Cyberspace, cybersex, cyberboyfriend or cyberfriendship are some of the terms that give evidence of the implantation of one of the most used communication systems by the young of the 21st century: Internet. But, to what extent a tool created with an eminently social function is keeping man away from society? How does the compulsive use of this tool affect the youngest? Which consequences will the abuse of this instrument have in the affective and social development of those who enjoy it? The professor of the University of Granada María del Mar Ortiz answers these questions through the results of the doctoral project “Addiction to Internet: assessment and relationship with the social conduct in university students” and affirms that the compulsive use of the Net as a mean of communication “is a problem that mainly affects the youngest, with serious consequences on their family relations and their academic development”.
The study, which was started in 1998 with a sample of 249 persons and was based just on the use of communication channels, has extended its area of analysis to all the uses people do of the Internet (downloading films or music, games, information search, e-mail) and has also increased the number of surveys to more than 1046 carried out to university students of the Faculties of Education of Granada, Málaga, Cádiz and Melilla, of Psychology of Pontevedra and La Coruña, and the Technical School of Agricultural Engineering of Castellón, although the final results of this part of the research work will be announced the next month of August, the moment in which Ortiz plans to conclude his work.
Even so, some conclusions can be already expressed thanks to the data obtained in the first stage of the project, like that 39% of the interviewee declares to feel “hooked on the Net”. As for the age, the professor of the department of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology points out that “29% of the interviewed users get connected to the Net more than four hours a day and all the days of the week, and they are aged between 14 and 25”.
Likewise, “hooked or not” on this activity, 95% of the interviewed persons consider to be regular users, and 69.7 % use it more than to hours a day and 45.9 % al, the days of the week. As for the problems brought by the abuse of the communication channels, only those who use it more than four hours everyday confessed that this situation “had argued about this question with their families and it had even come to prevent them from carry out their academic or labour duties”.
Addiction symptoms
The main symptoms that confirm the addition to the Internet are, according to the researcher of the UGR, “that the computer becomes the central instrument of their lives; they have the uncontrolled urge to use the Net; the strong pleasure experienced during the connection time, although feelings of guilt can emerge after such pleasant activity as a rebound phenomenon; the cyclic repetition of the two previous sequences with a non prolonged interval and the presentation of a fast conflict with other activities in the delay when it comes to eat or sleep, sleep reduction or carelessness in work obligations”.
Assertiveness and loneliness are some of the factors that can predispose to such addictive use of the Net. Therefore, “acting on them from schools, universities and families, we can prevent the addiction and, in certain cases, it is possible to correct this bad use of the Internet”, the psycho-educator says, after saying that “the studies and research works to this effect can also act as preventive means and that is one of the reasons why the research work has been extended to the university community to analyse if this is a risk population or not”.
Reference
Professor María Ángeles Ortíz Gómez
Dpt. Evolutionary and Education Psychology
Tel. 952 698 768 / 958 243 968 (department)
E-mail. mortizg@ugr.es
