Internet Addiction Disorder

Internet Addiction

This week’s presentation on internet addiction shocked me.  I know that people joke about being addicted to facebook and their cell phones but I never really thought seriously about individuals who might really be addicted to computers and who might suffer from this addiction.  In today’s society, technology plays an amazingly important role and for the past few weeks, our class has been discussing how to incorporate more technology in the classroom.  This presentation looked at the consequences to the internet.  We watched a video in class on Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD).  The video showed a rehabilitation centre in China that helped youth with IAD, mostly who had developed violent behaviour because of the addiction.  I was shocked to see the video as it was the fist exposure I had had on the subject.  I have heard before about the dangers of playing to many video games or getting too much screen time, but this just showed me that extreme exposure to computers can have devastating effects.  Online games are most likely the largest contributors to IAD.  Players create characters and play in virtual worlds.  Some of the teens being treated at IAD treatment centres report that they made friends in the online world which they couldn’t make in the real world.  After watching this video, I feel more informed about the disorder and may be able to look for signs of IAD in my classroom.  

Here is a link for another video I found on IAD in China.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtMJ4NJvTwI