As fast as the Internet’s popularity has grown over the years, Internet addictions have grown just as quickly. At one point in time, people spent hours and hours online simply because they could. But now, connections are faster than they ever were before. And the uses for Internet activity have become so widespread, that people can’t even function without going online for something. But with the explosion of Internet use has come several different types of addictions. There are even groups and clinics dedicated to “treating” people who are dealing with this sort of issue. You may even have your own computer “jones.” Determining how badly you’ve got it however, requires you to figure out which type of addiction you’re faced with. Here are five basic Internet compulsions, and how they can be damaging.

Porn

Once upon a time, there were tons of ads on television prompting people to have safe sex. With the AIDS virus (amongst other diseases) running rampant amongst the sexually active, officials felt the need to make these frequent public announcements. Enter the stage, Internet porn. Being able to queue up naked people on your computer screen for all sorts of private purposes was a dream come true for many. But the popularity of online pornography has facilitated a breakdown in countless relationships. Relying on a series of images has become a replacement for intimacy. The introduction of this issue into relationships already plagued with problems often causes nothing but more damage. Furthermore, where humans were once contracting illnesses via real sex, computers are now doubly affected by the threat of online viruses.

Social Networks/Dating Sites

Some people might argue that one rung below porn on the ladder of Internet addiction is the dependence on social networking and dating sites. Some men and women are so entrenched in their online lives that they never
fully extend themselves in the real world. Joining multiple social networking sites typically means that a person has assumed at least three or four separate identities. It is quite easy to become addicted to the person that you become in your mind—advertising online, an individual who resembles nothing of who you are inside or out. Some of these people tell themselves that they’re broadening their social circles and opening up more dating doors. But more people hiding behind their computers makes it harder to actually meet someone worth in the real world. After spending several months (or years) searching for a connection on the Internet, it is very possible to lose touch with reality.

Celebrity Gossip Websites/Blogs

Just as it is easier to send an email rather than writing a letter, it is also easier to get all the latest celebrity gossip online rather than picking up a rag at your local newsstand. Let’s face it; we can’t seem to get enough of what the rich and famous in Hollywood are up to. The Internet makes it even easier to get information about our favorite stars. Within minutes of mind-blowing incidents, their stories (and sometimes footage) have gone viral. That consumers can instantly discover what that they would normally have to wait for future publications to read, is just too enticing to pass up. And the more the demand increases, the more celebrity gossip blogs pop up. There are even blogs about blogs. This incessant need for information can completely take over. Ask yourself how much time out of your workday you’ve spent logging onto gossip sites. Where else are you going to get juicy details to discuss over lunch or at the water cooler?

Internet Gambling

People who live nowhere near casinos have discovered the wonderful world of online gambling. Being able to create accounts, login, and play against faceless competitors can be irresistible. At your fingertips, you have all sorts of ways to blow your hard earned cash. And the beauty of it is that you can do so anonymously, moving money around from place to place without ever having to touch it. And in case you actually win, the problem only magnifies. The anonymity involved with Internet gambling is what makes it so dangerous. Additionally, it’s a lot easier to conceal a gambling problem online than concealing Thursday night poker with the guys.

General Surfing

Some consumers in the world are simply addicted to their Google browsers. We all have the compulsion to get online and stay there a little (or a lot) longer than we initially intended. This
is because the ability to unleash so much information is too tempting. We need to know everything about everything. Got a headache? Do a Google search. Need tips on how to curb your child’s tantrums? Just check Google. It seems that simply knowing how to look for the solution online can solve virtually all problems in the world. And that is a downright mouth-watering concept. It doesn’t help that the Internet is designed to consume its consumers. That’s what hyperlinks are for; you’ll spend hours hopping from one link that interests you—to another, until your eyes can no longer stay open—sometimes even past that. There are some people in the world who actually hate the Internet, and can curb their use of it rather easily. Others are more inclined to occasionally hop from site to site for mere enjoyment. Ultimately, if computer use doesn’t impede your way of life or cause issues in your relationship, you’re probably a modest user. But if you’ve landed on this article because you started link-hopping yesterday morning—you might have a wee bit of a problem.

Problems of addiction

Signs and symptoms of compulsive Internet use may vary from person to person. There are no set hours per day or number of words typed that indicate Internet addiction, for example. But there are some general warning signs that your Internet use has become a problem:

• Losing track of time online. Do you frequently find yourself on the Internet longer than you thought? Does a few minutes turn in to a few hours? Do you find yourself running late to appointments, school, or work because of too much time spent online? Do you get irritated or cranky if your online time is interrupted?
• Having trouble completing tasks at work or home. Do you find laundry piling up and little food for dinner in the house because you’ve been busy online? Perhaps you find yourself working late more and more because you can’t complete your work on time — then staying even longer when everyone else has gone home and you can surf the Web freely.
• Isolation from family and friends. Is your social life suffering because of all the time you spend online? Are you neglecting your family and friends? Do you feel like no one in your “real” life — even your spouse — understands you like your online friends?
• Feeling guilty or defensive about your Internet use. Are you sick of your spouse nagging you to get off the computer and spend some time together? Do you hide your Internet use or lie about how much time you spend online?

Having trouble cutting back? It is not because you are weak willed. Compulsive behavior like Internet addiction can be hard to break. The more support you have during the process of cutting down, the more successful you will be.

Therapy and counseling for Internet addiction

Therapy can give you a tremendous boost in stopping excessive Internet use. Cognitive-behavioral therapy gives you step-by-step ways to stop compulsive Internet behaviors, working with a therapist on changing your thoughts and behaviors surrounding Internet use. Therapy can also help you learn healthier ways of coping with uncomfortable emotions. And if depression or anxiety is contributing to your excessive Internet use, therapy can also address that problem.

If your Internet use is affecting your partner directly, as with excessive cybersex or online affairs, marriage counseling can help you work through these challenging issues. Marriage counseling can also help you reconnect with your partner if you have been using the Internet for most of your social needs.

Although Internet addiction is not recognized as a formal psychological disorder, ask if your therapist or counselor has experience in treating compulsive Internet use.

Group support for Internet addiction

Since Internet addiction is relatively new, it can be hard to find a real life support group dedicated to that issue like Alcoholics Anonymous or Gamblers Anonymous. If that is a simultaneous problem for you, however, attending groups can help you work through your alcohol or gambling problems as well.  Sex Addicts anonymous may be another place to try if you are having trouble with cybersex. However, there may be groups that you can join to work on social and coping skills, such as for anxiety or depression.

There are some Internet addiction support groups on the Internet. However, these should be used with caution. Although they may be helpful in orienting you and pointing you in the right direction, you need real life people to best benefit from group support.

Capio Nightingale Hospital, in central London, launched the service following calls from parents concerned about their children’s behaviour. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Richard Graham said parents told him their children flew “into a rage” when they were told to turn off their computer and police had even been called to sort out the rows.

What mean the expert

Dr Graham, who is leading the new addiction treatment, said services need to “adapt quickly” to help young people affected by technology addiction – who he dubbed “screenagers” – rather than sticking with the same treatment models used for substance abuse. “Mental health services need to adapt quickly to the changing worlds that young people inhabit, and understand just how seriously their lives can be impaired by unregulated time online, on-screen or in-game,” he said. “We have found that many of the existing services fail to recognise the complexity of these situations, borrowing from older models of addiction and substance misuse to very limited effect. “This is why Capio Nightingale Hospital has launched the first Young Person Technology Addiction Service, which we hope will address the underlying causes of this addiction to transform screenagers back into teenagers.”
The treatment aims to increase off-screen social activities and improve the person’s confidence in face-to-face situations, the lack of which may have made them more susceptible to technology addiction.

There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said.
The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.
The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems.

The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire.

Recruitment was via links on social networking sites. People were asked how much they used the internet and for what purposes.
They were also asked a series of questions to assess whether they suffered from depression.
It should not be concluded, however; that heavy internet use causes depression. It is more likely in fact that those suffering symptoms associated with depression are likely to find longer periods of access to the internet fits more comfortably with their general well being, in comparison, perhaps, to getting a job or doing the washing up.

Who does not know Second Life, that virtual world in network where each one can ride his character and go to meet others. Thanks to this real phenomenon everyone wants to be present in this “matrix”! But what are the motivation of its inhabitants? Are there dangers?

The other world

Virtual places are a true revolution, these are fictions where we can act by a virtual character who represent us. We can explore space, but also create objects and make services to send them. So we feel physically present. But many people come there to make sexual meet between two characters who mime sexual positions. You can also go to see an “Escort”, it’s a specialist in data processing codes who create a program for you and your desires if you pay him with some Linden Dollars (the official money in that world). Which attract people is the fact that is possible to make his own adult movie thanks to his character and with others people who have a character in this world. Thus there very few things prohibited except imposed to an other character to do something that he doesn’t want, for you just have to push the key “stand up”. There is also the attraction  for the sexual disobedience, an half of users use a character from the other sex. For men that enables for example to go in rooms reserved for lesbians, to enter girl cloakroom. But all these practice are so solitary.

In that world all is under control. You are just renting

time of server from the Linden-lab company who is the owner, and in only one click they can delete you and keep all your things made in this world. It’s a totalitarian world.

There are people who spend their night on Second Life to run away their daily life. They are especially people who don’t like really the human contact. But if you are not this kind of people, you are going to frustrate yourself quickly because of the shortcoming of human contact. Second Life could maintain a desocialization of his users in the way that in the real life we can’t go away our responsibilities and people who spend too many time in this world could disconnect themselves from the reality.

The reality of this disease and the scientist value of surveys on the subject are calling into question by most of psychologists, who see only here an e-hysteria. But an other discuss animate experts : is it the same kind of drug addiction or an addictive behaviour like pathologic gamer.

The spider of the network

Do a profile of web addictive people exist ? A netaholic profile type. Before that survey allow to give an idea of this phenomenon, media has long time carried the image of lewd teenager and young wolf disciple of the new economy and creator of start-up.

But further than those clichés, reality is really different. According to M. Gautier, “people who don’t feel addictive to the internet are mainly young (15-30 years old) men (next to 75%). Their main activity is their participation to chatrooms (23% of cases), network games or consultation of sexual websites”. We are pretty far from young complex and antisocial teenager.

Many website about the Internet Addiction Disorder are proliferating. There is even cyberclinic.
Among those websites proposing e-therapies, we can quote Center for on-line addiction created by Kimberley Young, or Virtual Addiction of the Doctor Greenfield, another American Expert on the subject.

Having worked developing internet content, applications and businesses since 1998 I have become very familar with the stress associated with working in the internet media industry. Firstly as a developer you are at the mercy of rapidly changing technology, as a business owner you are at the mercy of the challenges of keeping up with your competitors, as an online marketeer you need to be up to date with the latest cool way of selling product, viral, social, email or banner.

But one thing that unites all of us in our quest for internet glory is the understanding and appreication of what it takes to succeed in internet marketing. The term “google dance” was coined to describe the effect websites feel when google goes through an update due to algorithmic, architectural or other changes. The google dance  has a very negative effect on those people actively involved in the business. For example if you run a business that employs 8 people, turns over $3 million USD per annum and relies on Google for 80% of its customers you can guarantee one thing, the google update is going to take you for a ride.

For SEO professionals the latest update (April 2008) seems to have put a bigger cat among the pigeons and while this post is about webpsychosis rather than SEO, the latest google update is where the two meet. There is a psychological condition called “learned helplessness” and I am sure this is what most SEO professionals are feeling right now.

Defined by Wiki:

“Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to believe that it is helpless in a particular situation. It has come to believe that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result, the human being or the animal will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when it does actually have the power to change its circumstances. Learned helplessness theory is the view that depression results from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation, or situations(Seligman, 1975). Examples can be found in schools, mental institutions, orphanages, or long-term care facilities where the patients have failed or been stripped of agency for long enough to cause their feelings of inadequacy to persist.^[“

Google controls so much more that our search engine rankings, they control or business, our sales, our riches and our subsequent happiness.  Maybe we need to wake up to what might be happening.

The Internet and mobile technology are increasingly important to the educational and social lives of children, and are becoming a part of children’s identity. As one young person said to Childnet at one of its recent focus group meetings, “Take away my mobile phone and you take away a part of me!”

The addiction to internet

With the advent of broadband and mobile access to the Internet giving young people access to the Internet any place and at any time, and thus 24/7 entertainment, interaction and communication, there is a real risk that children can become so immersed in their online world that it can seem to take over their lives. It is easy to see why some children and young people love spending many hours pursuing their interests, playing games, finding information and communicating with friends (and strangers) online. However, when this use becomes obsessive and at the expense of other aspects of a young person’s life, this use of the Internet could be problematic and could even be classified as Internet addiction.
This guide produced by Childnet has drawn on other resources and serves as an introduction to the subject and will help you as parents or carers think about the issue of Internet addition, what the indicators of addiction are and tips for helping children. It will also highlight further resources and services that are available.

Compulsive Internet Use, Computer Addiction, Internet Dependence, Problematic Internet Use, Internet Addiction and Internet Addiction Disorder – all of these are essentially terms that have been applied to those that spend excessive amounts of time online at the expense of and to the detriment of other aspects of their lives. The obsessive behaviour takes the form of particular activities, and might include any or all of the following:

What define an Internet Addiction?

•Relationships: spending excessive amounts of time starting and maintaining online friendships in chat rooms, which replace real-life friends and family.

• Money: compulsively gambling online, trading online, and partaking in online auctions.

• Information searching: compulsive web surfing or database searches.

• Gaming: obsessive computer game playing, including multi-user games.

• Sex: addiction to adult chatrooms, cyber sex or pornography on the Internet.

There has been an increasing amount of attention given to this phenomenon, and attempts to quantify the problem have produced some staggering statistics: for example, figures suggesting that as many as 6-10% of the 189 million US Internet users have a dependency on the Internet, and there are as many as 1 million German Internet addicts. There have also been cases recorded of addiction to texting on mobile phones.