Negative Effects Of Internet Addiction

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The prevalence of social media in today’s society is overwhelming “as of 2011, there are 500,000,000 active Facebook users. Approximately 1 in every 13 people on earth has Facebook, and half of them are logged in on any given day” (Hepburn, A. 2011). This statistic only refers to Facebook users; this does not account for the countless other social media outlets such as; Instagram, Twitter, and other online chat sites or blogs. This suggests how overwhelming and widely used social media has become; individuals are having an increasingly difficult time unplugging from their online lives. Consequently this oversaturation of social media is negatively affecting the state of mental health. This attachment to social media relates to the topic of …show more content…

“Internet addiction is characterized by excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges or behaviors regarding computer use and Internet access that lead to impairment or distress. The many names given to this phenomenon recognize the various ways in which it has been regarded: compulsive computer use, pathological Internet use, problematic Internet use, Internet dependency, Internet addiction and even internetmania.” (Shaw, M., Black, D. 2008). This addiction is a huge and growing problem in today’s technological world, individuals are so consumed with online activities they experience withdrawal symptoms when offline for prolonged periods of time. In a study conducted of “445 individuals whom 46% of identified themselves as addicts concluded that there was a significant relationship between high Internet use and both depression and introversion.” (Shaw, M., Black, D. 2008). A study performed on Chinese adolescents revealed that addiction to Internet use relates to lower self-esteem, less satisfaction with life, perceived rejection, abandonment and indifference (Wang, L., Lou, J., Gao, W., Sun, X. 2013). The combination of the psychological effects of depression, anxiety and isolation combined with inability to unplug from the online world, makes children and teenagers susceptible to cyber-bullying, social anxiety and even suicidal

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