“My Kid is Addicted to the Internet!!” . . . Really? . . .

Picture from Irina Dvalidze on the HuffingtonPost.com

It’s a concern parents have all across the country. Could their child really be addicted to the Internet? According to countless sources provided by Google, the answer is “Yes.”

 The website for Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery has an entire section devoted to this addiction, right up there next to alcohol and drug addictions. There is even a hotline to call in case of emergency, and a list of warning signs, which after reading . . . I have some bad news. I apparently have fallen victim to Internet addiction! According to this list of signs, of which half I am guilty of.

My hesitation to accept Internet addiction as a serious health concern does not indicate that there are not those obscure cases out there, in which people really do suffer from such a condition. In a study conducted in 2000, three out of five participants appeared to really be addicted to the internet.

For example, in this study a poor guy named Gary considers the internet to be his friend, and “displays all the core components of addiction and like many addicts, denies he has any kind of problem.” Gary also, however, has a set of other mental health issues, and suffers from a condition called neurofibromatosis. He simply uses the internet as an escape.

In even more intense cases “internet addiction” can result in DEATH. Check out these 5 most extreme cases.

So what about your kid? Or yourself? Are you addicted to the internet? Probably not . . . but here’s a cool quiz to check and see if you are. I am “Borderline Addicted”.  

Back on a serious note, I personally think that what many-usually adults-consider to be internet addiction, is just that “sucked in” quality the media can have on people. Being “sucked in” does not compare to being truly addicted to something. Danah Boyd in her book It’s Complicated outlines this approach.

Boyd thinking labeling the time teens and kids spend on the Internet as “addiction” is just another way for adults to try to control the younger generation. It isn’t that kids cannot resist the Internet, they just really would rather check Instagram than clean the bathroom or do their homework. It is as simple as that. This however freaks adults out because they can’t control it, no matter how hard they try.

My advice? Take a deep breath, chill out, and watch some Netflix. You know what they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.