Internet Addiction and You
Oh, hey there! I see you are online again. Must've been a tough day, huh? Where are you coming from? Work, walking the dog, taking the kids to dance class, just had dinner with the family? Wait, none of those things? You're coming from Facebook? Well, then you've been online for longer than I thought. Did you get anything done around the house today or have you been sitting in front of the computer since you got home? Maybe you're just tired and haven't been going to bed on time lately. Oh, you say that's because of the internet too? Hmm, this might be a problem.
After hearing about a study linking internet addiction to depression on the news a few days ago, I've recently been thinking more and more about the internet's role in my life. The study does not say which comes first, internet overuse or depression, but it definitely establishes a link between the two. While I haven't been noticing any signs of low spirits, I have a growing concern about the amount of time I spend online. Between using the computer at work, keeping up with the blog, semi-stalking my friends on facebook, and constantly checking email, my life has been increasingly lived in what I like to call "screen world." In fact, I probably should've noticed the shift a few months ago when my wife and I had to make the rule of no laptops or phones at the dinner table. But even with the "no screen world" rule, I still find myself forgetting whole conversations that we've had while my attention was diverted to something online.
If you're like me and worry about developing an internet addiction, lucky for us, there is plenty of help available. And ironically it can all be found online! So you can treat your habit while feeding it at the same time. To help stop my internet problem, I first went to the place where it all began, my favorite gateway drug and yours, Google. Google is a great starting point because it seems so harmless. Who would've thought a simple page with just six colorful letters in innocent primary colors, a faintly glowing search bar and two buttons all on a pristine white background could have led to so much trouble? Regardless of what got us into this downward spiral of web browsing, there is a way to end it. Just type "internet addiction test" into Google's search bar, and instead of clicking on the search button, click "I'm Feeling Lucky." This little used button will help in two ways. First, as people with a blossoming internet addiction, we all could use a little luck. Second, it'll take us to the first page in the search results, thereby helping us avoid the temptation to surf through unnecessary pages "just a few minutes more" until we find ourselves playing Mafia Wars again and no longer have the will to pull ourselves up from the mire of internet addiction.
Once you get to the internet addiction test, it won't be long into the short twenty question survey to see if you have a problem. Some questions that got to me concerned the likelihood that I neglected household chores because I was online and the frequency that I checked email before doing other things that I needed to do. However, when I received my survey results, I was relieved to learn that my score put me on the high end of the "average on-line user" category. And while the test showed that I may spend a little too much time surfing the web, I was still in control of my internet usage.
So despite my initial concerns, I found myself wondering how much of a problem internet addiction really is. In the past few years, hasn't our society touted the internet as a way to make our lives easier? Hasn't the web helped me to improve upon my life rather than wasting my time. I now keep my finances in check through online bill pay. Social networking sites allow me to maintain relationships with friends who would've otherwise been forgotten. I can keep abreast of current events free from the spin of mainstream media through news sites. And I've even found gainful employment through Craig's List and other job posting forums. Furthermore, hasn't blogging helped develop my writing skill and exposed me to a variety of other viewpoints I might never have seen before?
In light of the way so much of our existence has been digitalized online, I don't even think the term internet addiction applies any more. No one says that I'm addicted to banking, shopping for bargains, or reading the news, because usually these things net positive results in our lives. So why the term "internet addiction"? The internet encompasses so many things now, I might as well say that I'm "life addicted." Rather than cancel our internet service, it'd be more beneficial to try to isolate and curtail the time we spend online doing frivolous, unproductive things like playing games or taking useless surveys. And while it is important to turn off the computer and talk to our loved ones in person or go outside and enjoy nature, I don't see the harm in spending a good portion of one's time online. Maybe if it weren't for the internet, I'd be addicted to something else far more detrimental to my mental health. Of course, maybe I'm wrong. Studies like the one above show internet addiction is a serious problem for some. Perhaps I'm still in denial, and I just have to get through this stage of my addiction before I can lose my pale computer screen tan and once again begin my life outside of screen world.
Facebook, addiction, depression, internet, mental health, online, technology 
Reader Comments (7)
My primary use of the internet is reserved to email, philly.com, the blog, and google search for an item of perceived necessity from time to time. However, even with this limited, usually, valuable use, I too feel my internet habits can be excessive.
You make a strong case for the value of the internet and point out a humorous irony that no one admonishes you for being potentially addicted to those other valuable routines. Your entire piece is actually drenched in irony and is why I think I enjoyed it so much. Checking your internet addiction using an online quiz (By the way, did you contemplate that the survey is actually run by google and therefore intentionally minimized your internet use classification only to placate your concerns and maintain your addictive use?). Providing sound internet use "Feeling Lucky" to potential internet addicts reading this post. Writing about internet addiction using an internet outlet.
All and all, I think you prove the great value of the internet, for the most part. But, as I have argued to you before, I sincerely believe you take your constructive skills for granted. I hardly think you are the demographic of concern that the article is addressing. I imagine the individuals who dedicate five-eight hours a day to facebook or myspace or some other frivolous social website are the people of concern. If we all used the internet in the same sound, didactic purpose that you do, I believe the world would be a much better place.
Good thoughts, especially following Dugan's piece on addictions. Thanks for the snowy day meal.
Good post. I tend to think I spend a decent amount of time on the internet (usually an hour a day after the baby is asleep) but I think most of the time I spend on it is is reading and researching. As Patrick said above, the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Paltalk seem to breed the 5 hour a day types who are alot more comfortable in front of a screen and keyboard than a face.
The very fact that I'm sitting here, on a snowy evening, avoiding TV, responding to a thoughtful piece online, means that the Internet offers me something more than the empty calories of our culture's cultural nonsense. There's that. However, it's what I always return to that makes me worry. I get entrenched in my online habits - Deadspin, Cardboard Gods, some kind of recent YouTube fascination, and yes, the Lunch Break Blog. These are all worthwhile to some degree or another, but while the Interwebs offer almost unlimited choices, I find myself following the same route, again and again. That's where my worry is. I'm concerned that the Internet engenders a lack of creative thought where it should spur us on to different places we've never been before. Google's opening page, its blank slate, is an invitation to stick to what I already know. Maybe all the Internet shows me is how lacking in adventure and creativity I really am!
You make a good point Martin. It almost gives me a bit of anxiety when I get home late after a long day and after I kiss my wife and sleeping baby, I think of all the sites I need t chack on to make sure I do not miss anything relevant in news, sports or pop culture. Surfing the net has replaced flipping through channels as my was of dealing with late night insomnia or a snowed in residnce.
On the plus side, when people are on the Internet they are usually reading or writing. Even if they are playing games, they are exercising their minds. When it gets to be too much, I walk away.
Can I offer another question and ask does the fact of the matter lie in the number of hours or number of times one uses the Internet? I don't often spend a lot of time in one sitting, so to speak, but I do check my email, facebook, and the lunchbreak sites quite frequently, espeically considering I have it conveniently located on my phone. Does that make me an addict?
Additionally, I feel like most of us have mastered "multi-tasking" and that's why so many people can be found on their phones while doing any number of other things (although this lends itself to another issue). In any event, I find myself more often than not, going online when I'm waiting online.
This is a lunch question that was bound to come up sooner or later. I have spent some time thinking about it (without the internet) to formulate a response. Is there are difference between an addiction and a habit? Is there a difference between a passion and an addiction?
I have only my own behavior to examine and thus it can not fall into a realm of an addiction. An addiction as you have stated, must hurt someone outside the person. You have told us on the site that the internet is a tool and it can be used for good or bad, much like a hammer. But for most of us, a hammer is used only for good and those who choose to harm people with it have problems outside the entity of a hammer.
My own relationship with the internet is healthy I believe. I am on the computer for a large amount of time, but it often involves seeking information or trying to translate my thoughts into coherent meaningful shapes. Each day I grow to appreciate the power of the tool and I believe my learning and mind has grown at a much faster rate in the past five years than it has since I was a child. I seek out safe spaces on the internet because I still do not trust it. I seek out friends and information that I know will improve my existence and more often or not, I find somthing that challenges me intellectually or amuses my spirit. Most of all, I find a community of learners and sharers of information to better our world, and not just to waste an evening or burn time like television or sometimes listening to music or the radio. The internet is a self directed quest to whatever you make it to be, much like painting or writing or reading or playing music or exercising.
I have always feared any new technology because I believe it gets me away from true thought or meaningful personal experience that interacts with the others or nature. But usually I do come to grasp with it, especially when one exposes me to its benefits. I see the potential for learning and expanding my mind with the internet as long as I stay in some type of control. That control will help me avoid addiction because if I find vice, than it is my own morality in question.
Can I walk away from the computer? Probably not if I want to keep learning. It is a integral part of my future because somehow it will allow my potential to reveal itself in the new age. A future that is very exciting because of this tool and its potential for change and good.