The impact from IAD causes a person to suffer a multitude of different problems ranging from social to financial. Too many people go to the "Net" to seek a form of acceptance from anyone who is willing to listen to them. According to Bill Cooley, a mental health counselor mentioned in Tate's article, some possible signs of having a problem with the Internet include.
Neglecting family activities, social events, work responsibilities or health concerns to spend time on the Net.
Anticipating your next on-line session.
You check your e-mail compulsively.
You would rather talk to people on-line than face to face.
Others complaining that you spend too much time in front of the monitor.
The list of symptoms goes on and on. In this statement by Cooley, within Tate"s article, he states "It's a coming-home feeling that can entice people to the detriment of the family, home, career and health".
An article taken from the Center for Online and Internet Addiction (netaddiction.com), states that nearly 6% of over 17,000 respondents in an online survey met the criteria for compulsive Internet use and 30% use the Net to escape from negative feelings. This article states there are five particular types of Internet addiction:.
1. Cybersexual Addiction-people involved in pornography or in adult role play chat rooms.
2. Cyber-Relational Addiction-on line friends become more important than real life relations with family and friends.
3. Net gaming-it encompasses different behaviors such as gaming, shopping, or stock trading which could lead to loss of excessive amounts of money.
4. Information Overload-with the availability of information on the Net, people spend greater amounts of time searching and collecting data from the web and organizing information.
5. Computer Addiction-during the 80's, computer games such as Solitaire and Minesweeper were programmed into computers and researchers found that obsessive game playing became a problem in organizational settings as employees spent most days playing rather than working.