home news sports culture ideas up-to-date

You are viewing
Volume 38 Issue 4
October 17, 2000

To return to the current issue please click here.

Psychologist legitimizes web addiction
Support groups forming on campuses nationwide

BY ALEX WEININGER
U-WIRE
Submitted October 17, 2000

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - With the Internet becoming an ever-present factor in the lives of students around the world, psychologists and psychiatrists have found a new obsession and termed it “Internet Addiction.”

Dr. Kimberly Young, executive director of the Center for On-Line Addiction and the pioneer for earlier research into the problem, became interested in the disorder after complaints from a female friend who told Young about her husband’s obsession with chat rooms.

Jim Allen/MESA LEGEND
MCC student Riho Umeda, a general studies major, is one of many students who spend their time using the Internet in the Paul Elsner Library and Hi-Tech Center.

Young’s main study looked at 496 heavy Internet users and compared their behavior to the clinical criteria used to classify gambling. Gambling is considered the closest type of addiction to online addiction because it involves failed impulse control without involving an intoxicant.

Young found that people who have “Internet Addiction” met four or more of the established criteria and found college students to be particularly at risk.

“They typically have unlimited and free access to log online, which causes problems such as academic failure in school and relationship breakups,” Young said.

Although Young’s study received much praise from various psychiatric and psychological organizations, it has received considerable criticism about whether or not “Internet Addiction” actually exists.

Dr. Ivan Goldberg, a New York City-based psychiatrist, is one of Young’s most vehement critics and said that Young’s definition of the disorder does not address some of the underlying factors that might cause someone to use the Internet often and compulsively. He also said “Internet Addiction” is not a disorder.

Goldberg has a special connection to the controversy surrounding “Internet Addiction” because he created a “Symptoms of Internet Addiction” Web site in an attempt to poke fun at the guidelines the DSM-IV psychiatric diagnosis manual uses to identify certain disorders.

He posted fictitious symptoms of “Internet Addiction” on his site.

Expecting a few laughs from colleagues over his bogus diagnosis, he instead received streams of e-mails from concerned people, claiming to have the disorder. Goldberg said being addicted to the Internet could be a sign of other problems such as depression or over-anxiety, but labeling a symptom hides its origins.

Goldberg disagrees with Young’s research and conclusion about “Internet Addiction,” but helps people who come to him with the problem find the underlying causes for their over-indulgence of the Internet.

“The Internet is a distraction technique that has some pleasure attached to it,” Goldberg said.

William Ray, a psychology professor at Penn State said he is unsure of what constitutes “Internet Addiction” as an actual disorder. “Usually, there’s some physical consequence for not continuing the behavior. Some kind of withdrawal,” Ray said.

Although there is doubt about the existence of “Internet Addiction,” some universities across the country aren’t taking any chances. The University of Maryland has a support group for compulsive Internet users called “Caught in the Net.” The University of Oregon also offers a support group for uncontrollable users.

“We’re also starting to ask people, in assessment, how much time they spend eating, sleeping and on the Internet,” said Rhoda Trietsch, associate director of the counseling center at the University of Maryland.

Trietsch added she thinks many of the problems students come to her and her staff with are the result of interaction in chat rooms.

“When people are talking about falling behind, not going to classes and losing motivation, we ask them about their Internet use and much of it has to do with chat rooms.”

Though controversy remains regarding “Internet Addiction,” Young said that both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association support her  finding that the problem is indeed an addiction.

“As the Internet rapidly expands into our daily lives, this opens an important dialogue so that we may establish an appropriate health care infrastructure to prevent and treat the problem,” Young said.

Back to Top | Previous Page | Home