KAZEY JOURNAL

I “think”, I am suffering from Internet addiction disorder, or maybe I just feel that way because I happen to spend atleast 6 hours a day on the net.

What “Internet addiction disorder” (IAD) is still difficult to define based on what I have read from various articles of relation.

Much of the researches are based upon the weakest type of research methodology, namely exploratory surveys with no clear hypothesis or rationale backing them. Nevertheless, coming from an atheoretical approach has some benefits, but also it is not typically recognized as being a strong way to approach a new disorder.

Some articles have expanded beyound the original surveys approaches and tackled it objectively.

Do You Spend Too Much Time Online?

In relation to what or whom? Time alone cannot be an indicator of being addicted or engaging in compulsive behavior.

Time must be taken in context with other factors, such as whether you’re a college student (who, as a whole, proportionally spend a greater amount of time online), whether it’s a part of your job, whether you have any pre-existing conditions (such as another mental disorder; a person with depression is more likely to spend more time online than someone who doesn’t, for instance, often in a virtual support group environment), whether you have problems or issues in your life which may be causing you to spend more time online (e.g., using it to “get away” from life’s problems, a bad marriage, difficult social relations), etc.

So talking about whether you spend too much time online without this important context is useless.

Opinion:

Honestly as I said, I am not sure myself whether I am suffering from the disorder. I go to a University where all the tutorials, lectures and even bulletins are online. Which means either I print notes or read from the screen. I usually do the later. Which means an average of 3 hours a day with that. Now I read technology journals and news online for another 2 hours a day, which makes it 5 hours. Then I chat and reply to e-mails and that takes another 2 -4 hours depending on the day. I used to usually dedicate saturdays to reading and developing whatever I wish to develop, but I am not disciplined enough with that, and hence most of my precious weekdays time are spent on that.

Now running an online business for another how many hours? No idea. Maybe even the rest of the day? Is this addiction or part of my daily activities that makes my existence and living worthwhile? Do I need to see the psychologist to be sure?