What is internet addiction? Internet addiction has been described as “Any online-related, compulsive behavior which interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones, and one’s work environment” (Young). A person creates an emotional attachment to computer related activities such as online shopping, gambling, blogging, online trading, video gaming, among many other activities. This attachment causes individuals to spend a very long time doing such activities, and this can have harmful side effects for these individuals and their close ones. These types of activities tends to isolate these persons since they prefer to spend large amounts of time online doing these activities rather than doing what was once
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However, unlike diaries and journals, they often discuss topics of interest to the writer or their readers – not just the events in the life of the writer and their thoughts on them.
Blogging is arguably one of the more recent Internet addictions. According to WordPress, one of the most well-known and widely-used blogging platforms, August 2016 saw almost 22.9 billion page views and almost 65.4 million blog posts for sites driven by WordPress, whereas August 2010 saw just over 4.2 billion page views and over 10.1 billion blog posts (“Stats”). It should be noted that this does not include all blog activity on the Internet. Not all blogs are hosted on web content management systems like WordPress, and certainly not exclusively through WordPress.
Of course, whether or not Internet blogging has become an addiction is subjective. Still, one research team designed a metric that evaluates the participant’s level of addiction to microblogging. In their study of Chinese college students’ usage of microblogs, they found that an addiction to microblogs may not imply an Internet addiction. Another interesting result of their study was that participants’ real social interactions directly (albeit weakly) corresponded with their score on the test for excessive use of microblogs. That is, a greater degree of microblog use did not imply a lesser degree of real social interaction (Hou et …show more content…
A study conducted at Elon University about whether “technology is negatively effecting face-to-face communication” showed that nearly half the people participating in the study (of 100 people) communicated more with their friends and family over the internet than in person (Drago). This indicated that “face-to-face interactions have decreased in both quality and quantity” (Drago). Someone addicted to the internet will not be communicating verbally as much as a non-internet junkie, and the person addicted to the internet will likely suffer in verbal fluidity as a result (Variel). Poor communication skills stemming from internet addiction is a growing problem, especially amongst the upcoming generation of adults who have spent their whole lives connected to the
However, unlike diaries and journals, they often discuss topics of interest to the writer or their readers – not just the events in the life of the writer and their thoughts on them.
Blogging is arguably one of the more recent Internet addictions. According to WordPress, one of the most well-known and widely-used blogging platforms, August 2016 saw almost 22.9 billion page views and almost 65.4 million blog posts for sites driven by WordPress, whereas August 2010 saw just over 4.2 billion page views and over 10.1 billion blog posts (“Stats”). It should be noted that this does not include all blog activity on the Internet. Not all blogs are hosted on web content management systems like WordPress, and certainly not exclusively through WordPress.
Of course, whether or not Internet blogging has become an addiction is subjective. Still, one research team designed a metric that evaluates the participant’s level of addiction to microblogging. In their study of Chinese college students’ usage of microblogs, they found that an addiction to microblogs may not imply an Internet addiction. Another interesting result of their study was that participants’ real social interactions directly (albeit weakly) corresponded with their score on the test for excessive use of microblogs. That is, a greater degree of microblog use did not imply a lesser degree of real social interaction (Hou et …show more content…
A study conducted at Elon University about whether “technology is negatively effecting face-to-face communication” showed that nearly half the people participating in the study (of 100 people) communicated more with their friends and family over the internet than in person (Drago). This indicated that “face-to-face interactions have decreased in both quality and quantity” (Drago). Someone addicted to the internet will not be communicating verbally as much as a non-internet junkie, and the person addicted to the internet will likely suffer in verbal fluidity as a result (Variel). Poor communication skills stemming from internet addiction is a growing problem, especially amongst the upcoming generation of adults who have spent their whole lives connected to the