Essay About Internet Addiction

Words: 1972
Pages: 8

With the prevalent use of the Internet, people have also been hooked on the use of social network sites (SNSs) like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter just to name a few of the hundreds available online. SNSs cater to a variety of interests and activities that can hook people for most part of their day. Basically, these sites promote so-called connections among people that can be based on their common interests, physical association from the past or familial relations like being former classmates or having a relative who lives overseas. Rapid developments have taken place in SNSs that include blogging, posting of statuses and sharing of photos and videos. And with telecommunication companies offering an array of promos to connect to the Internet, access have never been this easier. Although in the case of the Philippines, our Internet connection is still slow compared to the other developed countries.

According to Boyd and Ellison (2007), social network sites are defined to be as:

“web-based services that allow individuals to (1)

Some of the activities can consume so much of the person’s attention that it can lead to addiction already. According to Young, SNSs addiction is classified as cyberrelationship addiction, which is defined to be as “an addiction to online relationships” since the nature and primary reason of SNSs is to promote and preserve offline and online relations (Kuss and Griffiths, 2011). Young, a clinical psychologist, also considered this to be a disorder such as what he described to be a “Facebook Addiction Disorder” or more generally called “SNS Addiction Disorder” due to symptoms displayed by the afflicted that included “neglect of personal life, mental preoccupation, escapism, mood modifying experiences, tolerance, and concealing the addictive