Internet Addiction: Causes, Effects, And Available Treatments

Cause of Internet Addiction

Question:

Discuss about the Internet Addiction for Behavior and Social Network.

Addiction is a specific type of brain disorder that is characterized by the obsessive engagement in satisfying stimuli in spite of unfavourable consequences (J Kuss et al. 2014). Despite of the involvement of several numbers of psychological factors, a particular biological procedure is induced by the repetition of exposure to an addictive stimulus. This type of brain disorder forces the victim to be addicted to any particular thing or place. One of such dangerous and infamous addiction is in the connection of Internet (Kuss, Griffiths and Binder 2013). This addiction is extremely common in today’s world and is especially found in the youth or young generation.

The following report outlines a brief description about the addiction in Internet. There are several harmful effects due to this addiction (Kardefelt-Winther 2014). This report focuses on the various causes and effects on modern society and how this addiction is affecting the youth generation. The report will also discuss about the probable and available treatment interventions for the Internet addiction.

Internet Addiction Disorder or IAD is the characterization by poorly or excessively managed behaviours, urges or preoccupations about the utilization of Internet. This can lead to distress or even impairment (Brand, Young and Laier 2014). Internet addiction can be referred to the obsessive requirement to be present online in such a way that it can be interfered with normal life and which can negatively affect acquaintances. There are various types of Internet addiction. They are as follows:

1. i) Cyber Relationships: This is one of the most important type of Internet addiction. Cyber relationships is the addiction to all types of social networking sites, social media, messaging, chat rooms and many such things to such a point where online friends or virtual friends become more vital than the real life relationships (Kuss et al. 2013). The victim of this type of disorder is more interested in cyber or virtual relations, rather than affected with his or her own family or friends in real life.
2. ii) Cyber Sex: This is the second type of Internet addiction that focuses on the compulsive utilization of the Internet pornography, adult fantasy and adult chat rooms (Young 2015). This obsession about cyber sex affect the youth generation in concentrating in their studies.

Internet Compulsion: This is the third type of Internet addiction. The compulsion over Internet lead to constant gambling, online gaming, visiting auction sites, stock trading and many more and thus, the victim is constantly affected with the Internet connection (Starcevic 2013). This type of Internet addiction often result to various job related issues and financial problems.

1. iv) Online Shopping: This is another type of Internet addiction and here the victim is constantly visiting and shopping from the online stores in all over the world. Online shopping often lead to financial crisis and the victim is affected by this.
2. v) Internet Surfing: This is the fifth type of Internet addiction, where the victim is obsessed with the Internet surfing. He or she surfs the Internet and is obsessed with web surfing or any type of database searching (Cheng and Li 2014). This often leads to productivity of low work and lower social interaction with friends and family. Thus, this affects his personal, professional and social life.

There are various important causes of the Internet addiction. These are the sole reason ns of enhancement of Internet addiction is spread in all over the world. The most important and the most significant causes of the Internet addiction are as follows:

1. i) Loneliness: This is the most important cause of internet addiction for the youth generation (Goel, Subramanyam and Kamath 2013). When the victims do not have someone to talk with or share their problems, they often end up in the virtual world of Internet.
2. ii) Depression: This is the second important cause of this type of addiction. Victims are often depressed and they try to find peace and bliss in the cyber world.

Overwhelmed: The third major cause of Internet addiction is being overwhelming.  Statistics denote that around 35% of the youth generation spend their time on Internet, as they are overwhelmed with any kind of topic or situation (Lortie and Guitton 2013). They want to share their experience and want the people to know about their life and activities. This type of addiction is mostly seen in children, young adults or people aging between 20 to 30 years.

1. iv) Introvert: This is again one of the major causes of Internet addiction. Many people or children are introvert in nature. They face problems in sharing their feelings or issues with others in face-to-face meetings (Starcevic 2013). However, they can speak freely when they are in the virtual world. These types of individuals spend most of their time online and are affected with Internet Addiction Disorder.

Effects of Internet Addiction

The above-mentioned causes clearly depict that there can be serious issues due to this type of harmful addiction. Although, Internet has various advantages, there are several disadvantages or demerits for this Internet addiction. The major disadvantages for the Internet addiction are as follows:

1. i) Isolation: This is the most significant disadvantage of Internet addiction. The person is addicted to this type of connectivity and he spends most of his or her time alone by locking himself in a particular room. Due to his isolation, his social life is affected.
2. ii) Health Problems: The second disadvantage of Internet addiction is poor health. This type of Internet addiction often leads to extreme health issues or problems (Goel, Subramanyam and Kamath 2013). It has been noticed in recent statistics that most of the health problems of the youth generation is due to Internet addiction. Poor eye sights, migraines, spondylitis, back pain, neck pain are some of the major health problems caused by Internet connection.

Life Interference: It has been noticed that some of the addicts are losing their jobs or failing in classes as they are spending most of the time on online activities. Often people are not present in schools, colleges or work places since they are completely indulged in online activities.

1. iv) Aggressive Behaviour: This is again one of the major disadvantages of Internet addiction. People are turning aggressive when they are interrupted or disturbed while present on the Internet (Starcevic 2013). Moreover, they are not paying attention to their family or friends and are thus being totally separated from the rest of the world.

These effects have totally conquered the world and are responsible for many of the cyber crime or depression.

The addicted people are required to be treated as soon as possible so that they are not affected any more (Winkler et al. 2013). This is only possible with the help of medical science and psychologists. Medical science is conquering the world by its amazing therapies and invention. The available treatments for the Internet addicts are as follows:

1. i) Group and Family Therapy: This type of therapy is considered as the best therapies in the world. Family therapy refers to the quality time spent with the victim by counselling him or her (Young 2015). It has been noticed that the victims believe their families more often than any other doctors or nurses. If the victim does not have a family, his friends can also do the same task. This reduces his depression and he is able to share his problems.
2. ii) Dialectical Behavioural Therapy: DBT is a cognitive behavioural treatment that emphasizes training classes on group skills and individual psychotherapy (Lortie and Guitton 2013). These classes help the victims to learn as well as utilize innovative strategies and skills for developing a successful life. When the victim is learning new skills, he is diverted from the world of Internet.

Art Therapy: This is a specific form of psychotherapy that involves encouragement of free self expression with the help of art skills like painting, singing, moulding and many more. This also reduces the addiction of Internet.

Recreation Therapy: This type of therapy uses recreation and several other activity based interventions for addressing the assessed requirements of individuals, who are suffering from psychological problems (Ko et al. 2013). Recreation therapy mainly helps to build confidence and restore gross motor skills.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, addiction is the most dangerous and harmful brain disorder for any individual. It causes and brings out various disadvantages, which can cause extreme harm to the society. The most significant disadvantage of this addiction is distraction. People are distracted with this di0soirder and thus often face problems in concentrating in work or studies. Addiction can be featured by the compelling engagement for fulfilling the demand or satisfying the stimulus. A person is usually addicted to anything; right from a small pen to a building. The most dangerous or significant addiction in today’s world is with the connectivity of the Internet. The most affected people in this type of addiction are the children and youth generation. They face problems in concentrating on studies and thus their career is affected. The above report has provided a concise description regarding the Internet addiction. Moreover, this report has also mentioned about the several causes that are the sole reasons for this type of addiction. The effects of Internet addiction on the modern society are also given here. The report has also described about the treatments that are available for removing this type of addiction from any particular individual.

References

Brand, M., Young, K.S. and Laier, C., 2014. Prefrontal control and Internet addiction: a theoretical model and review of neuropsychological and neuroimaging findings. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, p.375.

Cheng, C. and Li, A.Y.L., 2014. Internet addiction prevalence and quality of (real) life: a meta-analysis of 31 nations across seven world regions. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(12), pp.755-760.

Goel, D., Subramanyam, A. and Kamath, R., 2013. A study on the prevalence of internet addiction and its association with psychopathology in Indian adolescents. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 55(2), p.140.

J Kuss, D., D Griffiths, M., Karila, L. and Billieux, J., 2014. Internet addiction: a systematic review of epidemiological research for the last decade. Current pharmaceutical design, 20(25), pp.4026-4052.

Kardefelt-Winther, D., 2014. A conceptual and methodological critique of internet addiction research: Towards a model of compensatory internet use. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, pp.351-354.

Ko, C.H., Liu, G.C., Yen, J.Y., Chen, C.Y., Yen, C.F. and Chen, C.S., 2013. Brain correlates of craving for online gaming under cue exposure in subjects with Internet gaming addiction and in remitted subjects. Addiction biology, 18(3), pp.559-569.

Kuss, D.J., Griffiths, M.D. and Binder, J.F., 2013. Internet addiction in students: Prevalence and risk factors. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), pp.959-966.

Kuss, D.J., Van Rooij, A.J., Shorter, G.W., Griffiths, M.D. and van de Mheen, D., 2013. Internet addiction in adolescents: Prevalence and risk factors. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(5), pp.1987-1996.

Lortie, C.L. and Guitton, M.J., 2013. Internet addiction assessment tools: Dimensional structure and methodological status. Addiction, 108(7), pp.1207-1216.

Starcevic, V., 2013. Is Internet addiction a useful concept?. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 47(1), pp.16-19.

Winkler, A., Dörsing, B., Rief, W., Shen, Y. and Glombiewski, J.A., 2013. Treatment of internet addiction: a meta-analysis. Clinical psychology review, 33(2), pp.317-329.

Young, K., 2015. The evolution of Internet addiction disorder. In Internet addiction (pp. 3-17). Springer, Cham.