was defined by Young (1996) as an impulse-control disorder
It goes without saying that, “Internet addiction is described as an impulse control disorder, which does not involve use of an intoxicating drug and is very similar to pathological gambling” (“Internet,” n.d., para.1). A case in point is spend time on the computer up to 15 hours a day counted as an internet addiction, called over-gaming (Mork, 2012). Another example is spent a lot of time looking at social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Tweeter (Mork, 2012). To begin with, sign of internet addiction can be derived is their studies will be affected (Mork, 2012). For example, they cannot concentrate in class while teacher is teaching and it may affect their results.
The Internet has brought negative impacts on society as it provide unfiltered information, lead to sedentary lifestyle and cyber fraud. Based on Internet Society (2014) report, the number of online Internet user recorded in May 2014 is 2,893,587,260. It is almost 45% of the world population using Internet and it shows that most of the people used Internet for many purpose likes social networking, communication and entertainment. When we talk about social networking, there are almost 100 different social network that can be used in Internet likes Instagram, Twitter and Blogster. Other than that, people also used Internet to promote their products and find gossip about famous people either celebrity or even royals family.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) (2011), more than 2 million people have access to the Internet by March 2011. This number of the Internet users is over a third of the world’s population. It shows the important reliance of the Internet to our society. In addition, the number of people who access the Internet rapidly rises every year. As a result, according to Barney Warf (2010), a professor in the Geography department at the University of Kansas, the widely expanded use of Internet access has been controlled and limited by the government in several regions according to politics, religion, security, lese-majesty, and
E.g. insomnia, irritability, procrastination and anxiety. “Individuals who engage in social media discussion fear that interaction with people will bring sense of self-consciousness, judgement, evaluation and inferiority. Often it leads to feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment and depression. In the US, Social Anxiety Disorder is the third largest psychological disorder, after alcoholism and depression at 13-14 % of the population.