From BBCNews:
US shows signs of net addiction
More than one in eight adults in the US show signs of being addicted to the internet, a study has shown.
“Addicts” showed signs of compulsive internet use, habitually checking e-mail, websites and chat rooms.
More than 8% of the 2,513 respondents to the Stanford University phone survey said they hid their use from partners.
A typical addict is a single, white college-educated male in his 30s, who spends more than 30 hours a week on “non-essential” computer use, it found.
(snip)
Previous studies have shown that a significant number of people could be addicted to the internet.
For example, a 1999 Center for Internet Studies survey of 18,000 internet users found that 5.7% had signs of “compulsive” internet use.
Since then the internet has become quicker, richer in content and more accessible because of technology such as wireless.
As a response, internet addiction clinics have sprung up around the world to try to wean people off their cyberspace fix. Last year, China opened its first clinic in Beijing
However, researchers say it is not clear whether compulsive internet use is a distinct problem or an expression of other underlying problems such as obsessive compulsive disorders.
The new study questioned 2,513 people in the US about their online habits.
The results showed that nearly 14% of respondents found it difficult to stay away from the internet for periods of several days.
Almost 6% said they felt their wanderings in cyberspace adversely affected their relationships with other people.
Nearly 8% of people said they went online to escape real world problems.
I touched on this subject briefly a long time ago in a post titled Unplugging From the ‘Net. Maybe it is time to revisit those scenes.
But was I the only one that felt a sense of WTF when I read “China opened its first clinic in Beijing”? The article had a link to an article about it. Part creepy, part, well, WTF.