Internet Addiction: When Cyberspace Disconnects Us

Over the past decade the Internet has taken a central role in our lives. While it has enhanced our lives in key ways, it also holds the potential to detract from them by interfering with our functioning and overall happiness.
We can now add the Internet to the long list of things to which we can find ourselves addicted. For many of you, this comes as no surprise. As a result of our constant “connectivity”, we live in a world where people are not fully present in it. Rather than being where they are, many of us are obsessed with where we are being texted and emailed.
So what constitutes an Internet addiction? The researchers who have looked at this phenomenon base their definitions on other addictions that do not involve taking a substance like alcohol or drugs. These “non-ingestion” addictions include addictions to activities like shopping, gambling, video games and sex. In determining whether a person is addicted to the Internet, researchers look for the following six criteria…

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