In 1999, ABC News conducted the largest survey to date on Internet addiction, studying more than 17,000 people. Psychologist David Greenfield, president of the Center for Internet Studies, found that 6% of web users in the United States may be addicts.
Although no such study has been performed within the Muslim world, observation indicates that many of our brothers and sisters may have fallen into the same trap. As well, there are additional problems related to Internet usage that need to be addressed.
Negative Consequences of Internet
Usage
Health-related Problems
Dr. Kimberly Young, psychologist and Internet specialist at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, reported that Internet addicts tend to stay on-line 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 often disrupted. The user typically stays up past normal bedtime hours, and may report being on-line until 2 or 4 am - even in the face of having to wake up for work or school at 6 a.m.
Such sleep deprivation causes excessive fatigue, and sometimes impairs academic or occupational functioning. It may even compromise one's immune system, leaving the user vulnerable to disease. Moreover, 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 Young also reported, in 1996, that 53% of Internet addicts in her study were experiencing serious problems in their interpersonal relationships. The addicts were spending less and less time with the people in their lives, in exchange for spending more and more time on-line.
A study of 169 non-obsessive Internet users, carried out by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for a period of over two years, claims, "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 were spouses. Because of the addict's increased indulgence in the Internet, family and particularly marital responsibilities are neglected more and more. A mother of three was taken to court in the United States for child neglect due to her obsessive use of the Internet. She had locked herself in a room with her computer, leaving her children to take care of themselves.
Many wives of Internet-addicted husbands have been labeled as "cyberwidows." Some husbands neglect their wives in exchange for an on-line relationship - or, for that matter, several on-line relationships. If the spouse of such an addict discovers cybersex, the situation is worsened. The addict will continue to withdraw emotionally from the marriage, and exert even more effort in maintaining relationships with their recently discovered on-line "lovers."
According to Dr. Greenfield, the problem of Internet abuse is actually secondary to pre-existing problems in the marriage. Often, the Internet becomes an easy detour from marital strife as it offers easy access to others who are eager to talk, relate and even have physical relations - both on and off-line. The problem is that the Internet combines accessibility, anonymity, low cost and a lack of inhibition, providing a welcoming place to run to when problems begin to ignite at home. The Internet is always there - it is available 24 hours a day and, according to some, it is more reliable than a spouse.
It is important to note here that on-line sexual behavior doesn't necessarily remain on-line. Greenfield says that in a number of the cases he has worked with, cybersex and cyberaffairs have proven to be the downfall of users' marriages in that they progressed to the point where phone and/or personal contact was made between the partners. Virtual sex actually led to actual sex - and what started out as a simple on-line friendship easily became a full-blown affair.
In analyzing the rate of progression from on-line to real time behavior, he found that 50% of addicts as opposed to 18% of non-addicts progressed to having phone contact with on-line acquaintances; 57% of addicts and 20% of non-addicts progressed from on-line flirting to real time flirting; and 42% of addicts and 14% of non-addicts progressed from on-line affairs to real time affairs.
Analysis of the study performed by Dr. Young indicates the existence of dissociation (in real life), lessened inhibition, accelerated intimacy, hypersexual behavior, and a high correlation between on-line cybersex and subsequent real time sexual affairs among Internet addicts.
"And do not draw near to fornication, surely it is an indecency, and an evil which invites evil." (Al Isra': verse 32)
Even in light of the above Qur'anic verse, unfortunately, the Muslim world is not exempt from these immoral practices. Another problem existing among Muslims is that of "cyber marriages," which usually involve young Muslim men (who are inexperienced in relationships) and non-Muslim women (not accustomed to being honored with a proposal of marriage). The couple becomes emotionally involved through their web correspondence, and the young man, seeking to keep the relationship lawful, proposes marriage. Since the parties have not had sufficient time to get to know one another, the marriages often end as quickly as they started.
One case in point is that of a Arab Muslim youth that fell in love over the Internet with a woman in the west. He proposed marriage, the ceremony was done over the phone (alas!) in the presence of two witnesses on his side who asked her if she agreed to the marriage. They did not obtain a marriage certificate in either country. The first actual meeting between the two occurred weeks later when the bride traveled to the groom's country to consummate the marriage.
Only Allah knows the incidence of such relationships. There is a need for research to measure the impact of Internet-related problems, such as this, in the Muslim World
(To Be Continued - Part II: Academic,
Employment and Social Problems; Groups Most Vulnerable to Internet
Addiction)
