Introduction : Internet Addiction

Internet Addiction

What is an Internet? According to wikipedia, the internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. There are a lot of uses of Internet. The common uses of the internet are to communicate and socialize, to gain information, learn brand new stuffs, to be able to do their work, gain income and make their own business. To be honest, there are much more stuffs that can be done by using Internet, but that is not the topic for the day. The topic of the day for us to gain sight in is regarding 'Internet Addiction'.

According to wikipedia, Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is defined as internet overuse, problematic computer use or pathological computer use that interferes with daily life. In this digital era, everything around us are all digital and internet plays a big role in our life. Social network websites such as Facebook, are one of the most used communication medium that are dominating most of our lives. Statistics in Facebook shows that more than 400 million active users are using Facebook. According to digitizor.com, there are at least 125 million login for at least once almost daily which makes average of these 125 millions users spend 4 minutes on Facebook everyday. In this 'Cyber World', people are starting to drift away from important activities, such as spending time with their family, socializing, working, exercising and worry about their health concerns. This phenomenon has encouraged us to carry out a research regarding internet addiction on students of Faculty of Creative Multimedia in Multimedia University, Cyberjaya. The main objective of this research is to find out regarding the internet addiction among the students in Faculty of Creative Multimedia, MMU, Cyberjaya. By having this research, we will be able to find out wether internet addiction has any advantages or disadvantages among the students. Questionnaire, observation and interviews are the main source that will be used to carry out the research. The results of this research will be analyzed and studied regarding the internet addiction among the students. Secondary resources will be mainly books, newspaper articles, and sources from the internet.

Literature Review

Internet Addiction is a disorder proposed by Ivan Goldberg, M.D, 1955, that defines as an excessive computer use that interferes with daily life, referred in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder). Said Dr Muhammad Muhsin Ahmad Zahari, the psychiatrist and deputy chief coordinator at University Malaya Centre of Addiction Sciences, internet application is very much problematic and it has led to social and functional impairment (http://mygadgets.my/product.php?id=340). The abovementioned statement is supported by Jennifer R. Ferris, a psychologist in Virginia Tech who said that the internet has become so tempting and addicting that it has disturbed one’s life and the lives of those around him (http://www.files.chem.vt.edu/chem-dept/dessy/honors/papers/ferris.html).

In a nutshell, Internet is more or less a socially connecting device that is socially isolating simultaneously (DeAngelis, 2000, par. 7, http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html). However, said Rizal Solomon in his article, 2^nd of July 2009, the real deal about this internet addiction is basically still remaining unknown in most countries, unlike Korea or the United States of America where the internet penetration of users is awfully high (http://mygadgets.my/product.php?id=340).

In fact, internet addiction is caused by various factors. According to Julia Bursten & Mark Dombeck (Ph. D), sources of addictive stimulation can be chemical, sensual or even informational (http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=3830&cn=66). Besides that, as what Maria Garcia Duran has mentioned, the convenience due to the wide availability of accessing to the internet is also one of the factors that cause this disorder (http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html). In Ferris, 8^th paragraph, it mentioned that internet addicts are mostly people who are too timid or introverted to meet new people. Therefore, internet would represent the perfect sites to experience different feelings without even have to interact face to face within people (http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html).

As the world develops, different pressures are being imposed and people tend to have all sorts of psychiatric problems, hence, as what Dr. Muhsin said, people would preferably pick internet as the means for them to relieve the depression or social anxiety (http://mygadgets.my/product.php?id=340). The passage in DeAngelis, 2000, 8^th paragraph supports the point in Ferris too. In the passage, it said that people isolate themselves and adopt the internet as the route of escape to this mood altering experience, just like how other addicts of any other substance goes through (http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html).

Moreover, Dr. John Grohol’s statement declared in 2003 agreed on that as well by saying that the reason of people engaging themselves in this netsurfing is because they refuse to confront with the problems in reality (http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html). On the other hand, Dr Muhsin said too that exposure in front of computer for netsurfing for a particular time frame will also cause obsessive and compulsive disorder where causes the users to confront with a reluctant evasion from the screen (http://mygadgets.my/product.php?id=340).

According to Dr. Muhsin, people who are involved in this issue are mostly adolescents, and most of them are found suffering from this involvement (http://mygadgets.my/product.php?id=340). For this, Dr. Kimberly Young has done a research in order to diagnose this issue. As the results, she found out that adolescents are suffering in terms of physical and also mental. For example, insomnia, fatigue, lethargy, depression, loss of control, obesity, backache, anxiety, carpal tunnel syndrome, headache etc (http://www.netaddiction.com/). Other than that, Julia Bursten & Mark Dombeck, both Ph. D, stated clearly in their article as well that this internet addiction will also cause loss of significant relationship and also dishonesty, as they are living in a virtual reality world where things can be made up easily including one’s identity and need not to be real.

One of the most significant symptoms of this IAD is the inexplicable sadness or moodiness whenever they are not online (http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=3831&cn=66). However, this internet addiction is not actually an official disorder, yet, said Julia Bursten & Mark Dombeck, therefore no further studies or research on the treatment is done so far as they still doubt if it should be considered a real disorder.

As the quotation says, “A passion adds value to one’s life, and an addiction takes away values (King, 1996, par. 8)”, therefore it is a must to acknowledge the usage of internet and the consequence of internet abuse (http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html). Said Maria Garcia Duran, internet addiction takes one from his life and also the people whom he loves. Hence, knowing what is important or precious to us must be clearly known from time to time (http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html).

Methodology

Participants

We randomly selected around:

30 students that are male and female

Participants were given the questionnaire and survey papers to answer a collection of questions regarding the topic “Internet Addiction on Students of Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University Cyberjaya”. The questionnaire and survey forms were hand out within the Faculty of Creative Multimedia in Multimedia University, Cyberjaya. The prime objective of this survey is to analyze regarding the internet addiction on the participants.

Questionnaire

Survey on Internet Addiction on students of Faculty of Multimedia in Multimedia University, Cyberjaya.

Name : _________________________________

Age : __________________________________

Course : ________________________________

Local / Foreign Student

Circle the numbers.

1 - Rarely

2 - Occasionally

3 - Frequently

4 - Often

5 - Always

6 - Does Not Apply

1. How often do you find that you stay on-line longer than you intended?

1 2 3 4 5 6

2. How often do you neglect household chores to spend more time on-line?

1 2 3 4 5 6

3. How often do you form new relationships with fellow on-line users?

1 2 3 4 5 6

4. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend on-line?

1 2 3 4 5 6

5. How often do your grades or school work suffer because of the amount of time you spend on-line?

1 2 3 4 5 6

6. How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the Internet?

1 2 3 4 5 6

7. How often do you find yourself anticipating when you will go on-line again?

1 2 3 4 5 6

8. How often do you lose sleep due to late-night log-ins?

1 2 3 4 5 6

9. How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend on-line and fail?

1 2 3 4 5 6

10. How often do you choose to spend more time on-line over going out with others?

1 2 3 4 5 6

11. How often do you feel depressed, moody, or nervous when you are off-line, which goes away once you are back on-line?

1 2 3 4 5 6

Tick an answer.

1. I'm using the internet since............years

2. How many hours do you spend for surfing in one week?________ hours

3. Did you increase the time you spend in the internet, since the time you started to now?

[...]Yes [...]No

4. Which sectors of the net do you make use of?
[...]Social Networking [...]Blogging [...]Chat [...]E-mail [...]Information-seeking

5. Are you member of a mailing list? [...]Yes [...]No

6. Do you use internet for professional matter also? [...]Yes [...]No

7. You often spend more time in internet as I actual want. [...]Yes [...]No

8. Do you think you are able to stop when you actually had enough [...]Yes [...]No

9. Sometimes you are surfing although there are more important things to manage. [...]Yes [...]No

10. When I left the net after a few hours I want to go back surfing after a real short time. [...]Yes [...]No

11. You’ve got backaches and similar aches because of too much time sitting in front of the computer. [...]Yes [...]No

12. Cancelled/postponed a date because wanted to spend more time in the net.

[...]Yes [...]No

13. Most of the time, you’re using the internet for business(earning money).[...]Yes [...]No

14. Often, friends, my partner or my family become angry about too much surfing. [...]Yes [...]No

15. With surfing, I can forget my daily problems. [...]Yes [...]No

16. Do you try to cut down the time of surfing. [...]Yes [...]No

17. Does it work? [...]Yes [...]No

18. You've met interesting people through surfing. [...]Yes [...]No

19. You are in totally different world, when you are in the net. Are you being yourself?[...]Yes [...]No