In the largest study to date, an ABC News carried out the largest survey to date on Internet addiction. survey In a study of more than 17,000 people last year, psychologist David Greenfield, psychologist and president of The Center for Internet Studies, found that 6% of wWeb users in the United States could be addicted. Although no such study has been performed as of yet in the Islamic World, personal experience shows that many of our brothers and sisters may have fallen into the same trapis same problem. Other problems of iInternet usage that have also emergvolved, need to be addressed.
NegativeEGATIVE ConsequencesONSEQUENCES ofOF InternetNTERNET AddictionDDICTION:
Health-related problems
Generally, Dr Kimberly Young, psychologist in the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and Internet addict specialist, reported that Internet addicts tend to use it between 40 to 80 hours per week, with single sessions that could last up to 20 hours. To accommodate such excessive use, sleep patterns are typically disrupted due to late night log-ins. The user typically stays up past normal bedtime hours and mayreport staying on-line until 2 am to 4 am, often two, three, or four in the morning with the reality of having to wake up for work or school at 6 am.six a.m. Such sleep depravation causes excessive fatigue sometimes impairingmaking academic or occupational activityfunctioning impaired and even decreasing one's immune system, leaving the person patient vulnerable to disease. MoreoverAdditionally, the sedentary act of prolonged computer use may result in a lack of proper exercise and lead to an increased risk for carpal tunnel syndrome, back strain, or eyestrain.
Familial problems:
Dr Kimberly Young reported in 1996 that 53% of IInternet addicts in her survey ed by her were havinghad serious problems in their relationships with others problems. She found that the individualsaddicts spent were spending less and less time with the people in their lives in exchange for spending time with their computers.
A study of 169 non-obsessive iInternet users, carried outdone by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for over a period of two years, claimsstated: "Greater use of the Internet is associated with declines in participants' communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle and increases in their depression and loneliness."
Most affected in this regard category of problems were marriages. IBecause of the increased indulgence of the addict in the Internet induces the person he begins to neglect more and more his responsibilities more at home and particularly towards his spouse. A woman was taken to court in the United States for child neglect due to her obsessive use of the Internet. In her case, she had locked herself in a room with her computer and left her three3 children to fend for themselves.
Many women with addicted husbands have now been labelled as "cyberwidows". In doing so they have forfeited tTheir husbands neglect their wives usually in exchange for an on-line relationship,. or more than one relationship. Or, for that matter, several on-line relationships. The individual that gets into this sort of relationship gradually spends Lless and less time is spent with his/her spouse, and pass-times that they pPreviously enjoyed are forsakenclipped. The fact that the spouse discovers cybersex worsens the marital stance. He/she continues to withdraw emotionally and socially from the marriage and exerts more effort to maintain recently discovered on-line "lovers."
According to Dr. David Greenfield, the problem of Internet abuse iswas actuallyreally secondary to marital problemsthe problems in the marriage. Often the Internet becomes an easy detour for marital strifeproblems, as it offers easy access to men and women who are eager to talk, relate and at times have sex on and off-line. The problem with the Internet is that the combination of accessibility, ease of access, availability, low cost, anonymity, and disinhibition produce a welcomingpowerful place to run to when problems begin to ignite at home. The net is always there: . It is available 24 hours a day and according to some,in some people's opinions is more reliable than a spouse. Greenfield says that in a numbersome of the cases he has treated, cybersex and cyberaffairs have proven to be the downfall of the marriages. In so many cases the cyberaffair progressed to the point where phone and personal contact was made. WSo what started out as a simple online friendship, easily became a full-blown affair.
"And do not draw near to fornication, surely it is an indecency, and an evil which invites evil." (Al Isra': verse 32) (insert here the Verse on not going near zina).
Analysis of the study performed by Dr. Kimberly Young indicatesd that there is a high correlation between on-line cybersex and subsequent real time sexual affairs, as well as evidence to support the existence of disinhibition, accelerated intimacy, dissociation and hypersexual online behaviour.
It is important to note here that online sexual behavior doesn't necessarily remain online. Greenfield (1999) found that among Internet addicts there appears to be a progression from virtual sex to actual sex. In his study, Greenfield analysed the rate of progression from on-line to real time behaviour. 20% of non-addicts progressed from on-line flirting to real time flirting in comparison to 57% of addicts. 14% of non-addicts progressed from on-line affairs to real time affairs in comparison to 42% of addicts doing the same. 18% of non-addicts progressed to having phone contact with on-line acquaintances in contrast to 50% of addicts.
The MuslimOur part of the Wworld has not been exempt from thisese kinds of problem. Addicted husbands have been reported to totally neglect their wives in exchange for an on-line affairs. This has been the precipitating factor to many divorces. Wives complain of husbands who, instead of caring for them, tend to be very romantic on-line in a prohibited relationship. This of course enrages the wife.
Another problem existentnoticed among Muslimsin the Islamic world is that of "cyber marriages". Some Those of our young men who that meet women on the Internet tend to becomeget seriously and emotionally involved, emotionally, with these women. This process tends to be very quick due to the men's inexperience of these young men in any kindsort of romantic relationship. The Muslim youth, in an effort toat makeing his relationship more 'halal', quickly proposesmarriage. Relationships in the west tend to be very volatile lasting only for a matter of weeks to months. Marriage being a rare commodity to many women in the west, is a cue many women find hard to resist. They either set offfly to the country of their betrothed,the man's country or pay for himthe man to fly to them, and they get married. This example is notquite uncommon. One problem with this sort of marriage is due to the total lydisparity in different cultures each person was brought up in. Because the marriage process is done very quickly, the couplestwo don't have enough time to get to know each other. This in itself is enough to cause many problems.
One case that was reported was of a Muslim Arab youth that fell in love over the Internet with a Western woman. After a short period of time, the youth proposed to hermarriage. The marriage process was done over the phone (!) in the presence of two witnesses on his side of the phone line who asked the woman if she agreed to the marriage. No marriage certificate was made in either country. The first meeting between the two occurred weeks later when the woman travelledflied to the youth's country to 'consummate' the marriage. Only Allah knows the incidence of such marriages and research must be done to measure the rates and impacts of related problems such as this in the Muslim World, which is related toof misuse of the Internet misuse.
Academic problems:
Although the internet has been proclaimtouted to beas a premiere educational tool driving schools to integrate internet services among their classroom environments, a survey revealed that 86% of responding teachers, librarians, and computer co-ordinators believed that internet usage by children does not improve their performance. (Barber, 11 March 11, 1997; Net's educational value questioned, USA Today, p. 4D). Respondents argued that information on the Internet is too disorganized and unrelated to school curriculum and textbooks to help students achieve better results on standardized tests. In Young's study (1996), 58% of students reported a decline in study habits, a significant drop in grades, missed classes absences, or being placed on probation due to excessive Internet use.
Although the Internet is an ideal research tool, students surf irrelevant Web sites, engage in chat room gossip, converse with Internet penpals, and play interactive games at the cost of productive activity.
In one American uUniversity, an investigation was held to find out why normally successful students had recently been failing and thus dismissed from the uUniversity. It was found that 43% of these students failed due to extensive patterns of late night log-ons to the university computer system. (Brady, April 21,1997; Dropout rise a net result of computers.
The Buffalo News, p. A1.)
Similar problems were found in a 1997 survey of 531 students at the University of Texas, at Austin, conducted by Ppsychologist Kathy Scherer. There, 98% of dependent users said they found themselves staying online longer than they wanted. More than a third reported problems in social, academic and work responsibilities that they attributed to overuse of the Internet. Almost half said they had tried to cut down but couldn't.
problems with Employment:
Internet Employees' misuse of the Internet among employees is a serious concern among managers. In one survey conducted among America's top 1,000 companies, 55% of executives revealed that they believe that time spent surfing the Internet for non-business purposes is undermining their employees' effectiveness on the job. (Robert Half International, 1996). New monitoring devices used to allow bosses to track Iinternet usage helped one firm discover that only 23% of the usage were business-related. (Machlis, 1997).
Internet addicts have an additional problem of all night binges, resulting in decreased productivity in the workplace due to exhaustion.
In Young's study, she found that 90% or more of online users said they suffered moderate or severe impairment in their academic, interpersonal or financial lives. Another 85% said they had suffered impairment at work. By contrast, none of the nondependent users reported any impairment other than lost time.
According to research done by Dr. David Greenfield, psychologist and president of The Center for Internet Studies, 29% of time spent online by those surveyed was done while at work: this figure seemed to be slightly higher at (33%) for Internet addicts. Also, approximately 60% of a sample of 224 companies have disciplined employees for Internet use/abuse in the workplace. Nearly 30% have terminated employees for the same reason.
Social Problems:
A study reported in The American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association, stated: that "even small amounts of internet use leads to small but statistically significant increases in misery and loneliness, and a decline in psychological well-being." This markedly opposes the notion that the Internet is a social machine. This may be explained by the prolonged hours spent by the individual in his virtual world isolating him more and more from real life. The individual gradually loses the ability to associate and interact with real people in exchange for the anonymity provided him by the Internet.
Generally speaking, Internet aAddicts tend to form an emotional attachment to the on-line friends and activities they create inside their computer screens. They enjoy those aspects of the Internet, which allow them to meet, socialize, and exchange ideas with new people through highly interactive Internet applications (such as chatting, playing on-line games, or being involved with several newsgroups). These virtual communities create a vehicle to escape from reality and seek out a means to fulfill an unmet emotional and psychological needs.
Due to the fact that one can conceal his real name, age, occupation, appearance, and physical responses to anyone or anything one encounters on-line, internet users, especially those who are lonely and insecure in real-life situations, take that freedom and quickly pour out their strongest feelings, darkest secrets, and deepest desires. This leads to the illusion of intimacy, but when reality underscores the severe limitations of relying on a faceless community for the love and careing that can only come from actual people, internet addicts experience very real disappointment and pain. (Young)
Groups Vulnerable to Internet Addiction:
According to a study done by Kimberly Young's study, psychologist in the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and internet addict specialist, found that those most vulnerable to internet addiction included women and men who already suffer from depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, low self-esteem, or the struggles with recovery from a prior addiction. Many Internet aAddicts openly admit to having an "addictive personality" and have previously abused prescription medication, alcohol, cigarettes, or food. She also found that dependent users of the Internet ranked high in terms of self-reliance, emotional sensitivity and reactivity, vigilance, low self-disclosure, and non-conformist characteristics.
On-line users who demonstrate highly developed abstract thinking skills may also develop addictive patterns of Internet use, as they are drawn to the mental stimulation that is offered through the infinite databases. On-line users who tend to lead a more solitary and socially inactive lifestyle may be at greater risk of pathological Internet use.
A study performed by Nathan Shapira of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine revealed astonishing data. On average, Internet aAddicts in the study reported having five psychiatric disorders at some point in their lives. Dr. Shapira commented saying that it was unclear whether the Internet problem should be considered a disorder or just a symptom of something else, or whether certain disorders promote excessive online use. Kimberly Yyoung said she found a similar pattern of prior psychiatric problems in most people hooked on the Internet.
Loytsker and Aiello found in 1997 that higher levels of tendency towards boredom proneness, loneliness, social anxiety and private self-consciousness all predicted internet addiction.
Unpleasant situations in a person's life, a dead-end job, or unemployment were also found to be triggers to internet addiction. According to Young, the addictive behaviour often acts as a lubricant to cope with missing or unfulfilled needs, which arise from unpleasant events or situations in one's life. The pathological behaviour allows the person to forget problems if only for a short time. For the immediate future it may be a useful way to cope, but in the big picture it only exacerbates the problem.
According to Peele, addictions give one a feeling of gratification that the person is not getting in other ways. Peele says that when a person feels a lack of satisfaction in one's life, an absence of intimacy, or strong connection to other people one is vulnerable to addiction.
Some Characteristics Found in Association with Internet Use:
- Intense intimacy: among all participants in Greenfield's study, intense intimacy was reported while online (41%). T, while this figure rises to 75% among Internet addicts.
- Disinhibition: 43% surveyed reported a lack of sense of disinhibition and this figure again roseised to 80% for Internet addicts.
- Loss of Boundaries: 39% reported a loss of boundaries while online, with 83% of addicts reporting this experience.
- Timelessness: the majority of those surveyed admitted to "sometimes loosing track of time;"; however those addicted to the Internet described "timelessness" as occurring "almost always.".
- Feeling out of Control: only 8% of the total group surveyed reported feeling out of control when online, however, 46% of those who were addicted admitted to "feeling out of control.".
Although research is yet to be done in the Islamic World, the above mentioned information is applicable. Until such research is done, Muslims should be wary of the negative aspectsside of this incoming avalanche of technology. Most importantly, iwe haves to raise our children as strong Muslims to have an inherent protection mechanism against any incoming negative influences.
