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Can the internet be as addictive as drugs or alcohol?

Q

quest7

Android Enthusiast
Internet addiction is not officially recognized by doctors and other health-care authorities, but a small study done in China suggests that teens hooked to the net suffer from a form of brain damage.

Researchers studied the brains of 17 teens and found that those addicted to the internet appear to show damage to their white matter and the fibres that connect it. This suggests that heavy internet use, like alcoholism and gambling, may be linked with cognitive impairment.

Several psychological studies have described internet addiction as an impulse-control disorder, an overwhelming desire to stay online that impairs an individual's ability to function on a day-to-day basis.

The authors of this new research say that internet addiction "may share psychological and neural mechanisms with other types of substance addiction."

Can the internet be as addictive as drugs or alcohol? - Your Community
 
No, no it's not. I can stop anytime I want. I could stop tomorrow if I wanted to. I could stop right now. But not right now, I've got webcomics to read.
 
I believe a test on only 17 individuals is not substantive enough to conclude anything. I would take the evidence more serious if it were 100+ test subjects. I think you need to know how many times these individuals go on the internet.

What's the requirement for Internet addiction? I've gone on the internet 100+ hours a week for a couple of months before. I had nothing better to do (out of school and unemployed) so I just surf the net, read the news, journals, blogs, social networks and chatted with my friends. I think that's a lot of internet time. Would that classified me as an internet addict?
 
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