Anna is a quiet 18 year old girl. In her spare time, she keeps her social life in full running condition. Armed with the comfort of using a different persona, she logs on to the net, plays games with online friends from around the world, responds to more than 15 email accounts, and dates a bunch of people belonging to every race conceivable. She may be one of the most inactive person in school but as soon as she logs on to the net, she is the most aggressive bitch youve ever came across with. Before she knows it, the day is gone, in fact, its 7 oclock in the morning and shes going be late for school. Anna is one of a few people who is suffering from cyber-addiction or in clinical terms, Pathological Internet use1. Cyber-addiction is an obsessive disorder with the computer and an inability to get away from it or connect to the world apart from it2. It affects as many as 5 to 10 percent of internet users3. The people most likely to be addicted4 are people with marked psychological traits that include obsessive- compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, and low self-esteem, prior addiction history, those who are introverted, those with college or school stress, those susceptible to societal encouragement, and more women than men. In a study made by Dr. Kimberly Young, a psychologist in the University of Pittsburgh, only 8 percent of addicts were in the high tech industry. More than 40 percent said they had no permanent jobs and 39 percent were either secretaries, teachers, bank tellers and journalists5. Experts say that it is not necessarily the number of hours spent on the web but the reasons for being online6. When the internet starts replacing the real life in terms socialization and/or bothers your normal day-to-day functioning, then it starts to be an addiction. Dr. James Fearing said there are three main components of internet addiction7. First is avoidance, where someone logs-in to the net instead of dea...
