INTERNET ADDICTION

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for Psy 103 Psychology of Learning

By

MA. CRIZADELLE J. GONZALES October 9, 2013

Introduction The World Wide Web or most commonly known as internet has provided impact on people and these impacts are mostly positive (Jarungyod & Arunyanak, 2011). It is a tool that is evolving and becoming an essential part of everyones lives, especially among young people (Nalwa & Anand, 2003; Akin & Iskender, 2011). The internet is a resourceful, convenient and informative resource (Jarungyod et al., 2011). One feature of the internet is the online communication tools or the social networking sites, and its impact on people especially teenagers are rapidly increasing (Aydin & Sari, 2011). However, the internet also has potential harms such as pornography, security and privacy (Jarungyod et al., 2011). And the publics rapidly gaining awareness of the potential harmful effects from unnecessary, maladaptive, or addictive internet usage (Fu, Chan, Wong, & Yip, 2010). Excessive internet usage can be observed in different cultures (Cao & Su, 2007). The impact can be seen on almost everyone, especially on adolescents. And this can result to internet addiction, which is being considered by APA or the American Psychiatric Association to include in the DSM-V as a psychiatric diagnosis (Christakis & Moreno, 2009). Internet addiction has already been considered as a public health problem in Asian countries such as South Korea and China (Block, 2008). The country which was ranked as the largest broadband user is China. An official report in China stated that one in every six Chinese internet users may develop internet addiction ( China Internet Network Information Center, 2009). Previous self-report surveys using community samples have stated that the frequency of addiction on the internet ranges from 0.9%38% (Shaw & Black, 2008). The wide range of results may have been due to the different research designs used, the different methods used for assessment, and the sampling from the different sub-populations. It has also been stated that males are more capable of being addicted to the internet, yet inconsistent results cannot prove this (Chou, Condron, & Belland, 2005). Excessive internet usage has been defined as Internet addiction (Young & Rodgers, 1998), Internet dependency (Wang, 2001), cyberaddiction (Chebbi, Kong &

Liu, 2001), pathological Internet use (Young, 2004), obsessive video game playing (Keepers, 1990) problematic Internet use (Kaltiala-Heino, Lintonen & Rimpela, 2004), Internet abuse (Young & Case, 2004). But as stated by Suler (1999), addictions cannot be clearly defined. Addiction may be unhealthy, healthy, or both. People would spend their times on what they like as much as possible, since they are satisfied with the hobby or activity they are doing. The concept and definition of internet addiction hasnt been clearly defined and still debated on by academics and clinicians (Fu et al., 2010). Objectives The goal of the study is the following: 1. To find out whether adolescents or teenagers are really addicted to the internet and whether they are aware of it. 2. To know whether the impact of the internet to adolescents or teenagers has positively or negatively affected them. Significance of the Study References Block JJ. Issues for DSM-V: internet addiction. Am J Psychiatry 2008; 165: 306 7 China Internet Network Information Center. Statistical Report on Internet Development in China 2009. China Internet Network Information Center, 2009 (http://www.cnnic.cn/). Christakis DA, Moreno MA. Trapped in the net: will internet addiction become a 21stcentury epidemic? Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2009; 163: 95960. Chou C, Condron L, Belland JC. A review of the research on Internet addiction. Educ Psychol Rev 2005; 17: 36388. Shaw M, Black DW. Internet addiction: definition, assessment, epidemiology and clinical management. CNS Drugs 2008; 22: 35365.