So, Is Internet All That Bad Things?

You guys have been followed us this whole semester and hearing all the bad things about Internet and IAD. This last post will give you a summary of everything we've been discussed, as well as, we will touch on BAD and GOOD sides of Internet in general.

   The GOOD side

1. Communication:

Internet has made it so much easier and faster to connect and communicate with people anywhere anytime in the world. "Our earth has reduced and has attained the form of a global village." Not only emailing, chatting, and video conferencing with our families and friends, but developing global economics and exploring other culture of different ethnicity are undeniable uses of Internet.

2. Information:

You can find any sort of information, any type of data on almost any kind of subject that you are looking for just by going on the Internet search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and so on.

3. Entertainment:

Media of internet has become quite successful in trapping entertainment factor. Online games, music, video, chat rooms, you name it, are indeed the most uses of Internet.

4. Services:

Many online services are now provided widespread on the Internet such as banking and e-commerce.

The BAD side

1. Privacy

2. Virus threats

3. Serious health issues

4. Internet Addiction

Though there are downsides of Internet uses and effects on health, society, work, and relationships, the advantages of Internet outweigh its disadvantages. However, we should not deny or ignore the serious impacts it lays on our lives, as we mentioned in our presentation "MODERATE IS THE KEY." Know the limit and you can take out most of the GOOD sides; otherwise, it's not worthy!

eBay: A Virtual Shopping Addiction

I found an interesting article discussing about people addicted to ebay:

EBay was founded in 1995. Ever since then it has been known as the world’s largest, virtual flea market. This website allows users to search for whatever objects they would like to have and place a bid in hopes of obtaining their desired object. A website that offers thousands and thousands of items seem like an amazing feature to any person. However; the amazement of eBay has also develop a new form of shopping addiction for individuals. According to Jim Griffith, a worker for eBay, the typically eBay-obsessed person, he said, “tends to be someone who likes to shop, loves to hunt and loves the treasure-hunt aspect to shopping.” The internet auction house has traditionally been a place to find junks of all kinds. People become addicted to the thrill of finding a nostalgic item of their past or the thrill of bidding against other people. Although the idea of shopping and bidding seems harmless enough, Dr. Kimberly Young, director of the Center for Online Addiction, believes that “there are a growing number of eBay addicts.” Her patients would come visit her and tell her that couples have lied to their spouse about how much they spend on eBay. Even go as far as taking money out of the 401(k) fund without telling the spouse. Some people even dip into their retirement and children’s college funds or take out a second mortgage to support their eBay addiction. Ebay still is a great tool for achieving random items, but just like any other form of addiction. Some people just need their fix on eBay.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189365,00.html

Chris Childs

Is Internet Addiction Real?

Just as many people out there who argue that internet addiction is a real disorder, there are as many who argue against it. Who's to say if you are addicted or you just use the internet a lot? I know people who read 3 books a week, how come no one has come up with reading addicts? Work out addicts? TV addicts? I might be guilty of being a TV addict myself. If internet addiction becomes a real disorder, where will we eventually draw the line? Anything can be made into a disorder at that point.... If we make IA a real disorder, is it a slippery slope??? What is the differnece between a passion and an addiction? What do YOU think?

Internet Use and Aggressive Behavior

Another research done in Taiwan shows the link between Internet use and Aggressive behavior in teenagers. The report states that "teens with signs of Internet addiction were more likely to say they had hit, shoved, or threatened someone in the past year." According the Journal of Adolescent Health, there has not yet proved that Internet Addiction breeds violent behavior in children; however, "violence-prone teenagers are more likely to obsessively use the Internet".

There also suggestions that parents should pay close attention to their teenagers' Internet use and the potential effect on their real-life behavior. They should sit down and talk to their children about what they think about Internet and possible violence in their generation because according to Dr. Chih-Hung Ko, Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan, there are certain online activities would make the kids "release their anger."

Link to the article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,499105,00.html

I personally think that online video game contributes a lot in the Internet addiction and Aggressive behavior of human being and children  in specific. Almost all video game contain some level of aggression which stimulate the players' behaviors. Based on an article on Video Game Addiction, "although gaming addiction is not yet offically recognized as a disorder, there is evidence that people at all ages, especially teens and pre-teens are facing severe consequences associated with compulsive use of video and computer games." And studies shows that 10-15 percent of gamers are addicted based on criteria for addiction of the World Health Organization.

Here is link to video game article: http://www.video-game-addiction.org/

South Korea Expands Aid for Internet Addiction

Today, following our presentation we received a question about why Asian countries have more internet addicts. I found an excellent article in the NY Times about South Korea and the amount of internet gaming addicts.

This article discusses how 2 couples who met via online married each other and knew nothing about child bearing the woman did not know when her baby was due until her water broke.

In Internet gaming, they were masters of all they encountered, swashbuckling adventurers exploring mythical lands and slaying monsters. Every evening, the couple, Kim Yun-jeong and her husband, Kim Jae-beom, 41, left their one-room apartment for an all-night Internet cafe where they role-played, often until dawn. Each one raised a virtual daughter, who followed them everywhere, and was fed, dressed and cuddled — all with a few clicks of the mouse.

On the morning of Sept. 24 last year, they returned home after a 12-hour game session to find their actual daughter, a 3-month-old named Sa-rang — dead, shriveled with malnutrition.

This is just one story of many more about this type of neglect and how people use the internet to escape real life. I encourage all of you to read the full article and post your opinions below. 

Click here to view the article South Korea