Issues Paper Source Outline

Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is a serious condition that does not receive enough attention from the community. It is an addiction of almost the same magnitude as drug abuse or alcoholism and can be just as detrimental to a person’s social and mental health.

I.       Intro

a.       Story

         “I’m ready to divorce John,” Marsha announced. I was taken aback. Marsha and John had been together for five years and had what I assumed was a stable marriage. I asked her what had gone wrong: Did John have a drinking problem? Was he having an affair? Had he been abusing her? “No,” she replied. “He’s addicted to the Internet.” Between sobs, she filled me in on the problem. Every night, he’d come home from work at 6 p.m. and head straight for the computer. No kiss hello, no help with dinner, or the dishes, or the laundry. At 10 p.m., he’d still be on-line when she’d call him to come to bed. “Be right there,” he’d say. Four or five hours later, he’d finally log off and stumble into bed. (Young 1)

b.       Thesis

II.       More than just a bad habit

a.       Internet use skyrocketing in past years

The average time users spent online grew in double digit rates in six countries between May and October this year, and even in the U.S., which ranks second in amount of time consumers spend online, the average time online grew 7.7%, according to a new report from Nielsen/NetRatings.

The largest growth in time online was registered by German and Swedish consumers, who increased their use of the web by 21.6% between May and October. Germans were online an average of 10 hours, 32 minutes online in October vs. 8 hours, 39 minutes in May. Swedes were online 8 hours, 2 minutes in October vs. 6 hours, 36 minutes in May. (InternetRetailer)

i.       But not everyone has IAD

ii.       Internet has become a necessity of communication, business, education, etc.

iii.       Not all of the increase is due to productive use

b.       Increase in number of people who suffer from IAD

i.       Story

ii.       Percentage of students with IAD

c.       At what point does it become IAD?

III.       IAD is a psychological addiction that has similar symptoms to those of alcoholism/pornography addiction/drug abuse

a.       Brief history of IAD

b.       Symptoms

i.       Fatigue

ii.       Muscular dystrophy

iii.       Depression

iv.       Anxiety

v.         Aggressive behavioc.      

C.       How similar to other addictions

         “While most people associate addiction with substances, such as drugs or alcohol, doctors recognize addictive behaviors as well. In a WebMD feature on the definition of addiction, psychiatrist Michael Bordy, MD, set forth the following criteria: 1. The person needs more and more of a substance or behavior to keep him going. 2. If the person does not get more of the substance or behavior, he becomes irritable and miserable.” (Clark)

i.         Used as an escape from stress but only strengthens the deeper issues

“Kids with depression, anger issues, or social problems also turn to the Internet as therapy, adds Gilbert, who was not involved in the study. ‘they can take on an avatar or a different identity, and can contact other kids with the same problems and social inadequacies; they don’t have to function in conventional social ways.’” (MacMillan)

ii.       Addict pulls away from social interaction

d.       How different

i.      Does not receive attention

“IAD was originally proposed as a disorder in a satirical hoax by Ivan Goldberg, M.D., in 1995. He took pathological gambling as diagnosed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as his model for the description of IAD.” (Internet Addiction Disorder)

ii.       Not as many help groups

iii.       Almost impossible to entirely quit using the internet, so a recovery has a different definition

IV.       IAD destroys face-to-face social skills

         It was found that the more time people spend using the Internet, the more they lose contact with their social environment. Figure 1 shows that this effect is noticeable even with just 2-5 Internet hours per week; and it rises substantially for those spending more than 10 hours per week, of whom up to 15 percent report a decrease in social activities. Even more striking is the fact that Internet users spend much less time talking on the phone to friends and family: the percentage reporting a decrease exceeds 25 percent—although it is unclear to what extent this represents a shift to email even in communicating with friends and family or a technical bottleneck due to a single phone line being preempted by Internet use. (Erbring)

a.       Increased aggression

“Adolescents with aggressive behavior in the past year were more likely to have Internet addiction, use the Internet every day, use the Internet more than 20 hours/week, and participate in oline gaming, chatting, gambling, adult sex Web, and BBS. Also they were less likely to participate in online research or studying activities.” (Ko)

b.       Loneliness

c.       Lack of intimacy

d.       Fake sense of relationship

VI.         Inhibits the development of social skills in children and adolescents.

a.            Kids are more at risk

a.   “It has been hypothesized that, because adolescence and young adulthood is a time of identity and relationship exploration, those who have trouble navigating through these developmental challenges are particularly vulnerable to using the Internet as a coping mechanism. Current research does indicate that ego-identity achievement in middle school students is negatively related to pathological and extreme Internet use.” (Guan)

b.            Sense of identity blurred

VII.         IAD is a serious and very real disorder that needs more attention. The negative effects on social skills and mental health, the easy access, and especially the susceptibility of young people to the addiction make this a dangerous addiction that, if unchecked, will continue to become more and more common.