There are a couple of distinctions to be made about internet “addiction”.
· First, clinical psychologists don’t like the term “addiction”. Other words like abuse or dependence are more in favored.
· Second, internet abuse is a behavioral problem and not a physiological dependence. Therefore, more like pathological gambling than alcohol or cocaine dependence.
However, the popular media and the average “layperson” doe not make this sort of distinction. How does that affect the way psychologists study internet addiction and more importantly, how they present their results to the public?
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Like we talked about that day we all chatted ... it is very hard to measure if someone is "addicted" to the internet.
I think the media and general public (not familiar with the internet/or psychology terminology) will always view "internet addiction" negatively. I don’t think that they take into consideration that people find happiness on the internet or they finally figure out who they really are and what they want out of life.
Like I've said before ... the habit is not bad until it starts affecting the person(s) life in a negative. (which there are bad habits but I hope you get what I am saying?!?!)
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