Internet Addiction

114 Pages·2014·2.83 MB·English

by  Laura Perdew

Essential
ESSENTIAL Library

P INTERNET
ISSUES E
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Essential E
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Library
ADDICTION
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E
BY LAURA PERDEW
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More than 13 million children are bullied
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each year in the United States. A
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A professional football player can sustain 15,000 hits to D
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the head in a 10-year career.
T
I
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Self-injury is a growing trend across the globe.
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Society faces new issues and challenges all the time.
Some affect the entire planet, but others hit closer to
home. Essential Issues explores topics that are of special
concern to today’s teens. Examine their root causes.
Study the issues from different points of view. Learn what
people are doing to solve these problems. Delve in and
discover how these Essential Issues are shaping your world
today and tomorrow.
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ESSENTIAL ISSUES
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INTERNET
ADDICTION

INTERNET
ADDICTION
BY LAURA PERDEW
CONTENT CONSULTANT
DR. KEITH W. BEARD
MARSHALL UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Essential Library
An Imprint of Abdo Publishing | www.abdopublishing.com
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Published by Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO, PO Box 398166, Minneapolis,
Minnesota 55439. Copyright © 2015 by Abdo Consulting Group, Inc. International
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Printed in the United States of America, North Mankato, Minnesota
042014
092014
Cover Photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Interior Photos: iStockphoto/Thinkstock, 2; DB Dirk Godder/picture-alliance/dpa/
AP Images, 6; Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/Newscom, 11; Fer Gregory/Shutterstock Images,
14; Susan Sterner/AP Images, 19; Fuse/Thinkstock, 24; Don Heupel/AP Images, 29;
Razvan Bucur/Shutterstock Images, 30; Javier Sanchez Mingorance/Thinkstock, 32;
Solent News/REX/AP Images, 36; Nigel Treblin/dapd/AP Images, 41; Imaginechina/
AP Images, 45; zeljkodan/Shutterstock Images, 46; Samo Trebizan/Shutterstock Images,
52; Gang Liu/Shutterstock Images, 54; Toby Talbot/AP Images, 56; YanLev/Shutterstock
Images, 59; Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Images, 65; Alliance/Thinkstock,
66; Julie Jacobson/AP Images, 71; CandyBox Images/Shutterstock Images, 75; Peter
Cade/Getty Images, 76; kzeno/Thinkstock, 81; Randy Faris/Fuse/Thinkstock, 84;
wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock Images, 86; Monkey Business Images/Thinkstock, 90;
Stephen Brashear/AP Images, 93
Editor: Angela Wiechmann
Series Designer: Becky Daum
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014932573
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perdew, Laura.
Internet addiction / Laura Perdew.
p. cm. -- (Essential issues)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62403-421-3
1. Internet addiction--Juvenile literature. 2. Behavior, addictive--Juvenile literature. I.
Title.
616.85--dc23
2014932573
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
LOST IN THE DIGITAL WORLD 6
CHAPTER 2
ORIGINS OF THE INTERNET 14
CHAPTER 3
INTERNET
ADDICTION EMERGES 24
CHAPTER 4
GAMING 36
CHAPTER 5
COMMUNICATING 46
CHAPTER 6
SOCIAL NETWORKING 56
CHAPTER 7
SHOPPING AND GAMBLING 66
CHAPTER 8
MEDIA MULTITASKING 76
CHAPTER 9
SEEKING HELP 86
Timeline 96
Essential Facts 100
Glossary 102
Additional Resources 104
Source Notes 106
Index 110
About the Author 112
About the Consultant 112
CHAPTER
ONE
LOST IN THE
DIGITAL WORLD
I
n 2008, Choi Mi-sun—a young, shy South Korean
woman—went to a PC bang with her mother. PC
bangs, popular in South Korea, are comfortable lounges
where users can log on to the Internet for an hourly fee
and play whatever virtual games they choose.
Choi visited the PC bang not just to game but
also to meet a potential spouse. Eventually she met
Kim Yoo-chul online. They were both playing Prius,
a massively multiplayer online role playing game
(MMORPG). The couple spent more and more time
online together, met in person, and later married.
After marrying, Choi and Kim still immersed
themselves in Prius, sometimes up to 12 hours a day.
Often they went to an all-night gaming center and did
not return until dawn. They belonged to a guild, a
cooperative group that worked as a team in the game.
They even earned a living selling their game wealth
In wired countries such as South Korea, gamers gather in PC bangs to
immerse themselves in online play. 7
for real money to other gamers. While in their virtual
world, the shy, awkward gamers were masters of their
own fate, exploring new worlds, staving off monsters,
and recovering treasures.
Sarang
In 2009, Choi gave birth to a
SOUTH KOREAN
baby girl they named Sarang.
CULTURE
Choi paid little care to her
South Korea is one of the
pregnancy. She did not know
world’s most wired countries.
In addition, the culture is when the baby was due until she
very much centered on
went into labor. The baby was
group activities. With these
factors combined, South premature and sickly. Even after
Korea has a sophisticated
Sarang was born, the couple
group-gaming industry. The
producer of a documentary
continued gaming. Choi and
about Choi and Kim said,
“Korean culture is all about Kim often went as far as to leave
collective organization in
their brand-new baby home
groups, and online gaming
is the best example of such alone as they lost themselves in
group activities.”1 He went
on to explain how most the virtual world. In Prius, they
gamers actually play online
raised and nurtured a virtual
with their real-life friends in
PC bangs, just as they would daughter. But their real-life
go to bath houses or enjoy
daughter, on the other hand,
other activities together.
was often abandoned and fed
just twice a day.
8 • ESSENTIAL ISSUES