People are dying to use the internet

 With the internet becoming more incorporated into our lives than ever before, people are having a harder time knowing when enough is enough of spending leisure time on the net. People now have to face the aspect of knowing the signs of internet addiction.

The amount of time people are spending online has increased 117% in the past five years. Much of this increase is due to the rising popularity of social networks such as Facebook, according to the annual Forrester online survey conducted this past January and February. (http://news.cnet.com )

EMU student Steve Kuroewicki, who currently spends about an hour of leisure time on the internet, says addiction occurs at,

“3 or 4 hours where you have no life except the internet”,

Kuroewicki expects the current trend of more time spent on the internet to continue. When asked if people will spend more or less leisure time on the internet in the future, Kuroewicki said,

“Probably more time because there’s so many things you can do on the internet now that you couldn’t do.”

Since coming to college, Kuroewicki has had more time on leisure internet than ever before in his life.

“I’ve never had that much time to spend on the internet until now.”

In August of 2005, BBC news reported, a 28 year South Korrean man known as Lee died of heat failure due to exhaustion after playing online games for more than two days straight stopping only to use the bathroom or to sleep briefly. As tragic as it was, Lee's experince is not the only one of it's kind.

On Oct 29, 2009, China Daily, an on-line Chinese news service, reported that a 36 year old mother swallowed 50 sleeping pills in an attempt to take her life. The mothers drastic actions resulted from her son who refused to break his habit of computer games. Ignoring his mother, the boy headed to an Internet café after which the mother attempted to kill herself.
A neighbor of the women found her unconscious on her doorstep and was rush to the hospital where doctors managed to save her.

With more time being spent on the internet, people wanting to break their addiction of using the internet as a time killer between classes, must find ways to cope.

“Like me, you should do the things you need to do first, than you can do the stuff you want to do on your own time”, advises Schoolcraft student Joe Peruski.

If current internet trends continue into the next generation, extensive internet usage could worsen even more. College student Mike Smock, who spends only an hour of leisure time on the internet (mostly on Facebook) who believes the trend is destined to worsen. When face with the question of how long the children of current college age students will spend on the net, Smock says, “I’d say four plus hours.”

This exceeds Smock’s current standard that “…two plus hours is an addiction.”

William Nance, a retired machine repair from GM Powertrain Willow Run Hydromat, fits Smocks standards of an internet addict. Nance, currently spends 4-6 hours a day on leisure internet a day. Nance’s obsession stems mostly from online gaming.

“I check out friends on facebook and play a few games there ( mafia wars, mobsters 2, uno.) I also play a few other online games, one of which, Damoria, I ended up becoming the leader of an alliance when nobody else wanted the job.” Based on the theme of a medieval world, Damoria has players defend their castle from attacking armies of their opponent, and making alliances with other players. “I ended up becoming the leader of an alliance when nobody else wanted the job. So I ended up sending many messages advising members what to do, or teaching newer members the game.”

Nance also uses the internet to his advantage in other hobbies of his. “I am into certain periods of history so I also read online about them. I also look up vacation information for friends and sometimes plan a cruise or something for them finding the cheapest and best , both cruise and airfare wise.”

Dr. Kimberly Young, founder and director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery, has done extensive research in the field of internet addiction, writing more than 40 articles about the influence of online abuse. Pieces of Young’s work have appeared in multiple major newspapers, and have made many appearances on national television. According to Young, research in the field of internet addiction is  relatively new.

“As far as any outcome study, the only one that I know of that examines long term recovery is the one I published based upon 114 patients. Treatment involved 12 outpatients sessions using Cognitive behavioral treatment and that seems to be the best standard.”

In her recovery research, Young evaluated a group of 114 clients composed up of 42% men and 58% women. The evaluation found that men were most addicted to pornography, sexual online chat rooms, and online gaming and gambling. Women were addicted to sexual and general chat rooms, online auction houses, and online gambling and shopping. Most of these people found cognitive behavior therapy to benefit them the most with their online addictions.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, (CBT) works on changing the way people think about things that in turn, lead to how they behave. CBT revolves around the belief that it is not a situation that determines a person’s behavior, but what people believe about the situation that leads them to behave the way they do.

"The idea is getting away from the computer when tempted to misuse for no work or no school related purpose. Mentally changing the way someone feels when online is one step. Also, changing the reasons someone gives themselves permission to use, like an addict, will also help to stop the behavior," Says Young.

“More research would help examine how we can use CBT with specific subtypes of Internet addiction and how it can best be used with other modalities of treatment.”