Transcript Document

Addiction?
Addiction – the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice
or to something that is psychologically or physically habitforming to such an extent that its cessation causes severe
trauma.
The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize
internet addiction as a disorder.
In 2009, ReSTART became the first internet and gaming
addiction center in the US.
US College Students Addicted to Technology
A study done by University of Maryland which asked 200
students to give up all media for 24 hours found that many
students showed signs of withdrawal, craving and anxiety as
well as the inability to function well without certain
technologies.
These symptoms are similar to alcohol and drug addictions.
Components of Internet Addiction
Excessive time online – most addicts spend a lot of time
online, often lose track of time and forget to meet basic needs
like eating or sleeping.
Tolerance – the need to spend extra time online to feel
satisfied.
Negative Consequences – the use of internet or technology
has negatively affected quality of life. Some examples are poor
school work or work performance, social isolation and
arguments about time online.
Withdrawal – feeling depressed or angry when you
cannot be online.
Children
Children tend to be more ‘addicted’ to the internet than
adults.
8 – 18 year olds spend 7 hours and 38 minutes a day (53
hours a week) using internet, video games, cellphones and
TV.
In the past 5 years there has been drastic increases in the
number of students with cellphones(39-66%) and iPods(1876%).
Young people spend more time on their cellphones playing
games, listening to music and watching TV(49 min/day)
then they do talking on the phone (33 min/day)
Top online activities for children
Social networking (22 min/day)
Playing internet games (17
min/day)
Video websites (15 min/day)
Communicating (1 hour 35
min/day)
Parents role?
3 in 10 young people say they have rules on how much time
they can spend watching TV, video games or on the
computer.
Children with restrictions on internet use consume about 3
hours less media per day than those with no rules.
47% of heavy media users say they usually get fair or poor
grades compared to 23% of light media users.
Is putting a time limit the best way/ only way to prevent
children from spending too much time online?
Video game addiction study
A study conducted by Iowa St. University researchers states
that 8.5% of American children aged 8-18 who play video
games show multiple signs of behavioral addiction.
Some symptoms include: escaping problems through
playing, skipping homework to spend more time playing,
lying about length of time playing, stealing games or money,
increasing amounts of time and money on video games,
irritability or restlessness when time playing is decreased.
Children considered pathological gamers have trouble paying
attention in class and are twice as likely to report ADD or
ADHD.
Interesting facts
88% of the nation’s youth (ages 8-18) play video games.
Teen males play about 18 hours per week while teen females
play about 8 hours a week.
U.S. video game sales generated 10.5 million in 2009.
From 2005 to 2009, video game entertainment software
annual growth rate was greater than 10% while the entire
U.S. economy grew at a rate less than 2%.
Gamers gone mad
Video games and violence
Some people believe that violent video games have a
negative influence on children but there is no proof to
validate that.
Violent crimes by youth has decreased dramatically since the
early 90’s, while the number of kids playing violent video
games has increased significantly. We would expect to see
the opposite of that if video game violence was linked to
youth violence.
Video games and education
Educators are increasingly trying to use video games as a
way to engage students and make learning more fun.
Video games offer a unique experience that allows
information to be more applicable instead of being
memorized and repeated.
How can video games can be used as an effective learning
tool for future generations?
Cellphones key to teens social life?
4 out of 5 teens carry a cellphone.
57% of teens say that their cellphone is the “key to their
social life”
Teens say that cellphones tell the second most about their
social status (#1 is clothing)
42% of teens can text with their eyes closed
62% of parents take away their teen’s cellphones as
punishment
64% of parents look at their child’s cellphone messages
Texting
47% of teens say their lives
would be worsened without
texting (females more so
than males 54% - 40%)
14% of teens send between
100-200 texts a day (30006000 texts per month)
Top reasons to text
(according to teens):
1. Multitasking
2. Speed
3. Avoid verbal
communication
4. It’s fun
Facebook / Social Networking
Facebook is now 7 years old
and there is no reason to
doubt it will be around for a
long time. Social networking
has its positive features but
along with this power
comes responsibility.
Privacy
Moral Disconnection
Self-Identification
Socialization
Anything else?
Are these things addictive?
It’s really your opinion. I think that if you do something so
much that it affects other parts of your life then it’s an
addiction. Do you think you are addicted to any of these
things? Why?
More questions
How can parents influence their children to spend less
time on the internet and more time participating in real
life activities?
Do you think these activities have been harmful to you? If
so, what have you done about it?