CityBeat - Te Waha Nui Online

The World Wide Web addiction

the-world-wide-web-addiction

by Veronica Johnston

Some people can be fixated on the web for hours to find the content they want. Others will stick to surfing one or two trusted websites.

Some say many are addicted to the instant gratification the web provides. Web addiction is as real as gambling, alcohol and drug addictions, says Auckland University Psychology Lecturer Nathan Gaunt.

“People can become addicted to more or less anything. Internet addiction is slightly different in that it’s non-chemical. It’s a technological addiction - addiction to a machine or the use of a machine. However, the effects are very, very similar,” he says.

What are the effects?

“Cyber shakes, dry eyes, carpal tunnel syndrome and headaches” could mean you’re net addicted says computer addiction therapist Dr Diana M. Wieland. Other online obsessive behaviours include feeling anxious, irritable or depressed when you stop surfing the net.

But maybe some so-called net addicts simply struggle to surf efficiently as they wade through endless cyber content. Consider the confessions of two different interviewees who both say they often spend more time surfing the web than they’d like.

What addiction?

One 39-year-old Western Springs resident says searching Google “can be frustrating because you often have to sort through a lot of crap to find the content that you want.”

Likewise, a 29-year-old Mt Eden resident admits he gets easily distracted when surfing YouTube. “You can just keep going and going because when you see a video you like, you can just keep clicking on links to see more,” he says.

Spending hours on the net may not necessarily mean your net fix is an addiction. Maybe it’s just the euphoria of being like a kid in a candy store – so much to choose from.

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