Internet Addiction

When perusing the different topics discussed so far this semester, many of them are interrelated with each other. The topic I will be discussing today that correlates with impulsivity and self control is internet addiction. This addiction may not be the same as a drug or alcohol addiction, but it has similar psychological effects and is something that is progressing throughout the years. When I was a little girl, the internet was not really a hot commodity. But as I grew older and now am at the age of 32, the internet has become a very popular place, and a lot of the time not a positive one. Internet addiction has increased heavily over the years, and has become prominently popular after COVID hit us in 2019. When people did not have anything else to do, they relied on the internet for entertainment. The lack of self control many people had disallowed them to limit the time they spend on the internet using different websites and applications on your phone. Practicing self control in this situation would be giving yourself an allotted time to use the internet, which includes your phone, and sticking to that. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not use self control when using the internet and act on impulse, spending hours on the internet without even realizing it.

Internet addiction has become a more common addiction nowadays, and is not really treated as an addiction. But when you define the word "addiction", it is when one engages in a behavior, and the rewarding effects provide an incentive to repeat this activity, despite the consequences that could be to their detriment. As applications like Facebook and Tik Tok became on the rise, many teens and young adults did not realize the amount of hours and time they were spending on the internet. Self control was disappearing at this point, and people were impulsively using the internet very frequently without understanding the damage it is causing and the time wasted that could have been used doing things that are beneficial and healthy. Overall, with me included, internet addiction affects people a lot more than they are willing to admit. If we begin to practice self control when using the internet and limit our impulsive behaviors, we can then possibly begin to have a healthy, solid routine that can help break the cycle of internet addiction.