ByBus Summer 2014

Internet addiction
Internet addiction is a broad term covering a range of problem
behaviors associated with the use of internet. We are referred to the
case where internet gain more importance and priority in our lives
than family, relatives and friends, work, having our daily life under
control and making us “incompetent” to live without it.
According to research of the University of Athens, for teens,
8% of fifteen year old children use the internet for more
than 20 hours a week, while three in ten teenagers “surf”
on a daily basis. While as you could imagine the figures for
adults will be much bigger and shocking.
How do we understand that a person is addicted
to the internet?
It is worth mentioned that the symptoms are psychological and
physical, including the followings:
Psychological symptoms:
● Feeling of joy as long as the person is on the computer.
● Seems unable to interrupt the activity running on the
computer.
● Craves more and more time on the computer.
● Neglecting family, friends and being isolated.
● Feeling empty, sad and irritable as long as the person is not
close to a computer.
● Lying to family and friends for his/her activities which
wittingly neglects.
● Faces problems to work or school.
Physical symptoms:
● Shows signs of eating disorders.
● Disorders in hours of sleep and changing of sleep habits.
● Displays musculoskeletal disease such as scoliosis or cervical.
● Dry eyes or Myopia.
● Migraines and strong headaches.
● Neglect of his/her personal hygiene.
Parents in case of facing the specific situation in which their child
might have been, they will need to take precautions. Initially they
should mention the number of hours the child will deal with the
computer; should not be more than 2 hours per day, according to
the American Academy of Pediatrics. At the same time it is imperative
the computer to be placed in a shared part of the house such as
the living room, so that the child will not be isolated, while their first
concern should be to use a special “filter”, so the child won’t have
access to inappropriate Web contents. Parents should not demonize
Internet and not to prohibit their children to deal with it, while it
would not be a bad idea for them to learn how they can use internet,
so they can spend time together with their children, reading
and entering into pages of common interest for all the family.
For the adults the solution for getting away of the internet is one.
Just realize that internet is not able to replace any kind of relationship,
or make us rich, or bring joy to our everyday life, but most can
not fill us deep and essentially in what we truly need. The human
touch and contact with ourselves are those that will fill our lives in
colour, smiles and joy. If you seek love, give love and magnetize it in
your life. If you look for money, work more. If you look for friends,
you first become friend with yourself and everything else will appear
so simple in your life that you will not believe it!
Finally, it is worth mentioned that for major addictions, when things
start to become unmanageable it would be good the person with
the support of family and friends to visit a specialist psychologist
that will help him/her facing the problem.
SOURCE: www.4dimokratika.gr