Writing assignment♯Final-Yoshimitsu Masuda

AE2
December 5, 2006
Yoshimitsu Masuda


Internet’s character and our stress


According to New Scientist Tech's news service on 18 October 2006 in "US internet addicts 'as ill as alcoholics', " researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California in US interviewed 2513 adults in a national survey and found that more than 1 in 8 US residents reveal signs of internet addiction, which is known in the US like a sickness of alcoholics. Some people hide their internet behavior like alcoholics' activity and that disturbed the researchers, said Elias Aboujaoude, who is a psychiatry professor at Stanford's Impulse Control Disorders Clinic, and also he said that people are using the internet to self-medicate in a sense. In the survey, some part of the population faced serious problems, which are that they can't stay away from the internet, that they can escape instantly from the real world and that excessive internet use destroys some relationships and so on, and a large part of the population has the potential for internet problems too. He said that the number of people who are thinking of getting a doctor's help is increasing and a lot of non-essential internet use which is called Internet addiction replaces work. In addition, recently, Internet addiction is starting to be considered as a lawful disease like an economic problem. However, the problem can't be seen as coused by a particular type of use of internet. Furthermore, that the majority of internet addicts are single, college-educated, white males in their 30s and they spend about 30 hours on unnecessary internet use, is found by previous research. From this article and investigation, I guess and try to reveal and solve the factors of this internet addiction problem as internet's character and person's problem.

First, internet has much fresh information which we can like, so we are attracted by its information and their world without losing interest. This survey showed that internet addiction wasn't to special kinds of sites, so we can find that it’s by internet's common character which can affect all of us. Internet has much and fresh information and we can see every time and every situation only by sitting in front of our computer. Its amount of fresh information keeps us sitting with computer easily and for a long time. We can never see all information and information has possibility of being renewed every moment. This is one reason that we continue to be with computer for a long time and we can’t go away.

The second factor is that we can actively choose only information we like. We can only click the fresh news or something which we like to see with comfort. In internet, the right of choosing information is always by our sides and we shouldn't choose things we dislike. This is why people use internet as self-medicine, because they can do only what they like to do. If we are with television or radio we actually see or hear the information which we don't expect. On the other hand, internet can give us only what we want every time, so internet attracts people to be with them more than anything else.

Third, stress or some problem which is from ourselves draws internet addicts toward internet’s character. The majority of internet addicts are single, college-educated, white males in their 30s, said this article. In my opinion, college-educated means they can use computer with work, and single and 30s males have much time to do something and also are in the most powerful and active age for work. Therefore, they have some stress for job, relationship, and event with wives, so they can use the internet's character to escape and heal their personal problems. It also lists jobless people's stress. 30-year-olds have many worries about job, marriage, work relationships and financial steadiness, and if you are single you feel more pressure compared to other people because you don't have peaceful stability with your family. People who need to escape from the real world come to take a temporary rest from their trouble of life but they become more dependent in time because of internet’s features.

In conclusion, I suggested that internet’s character, which attructs us without losing interest and gives us only what we want to have, and people’s stress are the factors of internet addiction. Both of them work as a good cycle. People’s need can be satisfied by internet’s features with a needed rest of life, but if we are attracted too much we can’t escape from their world because they always encourage us to be with them with their special character. We must care about internet’s features and our own stress and we should not try to heal our problem by using the internet. Internet has the power to make us dependent, like alcohol, so we have to care about its evil ability. In addition, we must know our own physical and mental condition, so that we can limit use of internet to help us to keep away from internet addiction.



Reference:
New Scientist Tech staff and AFP. (2006, October, 18). US internet addicts 'as ill as alcoholics'. NewScientist.com news service.
http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/dn10322-us-internet-addicts-as-ill-as-alcoholics.html Retrieved 11-29-06.