Internet Addiction: A Wake Up Call, Take The Test

I answered truthfully and I got 10 points.
The funny thing is, I am one of the most excessive users of the internet / videogames, however the questions are more aimed at how it influences me, which is like, 0. (If you had to, could you go cold turkey right now? I know I can.)

Score: 10

You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage.

[edit on 17/8/08 by -0mega-]

reply to post by Sonya610

Hi, I also think that the test is flawed. I scored a 24. Recently I've wondered if I were addicted to the Internet but I noticed that many of the questions on the test simply did not apply to my current situation. Though I suppose if I'm questioning my Internet usage that is a good thing. It means I'm consciously monitoring my behavior, which if I were truly addicted would likely not be the case. I guess being addicted to the Internet is really more serious than simply being on the Internet a lot.

I scored 51, and I don't have a problem. The test has a problem. Just because I've been known to wash socks in the sink in the morning because I was on the Internet too long to do laundry.... Sometimes I fall asleep and leave the computer on all night, but who doesn't? I mean, I could stop any time, I just don't want to.

Originally posted by Lookingup
I scored 51, and I don't have a problem. The test has a problem. Just because I've been known to wash socks in the sink in the morning because I was on the Internet too long to do laundry.... Sometimes I fall asleep and leave the computer on all night, but who doesn't? I mean, I could stop any time, I just don't want to.

The ''do not *want* to'' part is what can be a problem whilst you claim to not have any, depending on how extreme this ''not want'' is.

Anyway, I can guarantee you that on those above points *I don't* and many, if not everyone I personally know doesn't either.

Though my usage of the internet / videogames etc. is excessive, I do not fall asleep behind the PC, and do not let daily chores wait for the next day.

Only reason for my PC to stay on is for downloading / defragging, which does not require user interaction after initiating the process.

[edit on 17/8/08 by -0mega-]

Originally posted by LateApexer313
..in an hour or so I'm thinking, why did I want to get out more, I am sooo bored

Is this Internet addiction or a sign of boring friends? Hmmm....

I would tend to agree. Not that one has boring friends, but to suss out the real addiction, one would have to ask more questions about personality and interests.

I do go out and do things with other people. I help my older neighbors do things they cant. I socialize in the physical world. However, my personal interests are best satisfied on the internet. (And with science journals and books) I love having information at the click of a mouse. I love being able to pursue lines of thought that my neighbors or friends may not share interest in.

For me, it is about the doing away with geographical and financial/class boundaries. If only 1% of the world shares an interest with you, you may live your whole life offline and never meet another soul that you can talk to face to face about what YOU enjoy and are interested in. Here online, you can find them and communicate with them easily. I could not afford to buy all the books containing all the information I am able to access here and still pay my bills.

It also seems to me that 10 deaths and a murder hardly qualify anything to be "the biggest threat." Bathing has killed more people. That said, I do think that for a small number, there is a real addiction. Of course, that can be said of virtually everything humans do.

Edit to add;

Another thing that strikes me, after re-reading the article, is why arent the experts asking "why" games are so appealing to these people? Could it possibly be that in online games they actually have a chance at rising through the ranks and being an "uber" or elite player and in the real world they are pretty well relegated from birth to be a drudge or a pawn in someone elses "game?" I dont blame the kids. If you have the chance to be a high ranking warrior or a factory slave, even if it is a virtual experience, who on Earth is going to want to be the slave?

I think what needs to change is society. I think if people had the real opportunity to pursue their interests and be the best at something, rather than just to make some rich someone richer, people would not immerse themselves in games at the expense of the physical world.

Its an easy theory to test. Make an online game called "you are a loser and will never be anything but," and structure the game so that all your effort goes into a few peoples accounts and see how many sign up to play it.



[edit on 17-8-2008 by Illusionsaregrander]

"You are experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life."

Bummer...It is my life...

So what's to consider?

scored 33. You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage.

Im on here all day, but I just have nothing else to do. If I had other things to do I would not spend so much time on it.

Ama

I scored a 41.
You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage.

I play my PS3 online a lot though, so that number should be a lot higher.

You are experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life.

score=66

oh yak yak yak

Ok i've sat back and considered its impact on my life and found without it I wouldn't be sociable, keep in touch with friends and family, know what's happening with my bank account, be able to work properly at home, shop around the world, get tickets for gigs, get a good holiday deal, find information I need within the time I need it, yak yak yak, so if it wasn't for the www I'd have more than a few frequent problems

I think we should come up with a "Mental Disorder" that labels people who go to the beach daily and can't stop going to the beach as "mentally Ill, because to anyone who doesn't LOVE the beach as much as these "Beach Addicts" it is very clear that their time spent at the beach is wrong and unusual.

Or better yet, Lets label anyone who is in a relationship as "mentally Ill" because relationships cause so much emotional drama and hardship, people kill people because of things that happen while in a relationship, people get obsessed with relationships(because their addicted!) and we need to stop everyone from ever having a relationship because people are too addicted to it.

Or maybe we should stop the medical surgeons who can be labeled as "addicted" to their job since they spend every moment during their lives trying to help people, they are mentally insane for being addicted to helping people and being addicted to anything these days needs to have its own "mental illness" classification.

Maybe we should label Tony Hawk as a "mentally addicted to skateboarding" and therefore he is ill.

I hope you all notice how ridiculously sarcastic I am, because I hate it when people try to claim "internet addiction/mental illness!" You can litterally label everything in this world as an addiction(for instance olympic atheletes are addicted to improving their physical performance, maybe they are mentally ill because they spend 24/7 trying to be faster and stronger?)

Same thing goes for the internet, if someone really likes the internet(one of the BEST communication tools of all time for world wide communication) there is nothing wrong with it, just because some people die because of it does not mean that the internet nor using it 24/7 is a mental illness. That is too broad, mental illness is a case by case occurence and is in no way "a given" in any situation.

This is placed right in the same corner as "video games lead to violent behavior." WRONG. Crazy kids who have no sense of reality and parents that lack any knowledge of raising a child are the root cause of violent behavior in adolesents. Because a few kids get killed over video games, or a few kids try and use "grand theft auto" as an excuse for their inspiration to commit crimes, does not mean the Video Game itself actually lead them to their actions. Some messed up stuff was already going on in the childs head.

Everyone wants to blame something tangible and "physical" for people's behavior, and people are naturally lazy so they are more willing to blame video games or the internet, when really the problem lies within the people and the people they are associated with.

Sorry 'Soccer Moms' and 'Budweiser Dads', but you can't blame the internet or video games for your childs irrational sense of society, you only have YOURSELF and your parental skills to blame. Sadly no one will "man up" and blame themselves because no one wants to think of themselves as "the cause" of the problem.

[edit on 17-8-2008 by MaynardisGod]

[edit on 17-8-2008 by MaynardisGod]

reply to post by LateApexer313


OK finally had time to take the test.

I had to do some household chores first ie: check net connection, one PC was offline so had to do some modem restarts, hub restarts and lets not forget the router restart ( everyone forgets about the router(trust me)). Had to reinstall OS on a laptop (this took like eons due to removal of Vista and installed XP, so drivers were all wacked (hate driver hunting)) Whew! All is well now.

Have 7 computers online in total at present.

Hmmm addiction ME? Nope. Love computers and internet yes.

I scored a 22.

Rhain

You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage.

Looks like I'm in control.

I have a friend that works as a customer service agent for a large internet company. (Nextgentel here in Norway.) He tells me some aweful stories about how some customers will ring in completley nuts because the customer went without internet for just short of an hour. Now when I say 'nuts', I mean screaming, death threats and crying.

It's scary to think that this 'tool' is becoming so important to people, that if they become cut off from it, they basically collapse.

And just like drugs, alcohol, gaming, porn whatever... The internet can also become quite addictive.

Peace,
FK

Originally posted by Omniscient1
You are experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life.

score=66

oh yak yak yak

Ok i've sat back and considered its impact on my life and found without it I wouldn't be sociable, keep in touch with friends and family, know what's happening with my bank account, be able to work properly at home, shop around the world, get tickets for gigs, get a good holiday deal, find information I need within the time I need it, yak yak yak, so if it wasn't for the www I'd have more than a few frequent problems

Yay! Another "above 60" person

I don't interupt time with friends or family, so that is something I suppose. Well, if I had friends outside the internet I'm sure I wouldn't let it get in the way.

You are experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


A rather great point you made and expounded on Illusions....my interests are so varied and differ so greatly from that of my real life friends, that after I have shot the poop with them and talked about the superficial..."How's your job? Good? Mine too, yep, work is work...how's the family? Good, that's good, mine too ....You still obsessed with the whole UFO thing? Yep, I am.... whelp nice talking to you, you too, see you in a few months, take care

I agree, if you love to read, and I have always been a voracious reader, the only difference now is, like you say, instead of buying or checking out a few books, you now have the world of never-ending stuff to read at your keyboard fingertips, all topics, etc, you can veer off from one topic to another endlessly, and if you choose to, interact with others who already have the same topics in common who want to discuss them...the Internet is a wonderful place If this is addiction, get me an IV for every limb

The cybersex test is the most flawed

Do you masturbate when having cybersex or looking at online pornography?

Isn't that exactly what it's made for?

[edit on 17-8-2008 by cleggy88]

Originally posted by MaynardisGod
Sorry 'Soccer Moms' and 'Budweiser Dads', but you can't blame the internet or video games for your childs irrational sense of society, you only have YOURSELF and your parental skills to blame. Sadly no one will "man up" and blame themselves because no one wants to think of themselves as "the cause" of the problem.

And you're exactly right Maynard. It IS up to the parents to stay on top of how much time their children spend in front of the computers, tv, or talking/texting on their phones and whether or not it is negatively impacting their lives. And if/when it becomes a problem you take care of it. I don't agree with parents who don't limit their kids time with this stuff. Unless their child understands the limits/rules and is totally responsible on their own. Pfft, not mine. Gotta stay on top of it.

Originally posted by LateApexer313
...my interests are so varied and differ so greatly from that of my real life friends,

I'll bet that that is true for many of us. It's ok, LA...I'll be your friend.

I agree, if you love to read, and I have always been a voracious reader, the only difference now is, like you say, instead of buying or checking out a few books, you now have the world of never-ending stuff to read at your keyboard fingertips, all topics, etc, you can veer off from one topic to another endlessly, and if you choose to, interact with others who already have the same topics in common who want to discuss them...the Internet is a wonderful place

Hehe, I was looking for the end of a sentence there, a place to embed the end quote, but there wasn't one....that's a long sentence. lol---gotcha!

I'm hearing you on that LA! My sister, who reads like three books a week, always nags me because I don't read enough, and that's exactly what I tell her. The reading is endless, subjects and topics that I love and interaction with others who have those same interests. Then she rolls her eyes and says, "So whats the latest ufo sightings?". UG

Rush

i got a 33.

that was very suprising to me. looks like i'm not much of a net head after all.

reply to post by LateApexer313


I admit I have to fight very hard to keep myself from sitting at the computer and wasting time.

I spend quite a bit of time there, because that's where I write my books, but it's difficult not to get side-tracked.

This is the perfect placeation of the masses.

reply to post by Rhain


Love that post Rhain. I can certainly relate as a small business owner who maintains my own network. (12 computers at present. Various flavors of both Mac and PC. all co existing happily together at the moment.)

Rhain....this link is especially for you. ( And any others IT inclined.)
( Caution: Contains some minor vulgar language, but funny as hell.)
( Takes a while to load, but worth it.)

www.thewebsiteisdown.com...

enjoy.......kk

Internet Addiction.....I suppose Merck and Pfizer will soon offer a pill / cure. They sure solved my other only minor ailment.....Viva Viagra !

Now back to Cyber-Whacking.


[edit on 17-8-2008 by kinda kurious]