Internet Addiction

The internet was created in the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, during The Cold War. Today the internet is known as a large public access network of other interconnected computer network. The internet provides a plethora of information as well as many services that people view as necessities in today's world such as, e-mail, instant messaging, file sharing, gaming, etc. The internet is so "convenient" that many people could not even imagine life with out it. There is so much information on the internet that it basically caters to anyone with access to it. Being so accessible the internet can easily become addictive to people just as drugs can. The dictionary defines addiction as the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming. Critics argue though, that "internet addiction" is not possible because there are no chemical substances involved. However, just like people can get addicted to television or anything else that they may enjoy, the same concept applies to internet use.

As internet growth increases, so do the number of users that log on everyday, and with more users, the number of "addictions" grow every day as well. As with any type of addiction, it is becoming a serious problem for many people, causing conflicts with employment and academics. It doesn't matter what a person's age, sex, religion, race, etc., anyone is subject to become addicted. This problem is becoming so large that there has even been a Center for Internet Addiction Recovery established to help those with this "disorder."

The internet is used for so many different reasons and they all can become addictive. People can get addicted to chat rooms and instant messaging, surfing the web, online auctions, pornography, and even online gaming. The most recent and extreme case of internet addiction occurred in South Korea, when a man passed away from heart failure after playing the popular online role playing game World of Warcraft for 50 hours straight. Although this is a very exceptional case, internet users can suffer from exhaustion from long periods of use.

It is often believed that people use the internet as a way of escaping reality. Those who are lonely or bored see it as a place to easily make new friends instantly from the safety of their home, or wherever they might be, without actually having to deal with the whole face to face aspect of things. The user can act like whomever they want to when speaking to other users online thus creating their ideal self in this new identity. These types of relationships, though they seem harmless, can actually spew the users view on reality and push them farther away from society itself and affect their real life relationships. For example if an "addict" spends all night on the web talking to random people and surfing the web, then their performance at school or work will suffer