Avoid Internet Takeover

People have a confusing relationship with the Internet. We very much

like to log on and twirl around the Web, check our email, and instant
message with friends. But when we shut our computer down, we often
feel that we wasted too much time online. The reason is that Internet use
for short periods is a mood stimulant, but for long periods it is actually a
mood depressant. Psychologists advise that you decide how much time
you are going to spend using the Internet before you log on.
MARESSA ORZACK DIRECTS the Computer Addiction Studies Center.
When Dr. Orzack began looking into excessive computer use, her colleagues
thought she was “totally off the wall,” she says. But now she’s
“swamped” with work. People contact her, by email of course, concerned
that their use of the Internet and computers is taking over their
life.
Dr. Orzack’s early awareness of the problem started at home. “I
would sometimes play an online card game so late that I would fall
asleep in my chair,” she admits.
Dr. Orzack sees people of all ages who lose track of themselves online.
“On the surface, a computer game may seem completely harmless.
Sending an instant message may seem harmless.” she says. “But when it
becomes a substitution for life, for human contact, then you have to look
at it from a different perspective.
“What’s so attractive about going online is that the problems of real
life go away for a moment. But, of course, it doesn’t solve those problems.
In fact, if the Internet is consuming great quantities of time then
that is creating new problems for people.”
Recurring long periods of personal Internet use were associated with
28 percent lower life satisfaction. (Green et al. 2005)