Addicted to the Net? Log On and Find Out
Does your mouse finger twitch when somebody says “Yahoo!” in conversation? Have trouble finding addresses that use funny words like “Street” or “Avenue” instead of “https://www”? Find yourself staring out your apartment window waiting for a different image to download?
Maybe it’s time for some professional help.
Dr. Kimberly S. Young, a University of Pittsburgh psychologist, has created a Web site “dedicated to promoting awareness of the phenomena of Internet Addiction.” According to the Web site, cyberspace is such a powerful draw that people get “addicted to the Internet in the same manner one would become addicted to drugs, alcohol, or gambling.”
The first step is to take the site’s self-test for Internet addiction, which asks questions such as “Experienced any type of withdrawal symptoms (e.g., increased depression, moodiness, or irritability) when you are off-line?”
There are another 250 questions after that one. Anyone with the patience to fill out this online questionnaire has got to be addicted.
The site can be found at https://www.pitt.edu/~ksy/
Greg Miller covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com
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