internet addiction

Are You Addicted to the Internet? Take Our Poll

Take our poll and assess your electronic addictions.

By Jeffrey Rossman, PhD

Topics: stress, mind-body-mood advisor

Set rules and boundaries to keep yourself from overdoing it with electronic communication.

Having trouble separating from your computer?

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—As you read this, you and I are communicating via the magic of the Internet. If you are as old as I am, you grew up never dreaming this technology would exist. Today it is hard to imagine living without it.

Many of us depend on the Internet, email, blackberries, cellphones, Facebook, and all manner of electronic communication to keep us connected to our friends, our family, our work, and our world. We can work from home or from a mountaintop, instant-message friends all over the world, and Twitter anyone who cares to know exactly what we are doing right now.

But if the thought of not checking your email for a few hours causes you to break into a cold sweat, you may be addicted to your communication technology. This is the potential downside of our infatuation with instant communication. Our penchant for connecting with someone who is somewhere else can interfere with our ability to be fully present right where we are. Our quality of life, and the quality of our relationships, can suffer when email, cellphones, and the Net keep us from giving full attention to the activities and the people we are with. In our 24/7 perpetually plugged-in culture, our online activities follow us everywhere: A survey done by AOL found that 67 percent of respondents checked their email while in their pajamas in bed, and 59 percent checked their email while in the bathroom!

Last year a young couple came to me seeking help with their intimate relationship. They both did a good deal of work from home, where they frequently sat in their home office at their computers with their backs to each other for hours at a time. They confided sheepishly that some of their best conversations with each other were via instant messaging as they sat back-to-back staring at their computer screens. I complimented them on their efficiency. When I suggested the obvious, they responded that turning around and actually talking to each other interrupted their workflow, and was more difficult for them than just IM’ing. Our work together focused on enhancing their ability to speak face to face (outside the office!) about important issues in their shared life, and on finding positive ways for them to connect with each other and share affection.

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Video Games

Posted on October 5th, 2009 by Hisham Itani

I believe addiction to video games is far worse than addiction to the internet (e-mails, google etc.). I am my own witness. In the summer i used to drown myself in hours and hours of playing video games online or single player mode. Also the majority of the people i know have that addicion not the google/facebook/twitter one. So yea i suggest that a new poll be applied with video games in it i think that would really by far surpass all of the other options.

PC Video Games

Posted on October 5th, 2009 by Zach Gum

Although I am addicted to the internet, I play PC games for hours.

Addicted and not planning on changing

Posted on October 2nd, 2009 by Laura

I'd rather be online than going out. My sci fi rp is more thrilling than anything that could happen in my life. Is this bad? I don't think so. I live a fairly drama free life because I don't need drama - I have it in the game. No one complains about writing, so what's the difference between devising plots of your own, and devising plots with friends? And then writing fiction together?

I go to work, I own a house, I am not interested in dating becuase physical stuff bores me. I'm happy, that's what matters. Yay to (mostly) healthy addictions!

video games

Posted on June 4th, 2009 by Warren

I think you left out one category: video games. I'd say I'm much more addicted to those than any of the other electronic categories, by far.

the internet

Posted on June 1st, 2009 by Ree

I think it is good for homework and information. I can say I am not addicted. There is more to life then fantasy chat rooms and internet surfing for hours on end. There is a big world outside. I feel that some people hide behind the internet because they are afraid to show who they really are. They say I am in a relationship, and someone would say with who, and they say oh some guy/girl I met online. Oh so you met I ask? No not yet but we have been talking for like "forever", and were so in love. I just sit there and think Your in love with a fantasy person but how can you if you have never met. They only exist really in your head?? Hmm get a real life hello. I met my man online but now I am hardly ever on here. Desperate nahhh but at least we have met!!! I was just checking my mail when this question appeared in my box. I wanted to say if your falling asleep at the pc, and you cant wait to get home to chat. If you start dreaming, talking out loud to your online friends. Then you are addicted. Go meet real people, and join a support group. Well thats enough internet time for me. I have real people who need my support. Have a good one!

To know the site where you met you man online but i am looking g

Posted on June 4th, 2009 by leo

But i think its my passion to do internet social networking .....i always have in mind if someone sent me scraps but as i am guy so you know i don't get but i know girls always have full scraps i can understand this but i think we are surely addicted to our needs...nothing more than this and if we get that easily and quicker than we won't come again on net thats just specific to our work if its business obvious we will be looking for its good outcome......just a huamn being is a set of needs that a person everytime keep on thinking all the time of life ...but don't you think its wild i mean its a wild living just as animals do...humans can think and have greater brain power blessed by GOD but thats just not specific to human life that a term assigned to human body as a human being its wrong..in fact all people are wild animals just as all animals do eat sex sleep fear etc so what distinguishes a true human from just the same one with human body thats a knowledge of GOD enlightenment with which one become knower of realty..so just this can balance a life if someone start living life by GOD words that life is above all kind of life....my email adress - prince_leo92@yahoo.com

Internet-The new Drug for The new Millenium

Posted on June 1st, 2009 by John Caldwell

Without going into detail, I have spent approximately 90% of the last 15 years in front of a computer screen. If a day goes by in which I cannot access a computer, including the Internet, I become agitated, restless, moody and just flat out a huge pain in the a** until I get back in front of that monitor.

I curse the technology of the internet, a subject that I am also a master of, and it is the only part of my life I would change if I could do it again-I would trade to become an Amish Mennonite Elder in a heartbeat.

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