These days you’ve affianced the net …uh?

Not many people would admit that they are obsessed with the net. Are you spending most of the time on your computer “multi-social siting”, downloading stuff, playing games, watching videos online, chatting or blogging? This could be a warning sign of ‘internet dependency’, ‘cyber addiction’, ‘internmania’ or ‘onlineaholics’ and netaholics’. In other words you are developing addiction to the internet. The media and health services discovered Internet addiction (IA) and Pathological Internet Use (PIU) during the mid 1990s.

When you find yourself spending dozens of hours on the Internet, it is more likely that other duties will be neglected. When does this behavior warrant the tag ‘addiction’? This is when a behavior becomes problematic such that other important things in life are abandoned. It is common mostly to young people. They get smitten to the point that they do little else in life than sit behind their screens surfing. Apparently, not only with young people, the infatuation also affects people of older ages. You have probably heard of a squabble “…these days you’ve affianced the net…uh?” Many of the Cyber Addict’s real life relationships may crumble and suffer irreparable damage; break-up!

It can be as serious as the addict is too dead beat to move at work. Life becomes more of virtual reality behind the screen. It eventually develops to an addiction such that one is so fixated, there is no time to eat or have enough sleep. They start neglecting social relationships; never have time to interact with family and friends. Personal hygiene becomes a task rather than a routine, no outdoor exercises while household duties are neglected. Net addiction can be overcome. The best way out is through your own exertion. Else, you can seek some therapy from a near-by cyber-rehab.