According to researcher David Greenfield, the odds are good that you know someone who is addicted to the Internet. A study released in 2009 found that nearly six percent of Internet users are addicted to the Web. Although there is some debate in the psychological community about whether such a thing as Internet addiction exists, many experts believe that it not only exists, but that it disrupts lives and destroys families and careers on a regular basis.
According to Greenfield, "Marriages are being disrupted. Kids are getting into trouble. People are committing illegal acts. People are spending too much money. As someone who treats patients, I see it."
Alcohol and drug addiction have been accepted as legitimate conditions by the medical establishment for decades, but the tendency to label nearly any compulsive behavior as an addiction has generated a great deal of skepticism. Still, therapists who report that they see patients who spend virtually every waking moment online say that compulsive internet use looks very similar to other, more established addictions. In fact, prior to the 2009 study, industry estimates had set the rate of addiction among Internet users as high as 10 percent.
Greenfield, a Connecticut psychologist, collected data from more than 17,000 people regarding their Internet usage. Aptly, he gathered the information through an Internet poll. Greenfield adapted a widely-accepted questionnaire used to screen for gambling addiction to determine whether his respondents exhibited signs of Internet addiction. Respondents were asked such questions as whether they had ever tried to reduce their Internet usage without success, whether they ever used the Internet as an escape and whether they find themselves thinking about the Internet when they were not online.
Respondents who answered five or more of the questions with an affirmative were deemed to be addicted. If the results of the study hold true for the general public, there are over 11 million Internet addicts across the world. Greenfield believes that the unique combination of lowered inhibition, the timeless nature of the internet and the illusion of intimacy that is common among Internet users makes the medium particularly addictive.
Greenfield expresses concern that the increased availability of cheap Internet and ever-increasing connection speeds will only increase the technology's addictive potential. He expects the Internet addiction treatment field to eventually sub-divide into various categories, including sex, gambling and obsessive surfing.
Greenfield admits that his entire pool of participants was selected from the users of a single Internet site. This narrow focus represents a potential flaw in the data and leaves unanswered concerns that the results may be peculiar to the users of that site.
