Summer time can mean more screen-time.
One of the most common concerns from parents of teens, behind drug use, is
Internet addiction.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a college campus or
schools that don’t have Internet.
College students and teens use the
Internet for research, communication, and other educational activities.
Of course, students also use the Internet for social media, news, and
even online gambling, activities that can be fun and even enriching, but
when overused, become a real problem.
Some college students suffer from Internet addiction, unable to step
away from the computer or put down mobile devices even for a day.
Eighty-four percent of college counselors agree that Internet Addiction Disorder
is legitimate, but at the same time, 93% of them have not been fully
trained to diagnose Internet addiction, and 94% have insufficient
training for Internet addiction treatment. The result? Falling grades,
physical problems, and even clinical addiction.
Internet addiction is a real problem for college students and teens today, and here are several trends that are worrisome.
1.
Students have feelings similar to drug and alcohol addiction: Two
hundred students were asked to abstain from all media for 24 hours, and
were then asked to blog about their experiences. The words the students
used to describe their feelings during the restriction period were
typically the same words associated with a substance abuse addiction:
“withdrawal, frantically craving, very anxious, antsy, miserable,
jittery, crazy.” It seems that these students are addicted to media,
particularly in its online form. This is disturbing, but not surprising,
as studies have already shown that
Google can actually change your brain.
2.
College students are especially susceptible to Internet Behavior Dependence:A
college student case study revealed that college students are a
“population of special concern” when it comes to Internet addiction, and
they are disproportionately vulnerable due to psychological and
environmental factors in their lives. When faced with an Internet
addiction, college students have a hard time forming their identity and
building intimate relationships. Online, students can “develop
relationships devoid of the anxiety found in face-to-face
relationships,” and they “can take on any persona they desire, without
fear of judgment on appearance or personal mannerism, and can avoid
racial and gender prejudice.” This type of adaptive behavior tends to
diminish the social capacity of college students, leaving them
unprepared for the development of real world relationships.
3.
Online poker is prevalent on college campusesOnline
poker joins two addictions together: gambling and online interaction,
so its use on college campuses is especially worrisome. The University
of Pennsylvania predicts that over 20% of college students play online
poker at least once a month, and you can typically see lots of students
playing online poker on a college campus. Although it can be a fun game,
and many students may be able to maintain healthy lives while enjoying
playing online poker, some simply can’t. At the University of
Pennsylvania, researchers noted that among college gamblers that played
weekly, over half of them had a serious problem with the habit. In some
cases, students fail out of classes or gamble their tuition away, even
turning to crime to pay debts created by online poker.
4.
Students can’t go 24 hours without the Internet:When
1,000 college students took part in an international study on
electronic media, they were asked to go without media for 24 hours. But
many students in the study were not up to the challenge. A majority of
students did not actually go without media for 24 hours, giving in and
checking in with their phones or email. Students confessed, “I sat in my
bed and stared blankly. I had nothing to do,” and “Media is my drug;
without it I was lost. How could I survive 24 hours without it?” The
study revealed a physical dependency on media, especially Facebook and
mobile phones. Students recognized that typing the address for their
favorite sites had become muscle memory: “It was amazing to me though
how easily programmed my fingers were to instantly start typing
“f-a-c-e” in the search bar. It’s now muscle memory, or instinctual, to
log into Facebook as the first step of Internet browsing.” Other
students recognized physical signs of withdrawal, sharing that “I would
feel irritable, tense, restless and anxious when I could not use my
mobile phone. When I couldn’t communicate with my friends, I felt so
lonely, as if I was in a small cage in a solitary island.”
5.
Students are surfing, not studying: Students
who spend a lot of time online are likely to neglect their studies. In
many cases, students who performed well in school before developing an
Internet addiction allowed their grades to crash, only then realizing
the impact of Internet dependency. Counselors across the US have
identified the problems of excessive Internet use, including: lack of
sleep and excess fatigue, declining grades, less investment in
relationships with a boyfriend or girlfriend, withdrawal from all campus
social activities and events, general apathy, edginess, or irritability
when off-line, and rationalizing that what they learn on the Internet
is superior to their classes. Students may not realize the problem until
serious trouble happens: “They flunk out of college. Their real-life
girlfriend breaks up with them because all they ever want to do is play
on the Net. Their parents explode when they find out their huge
investment in their child’s college education is going to support
all-night Internet sessions.” By then, it may be too late to recover the
damage.
6.
The Internet is everywhere: Ninety-eight
percent of students own a digital device. This prevalence throws
gasoline on a spark: students who are already susceptible to Internet
addiction have access online in computer labs, their dorm, and other
places around campus, and on top of that, they have the Internet in
their pocket at all times. Knowing this, it’s not surprising to find out
that 38% of students say they can’t go more than 10 minutes without
using a digital device, contributing to an ever-present existence of the
Internet on campus.
7.
Internet use can physically change your brain:
In a study of Chinese college students who were online for 10 hours a
day, six days a week, morphological changes in the structure of their
brains were noted. Scientists found reductions in the size of the
“dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, rostral anterior cingulate cortex,
supplementary motor area and parts of the cerebellum as high as 10-20%.”
Although at the same time, there was an increase in the “density of the
right parahippocampal gyrus and a spot called the left posterior limb
of the internal capsule.” These changes happen to the detriment of short
term memory and decision-making abilities.
8.
Many students need intervention and treatment for their addiction, and it can lead to depression: We
might joke about “Crackberries,” but for some, the Internet is truly a
significant concern. A study published in BMC Medicine indicated that 4%
of the students who participated in their survey met the criteria for
having a problem with online addiction. But perhaps the more disturbing
fact from this study is that there is a “significant association between
pathological Internet use and depression in college students,” putting a
population that is already at risk for mental instability in a
precarious position.
9.
Cyberbullies go to college, too:Although
most of the news on cyberbullying focuses on adolescents, the fact is
that cyberbullies exist on the college campus as well. It’s not
surprising, considering how much time students spend online, and how
much impact a college student’s online presence can have. In fact, a
University of New Hampshire study reported that one in 10 students was
abused online. College students have been the target of sexually violent
rants, and one professor at BU had to persuade Facebook to remove his
page, which he did not set up himself. Researchers believe that students
are especially vulnerable to cyberstalking because “they live in a
relatively closed community where class schedules, phones, and e-mails
are easy to find.” And sites like Rate My Professors may be helpful for
students choosing classes, but some comments may be hurtful for faculty
members. Thierry Guedj, adjunct professor of psychology at Metropolitan
College reports, “It really hurts faculty members badly when they read
these things about themselves online. People have become quite depressed
about it.”
10.
Tech conditions can be dangerous to your health: College
Candy’s list of tech conditions that can be dangerous to your health
seems to be written as a joke, citing “Blackberry Neck,” and “Glazey
Dazey Lazy Eye,” but these conditions really can be a problem. Using the
Internet too much can lead to a
sedentary lifestyle, a decline in physical fitness, and as a result, weight gain.
Heavy users report carpal tunnel syndrome, eye strain, and headaches.
Sleep disturbances can also stem from Internet addiction, as Internet
use may lead to later bedtimes and less restful sleep. Additionally,
researchers believe that the light from computer screens may affect
circadian rhythms, creating a risk factor for insomnia.
