Group Leader: Warren Suen

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• Group Leader Warren Suen
• Group members Albie Fung
• Alex Chow
• Friedrich Lau
• Lincoln Hui
• Ryan Yeung

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Introduction

• Today, life is becoming increasingly easy. With
  the advent of the internet and its entrance into
  the smallest corner of our everyday lives, tasks
  that would previously have taken days or even
  weeks to complete can now be done in a matter of
  hours. Email, online shopping, web encyclopedias,
  games the internet has become a powerful and
  indispensable tool.
• Yet with the benefits of the internet also comes
  other, less obvious problems. In developed
  countries, youngsters are becoming increasingly
  attached to the internet, favouring the web over
  other activities, sometimes even giving up normal
  everyday activities and social relationships for
  the internet. Excessive use of the internet is
  rapidly becoming a social problem.

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Definition

• Internet addiction
• Internet addiction disorder refers to the
  problematic use of the Internet, including the
  various aspects of its technology, such as e-mail
  and the World Wide Web. Internet addiction
  disorder is not listed in the mental health
  professional's handbook (the Diagnostic and
  Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth
  edition). Internet addiction has, however, been
  formally recognized as a disorder by the American
  Psychological Association.
• Social Isolation
• Social isolation can be confused as a symptom of
  autism, but cannot be defined as a mental
  illness. Socially isolated people are often
  thought of as someone who will not, and sometimes
  cannot, begin and/or maintain a conversation of
  any length. This, however, is usually not the
  case. Most socially isolated individuals are
  quite capable of carrying on conversations, but
  find this to be an undesirable and unnecessary
  task.

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Reason of addiction

• People are addicted to the computer mainly for
  two kind of sources.
• 1. Online gaming
• There are many types of games available on the
  market, and most of them have the potential to be
  addictive. However, many agree that games with a
  multiplayer element, particularly those of the
  Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game
  (MMORPG) genre, tend to be more addictive to
  players, with the multiplayer element giving the
  game more variety, and making it harder to break
  away from. Since it is difficult to build up
  characters in MMORPGs, many players spend far
  more time on training their in-game characters
  than they would have in a less time-demanding
  game it is not uncommon for players to spend
  over ten hours daily, and still fail to make very
  much progress with the game.
• While many of these games do involve interaction
  with other players, it also makes it easy for
  players to value the relationships inside the
  game over their daily personal relationships,
  making online games a significant factor in
  causing internet addiction and social isolation.

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Reason of addiction

• People are addicted to the computer mainly for
  two reasons.
• Chatrooms, forums and instant message programs
• From newsgroups to forums, from ICQ to MSN
  Messenger since the internet was born, people
  have used its real-time nature and accessibility
  to communicate. Online bulletin boards (BBS) and
  forums are often a rich source of (sometimes
  obscure) information, as well as a way to meet
  people from other countries. However, as some get
  addicted to the telephone, others also get
  addicted to this younger form of communication.
  The problem is compounded by the fact that forums
  and similar systems are far more convenient for
  the telephone you can post and reply to
  messages at any time without the need for another
  person to be present, there is virtually no limit
  on the number of participants, and you usually
  don't pay additional fees above the monthly
  internet fee for forum services. While there is
  no real constraint on the amount of time one
  surfs a forum or chatroom, unlike online games,
  in actuality it is usually very hard for one to
  break away when a discussion is under way. The
  illusion that you can stop anytime you want to in
  fact adds to the problem, as many may choose to
  visit a forum when they have only half and hour
  or so to spare, and too many of these short
  sessions can build up to quite an addiction.
• Apart from chatrooms and forums, which are
  discussion groups for large number of people,
  there are also programs for small groups
  usually two of people to communicate, like ICQ
  and MSN Messenger. While it may seem unlikely
  that it should be any more addictive than the
  telephone, the fact is that without the burden of
  actually talking to someone, it becomes easier
  to start chatting and once a conversation is
  under way, it becomes quite difficult to stop!

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Statistics
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Signs of Internet addiction

• Preoccupation with the Internet. (Thoughts about
  previous on-line activity or anticipation of the
  next on-line session.)
• Use of the Internet in increasing amounts of time
  in order to achieve satisfaction.
• Repeated, unsuccessful efforts to control, cut
  back, or stop Internet use.
• Feelings of restlessness, moodiness, depression
  or irritability when attempting to cut down use
  of the Internet.
• On-line longer than originally intended.
• Jeopardized or risked loss of significant
  relationships, job, educational or career
  opportunities because of Internet use.
• Lies to family members, therapist, or others to
  conceal the extent of involvement with the
  Internet.
• Use of the Internet as a way to escape from
  problems or to relieve a dysphonic mood. (e.g.,
  feelings of hopelessness, guilt, anxiety,
  depression.)

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Problems of Internet Addiction

• As we all know, internet addiction is a great
  problem nowadays. Many people had suffered from
  it in many different ways, including physically,
  mentally and even socially.
• We can always find some news about Internet
  Addiction around every three months. About a year
  ago, there was a teenager found dead due to the
  heart attack after using the computer over twelve
  hours. It is very sad to hear such things.
  However, it continues to happen over and over for
  about several months. It can show that Internet
  Addiction will really cause severe impact to the
  society.

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Problems of Internet Addiction

• Physical Problems
• Lack of exercise
• It is obviously to see that those people
  addicted to the internet will always stay before
  the computer. They will not like to go out to
  have exercises as they think it is wasting their
  time.
• Health
• There are many health problems related to
  overuse of the computer, especially the eye
  diseases. There have the proof by the scientists
  extended computer use will cause dry eyes, Carpal
  Tunnel Syndrome, etc.
• For some of the cases, those people may even
  skip their meals, do not sleep until mid-night.
  These kinds of habits will directly weaken their
  physical health.

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Problems of Internet Addiction

• Mental Problems
• Unstable emotion
• Easily get annoy and angry
• feel depressed without the computer
• Isolating themselves from the society
• Lack of communications with others
• Do not know how to communicate with others in
  real life
• Cannot concentrate in other things
• Always think only the world with the internet is
  perfect

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Problems of Internet Addiction

• Personal Problems
• Affect the school works
• Being addictive to the internet, they cannot
  concentrate on their studies. They spend nearly
  all the time on the internet and relatively few
  proportion on school works.
• Poor interpersonal relationship
• Most of the Internet Addiction people do not
  have well communication skills. They usually do
  not have much friends.
• Financial
• As one of the reason of Internet Addiction is
  online gambling, it will directly relate to the
  financial issues.

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Problems of Internet Addiction

• Social Problem
• Aging population
• Besides the individual bad-side effect, Internet
  addiction will also affect the society. Hong Kong
  is now facing the aging population. All the
  adults have the responsibilities to work and
  support Hong Kongs economy in order to solve
  this problem. However, the social isolation will
  make this problem more worse than before

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