Are you online for business purposes only? Is online gaming your cup of tea? Does all your news conveniently roll under the RSS feed on your browser window? Do you find yourself anxious awaiting comments for those ambiguously depressing song lyrics you tweeted? Are you always wondering about these things?
In today’s world of instant communication and social media, there exists a commonality among all computer owners from around the world. Whether you’re a PC or a “Mac” person, no one can deny that the Internet is, in one word, glorious.
Since its commercial inception in the early 1990s, its popularity is not the only thing that has grown. The number of friends an average individual can boast is also on the rise.
The Internet has united billions of world citizens in a way that has never been done before. Sharing has never been easier or faster; civilians are giving media gatekeepers a run for their money; and the free flow of information has empowered everyone at the click of a mouse.
Having grown up in such a world where computer language is second nature and the Internet has become a daycare of sorts, most students currently in college are now facing what researchers and experts are calling “Internet addiction.”
While the American Psychiatric Association has yet to recognize “Internet addiction” as a disorder, researchers from the University of Maryland have found information that implies it should. In the study, 200 college students showed signs of withdrawal and anxiety after a 24-hour absence of the Internet and all other related media. Many admitted to feeling secluded without the social immediacy and loss of, what they perceived as, their connection and relationship to family and friends.
Researchers have ultimately likened this dependence on technology and the Internet to that of a drug and alcohol addiction.
While these results do seem valid or, at least, relevant, it is not without its flaws. How could something so efficient and unitive be so bad? Are we not broadening our outlooks and cultivating friendships around the world? We are learning, yes? These research claims are preposterous.
Yet, perhaps, like anything that is good, there is always the possibility that it is also prone to abuse. After all, the Internet has facilitated porn addiction, which is a legitimately listed disorder. In South Korea, 49 million people have been classified “Internet addicts,” including a couple that neglected and starved their newborn to raise a virtual child instead.
Many students have run up debts from online gaming and subsequently dropped out of school, while the rest compulsively check their phones during class.
Centers like ReSTART have cropped up to treat this so-called addiction. They cite uncontrollable behavior, physical or sleep pattern changes, school interference, restlessness when unengaged in activity, and neglecting family and friends as symptoms. The latter seems ironic and maybe even insightful. All the same, it is problematic, isn’t it?
The very entity toted as a platform to reaching out to others is the same one aiding in distancing family and friends under the illusion of connecting loved ones.
On the other hand, the Internet has efficiently mapped out the world for us all — we all love Google maps.On the other, it seems to have created a legion of increasingly obese, obsessed media zombies.
Perhaps too much of a good thing is not that good. The Internet: a glorious place or a wasteland of information?
Nina Nguyen is a senior journalism major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
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