Are You Internet Addict?

A survey conducted by Standford University recently on internet users in the US gives an interesting finding: ” more than one of every eight US residents showed at least one sign of “problematic internet use”. The typical internet addict was a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s.

How did the survey defines someone as addicted to internet or not? The answer could be used for all of us, outside US, as well. So, you, accordign to the survey, are considered as an internet addict if you meet (one or most of) the following criteria:

1. If you hide your internet surfing activity from others;
2. If you go online to cure foul moods in ways that mirrored the way alcoholics use booze or drugs in other words you are using the internet to self-medicate;
3. If you spend approximately 30 hours a week or ie. more than four hours a day on non-essential computer use;
4. If you feel hard to abstain from internet use for several days;
5. If you feel compulsive checking of your e-mail and chat rooms, as well as habitually checking out web pages.

If the above points are used as criteria to differentiate between internet addiction and not, well, I think many rigorous blogger will fall to the category of internet addict. Can a blogger abstain from opening their blog in a day? Well, I don’t think so.

The term addict and addiction mean that you are physically or mentally unfit. So, you need a clinic therapy or –just like a drug addict– a rehabilitation. And mind you Beijing, China has already got one medical therapy for it.