A study claims internet addiction is rife.

[starrylizard]

Okay, so THIS article is killing me. Found it off science_beta.

Is it just me, or are they completely missing the point that for many people the internet is a very social activity. Calling it an addiction and throwing it in with drug and alcohol abuse seems a little over the top to me. These people really need to have better things to research.

Comments

[smuffster.livejournal.com]

The bit that got me

'Most disturbing was the discovery that some people hid their Internet surfing, or went online to cure foul moods.'

Oh, and like people who go and exercise for hours a day to make themselves feel better is any different?

[lark_ascends]

I think the thing that people need to realise is that you can become addicted to ANYTHING. So, of course there are going to be people who are addicted to the internet, and if that's causing harm in their life, well that's an issue. Otherwise, it's as valid hobby as playing 15 sports.

[kaaatie.livejournal.com]

What a load of bollocks! I'm sure that there are some people who use the Internet so much that it causes clinically significant impairment on their jobs or life --- which means that it is a problem for them --- but they would be in the extremely vast minority.

I think that it's extremely dangerous to start labelling things as 'addictive', particularly when the statistics that they report prove nothing of the sort. According to them, their average Internet user is spending about 4 hours a day on 'unnecessary' use --- 4 hours couldn't be enough to constitute an addiction.

I think it's either a really crappy study, or just some very bad reporting of it. Either way, stupid people.

Oh, and I loved the comment that someone left: "A new study finds that over-zealous scientist who waste hours upon hours studying people objectively as microscopic specimens spend too much of their life trying to prove meaningless facts about the human race."

[parisntripfan.livejournal.com]

One of the real problems with this study is that reponses only looked at how many people responded to one (or maybe two) of the "addictive" indicators. But in order to considered addicted to something a person as to repond yes to several of those indicators.