What is Cyber Relationship Addiction?

Introduction

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, addiction refers to the strong yet harmful need to constantly have something or to do something. As for cyber relationship addiction, it is the addiction to “social networking, chat rooms, texting, and messaging to the point where virtual, online friends become more important than real-life relationships with family and friends” (Ramdhonee 2014).

Why is this topic of interest important? The main reason cited is that the Internet has undoubtedly become part of our daily lives and has made a radical change in communication leading to the build up of relationships. However, the effects of such online relationships ranges from positive to negative, hence in the following literature review, we will be reviewing on the extent of online relationship, the demographics affected by such an addiction, as well as reasons for falling into such an addiction.

Literature Review

The extent of cyber relationship addiction these days.

In a research done by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, the basic demographic shows that more young adults use social media compared to older adults. According to Duggan, 83% of internet users between the age of 18-29 are most likely to use social networking sites to engage in any form of cyber relationship and the remaining percentage (27%) refers to older adults under the age of 50.

Social Interaction

The internet serves as a platform to a new social environment whereby they learn of self identity as well as build new relations (Ramdhonee 2014). Through engaging in cyber relationship with others, it may help the youth in fulfilling “unmet real life social needs”, thus leading to a longer time spend on social networks and cyb...

... middle of paper ...

...males are more active users of social media. Thus, gender demographics in cyber relationship addiction is inconclusive due to the lack of research done on the topic. The same goes for age, where research is concentrated toward adolescents despite the shifts in technological dynamics, in which few researchers touched upon.

It is also important to take note of the speed of internet penetration, and the speed in which technology changes, as it’s extremely fast moving nature may render statistics and research conducted just years ago irrelevant.

Finally, we need to understand that while the majority of the studies and statistics cited in the review are not in a local context, they will be crucial in helping us formulate concise survey questions for the demographics of our sample.

(1694 words)