Young (2010). Internet addiction over the decade - a personal look back.pdf - Uzależnienie od Internetu - megur

COMMENTARIES

Internet addiction over the decade: a personal look back

K i m b e r l y y o u n g

Center for Internet Addiction Recovery, Bradford,

PA, USA

an addiction that they could not under-

stand. Yet, after reading Caught in the

Net , they found validation and under-

standing to a disorder that they knew

they were experiencing but had not been

recognized by many professionals when

they tried to seek help.

After Caught in the Net was pub-

lished, many journalists and scholars did

not believe that people could become

addicted to the Internet. At that point,

many laughed and scoffed at the idea.

How could a tool so useful for informa-

tion and communication be considered

addictive?

These early studies and those of my

colleagues such as D. Greenield (2) and

M. Orzack (3) opened the conversation

to the darker side of what lied ahead.

Could it be too much? Research in the

ield of Internet addiction has grown sub-

stantially. Studies have focused on clini-

cal diagnosis, epidemiology, psychosocial

risk factors, symptom management, and

treatment outcome. Internet addiction

has not only been identiied as a national

problem in the US, but in countries such

as China, Korea, and Taiwan. Media

reports suggest Internet addiction has

reached epidemic proportions.

Healthcare professionals started see-

ing cases of people who suffered from

Internet-related clinical problems. Pio-

neer treatment centers specializing in

Internet addiction recovery emerged at

McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical

School afiliate, and at the Illinois Insti-

tute for Addiction Recovery at Proctor

Hospital in Peoria, Illinois. Inpatient

addiction rehabilitation centers such

as The Canyon, Sierra Tucson, and The

Meadows started to include Internet-

related compulsivity as one of the sub-

specialties they treat. Globally, the irst

inpatient treatment center opened in

Beijing, China in 2006, and it is estimat-

ed that Korea has over 140 Internet ad-

diction treatment recovery centers. Most

recently, the irst inpatient residential

care center opened in the US: the Restart

Program in Redmond, Washington.

It is dificult to estimate how wide-

spread the problem is. A nationwide

study led by E. Aboujaoude (4) estimated

that nearly one in eight Americans suf-

fer from at least one sign of problematic

Internet use. Studies abroad have docu-

mented Internet addiction in a growing

number of countries such as Italy, Paki-

stan, Iran, Germany, and Czech Repub-

lic, to name a few.

Globally, we see that science has

greatly contributed to our understand-

ing of compulsive or addictive use of the

Internet and that new forms of treatment

are emerging. These include traditional

twelve-step recovery, cognitive-behav-

ioral therapies, and more intensive forms

of treatment such as residential inpatient

care.

While much attention has been paid

to Internet addiction in the academic

and clinical ields, developing universal

standards of care and assessment has

been dificult, because the ield is cultur-

ally diverse and terminology in the aca-

demic literature has varied, from Internet

addiction to problematic Internet use or

pathological Internet use. The American

Psychiatric Association has proposed

including the diagnosis of “pathological

computer use” in the DSM-IV revision,

concluding that this is the broadest term

to use.

Overall, I can say that we are only be-

ginning to understand the impact of the

Internet. It is my hope that in the next

decade we will understand so much

more about its social and clinical impli-

cations.

The Internet has certainly changed

since I irst began to study Internet ad-

diction in 1994. Then, it cost $2.95 per

hour to login. Applications such as

MySpace , Facebook , YouTube , and Sec-

ond Life did not exist. Modem speeds

ranged from 14.4 to 28.8 mbps. Web

sites started proliferating the Internet,

and most without any graphics, sound,

or video. Only a growing number of

schools and businesses were connected

to the Internet.

By the late 90s, the height of the Dot

Com era before the bubble burst, every-

one was clamoring to learn more about

the Internet. Computer companies were

dolling out new technologies faster than

people could buy them and any company

with dot com after its name was assumed

to make millions. No one was worried

about the potential for addiction.

Yet, after a friend called me to tell

me of her divorce because her husband

became addicted to AOL chat rooms, it

made me wonder if others could get ad-

dicted to the Internet in the same way

as people become addicted to drugs, al-

cohol, gambling, food, and sex. It was

a daunting and challenging task. I was

fresh out of graduate school with my

doctorate in clinical psychology. I had

studied neuropsychology, a far cry from

being an Internet addiction expert, yet,

hearing story after story about people

suffering because of the Internet and

how their use had taken over aspects

of their lives, I knew that I had to share

what I had learned.

In 1998, I wrote Caught in the Net ,

the irst book to identify Internet addic-

tion (1). Publishing the book changed

my life. Once published, the publicity

around the book took on a life of its

own. I joked that I had become the Ann

Landers of cyberspace, as letters and

email from across the globe poured in.

I heard from parents, spouses, and ad-

dicts themselves struggling to deal with

References

Young KS. Caught in the net: understand-

ing Internet addiction. New York: Wiley,

1998.

Greenield D. Virtual addiction: help for

netheads, cyberfreaks, and those who love

them. Oakland: New Harbinger, 1999.

Orzack M. Computer addiction: is it real or

is it virtual? Harvard Mental Health Letter

1999;15:8.

Aboujaoude E, Koran LM, Gamel N et al.

Potential markers for problematic Internet

use: a telephone survey of 2,513 adults.

CNS Spectr 2006;11:750-5.

091-097. i ndd 91

27-05-2010 10:05:58

Young (2010). Internet addiction over the decade - a personal look back.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: