Internet Addiction

I do beleive that internet could be "addicitive", even in the real sense of the clinical practice. Simply put, as does DSM-IV for most of its "addiction/abuse" criteria, if "it" interferes with your daily life, and you have some type of "withdrawl" from it if not used on a regular interval, or need increasing amounts without the ability to control or cutting back, then one is addicted to the net.

Another aspect that can be looked at for (diagnosing) internet addiction, is the specific type of activity engaged on the net.

There is a difference between someone who utilizes the net to chat-ramance-cybersex everynight, staying up longer and later everynight, and the person whos' research project is getting underway and therefore is spending more and more time on the net searching for relevant sites and literature.

The difference is clear, when after the research project is completed, he/she has moved on, but the net-romancer is still romancing with the same on-line friend if not a new one.

Another aspect of the net addiction is the same variable interval-variable ratio component to gambling addiction: Every time one logs on, he/she will have a different experience depending on the sites and people he/she meets.

On top of it all, the annonymous nature of the net is un-beatable. You can let your deepest desires, abnormalities, and fetishes surface and you won't even get fired when you go to work the next day. So the net is used as a way to "channel" those socially un-acceptable thoughts and feelings. That is why it has earned some ill reputations lately.

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