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\nAddiction is becoming more and more complicated. At first, it was just things like drugs, alcohol and porn, but now it\u2019s even broader than that.
\nAccording to the article, \u201cThis is Your Brain Online,\u201d by Chandra Johnson, the internet is addicting. Johnson uses the research of different scientists and doctors, and even victims to prove that a \u201cdigital addiction\u201d can be just as detrimental to a human\u2019s well-being as any other addiction.
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\n\u201cToday, digital addiction\u2013whether the fixation is social media, texting, video games or pornography\u2013is a murky term,\u201d Johnson said.
\nOne of the doctors Johnson spoke with on the matter was Dr. Andrew Doan. Doan works for the U.S. Naval Substance Abuse and Recovery Program in San Diego.
\nDoan said that out of every other drug that one could choose, the Internet is the easiest to gain access to. It can be had for a small cost or one can just go to a place with free wi-fi. She said that very few other drugs are like this, and that the internet can be just as addicting as painkillers.
\nFormer student Chris McGee, who was a network security major, said that he believes that the internet is addicting as well.
\n\u201cYes, I can see it being an addiction. I don\u2019t know what it would be like if I didn\u2019t have access to information or entertainment or even another way to communicate with friends and family that don\u2019t live close to me,\u201d McGee said.
\nPsychologist Daria Kuss at the U.K.\u2019s Nottingham Trent University did a study in 2014. According to the results, the digital addiction rate was about 26% in parts of Asia. She explained the reason why that is.
\n\u201cWhen the brain experiences something pleasant\u2013for example, winning a video game\u2013the good feelings come from a rush of dopamine,\u201d Kuss said.
\nDopamine is the chemical in our brains that make us feel good, happy and content.
\n\u201cWhen someone becomes addicted to the activity, neural receptors in the brain become flooded with dopamine and essentially turn off, leading the addict to seek out those feelings aggressively,\u201d said Kuss.
\nThe receptors can\u2019t just turn off and back on like a light. It takes time for them to turn back on.
\n\u201cWhen the activity is cut off, it takes time for the receptors to wake up, resulting in depression, mood swings or sleep deprivation,\u201d Kuss said.
\nWhat Doan says science needs to figure out is just what kinds of media should be classified as \u201cdangerous\u201d based on what he calls \u201cdigital potency.\u201d
\nPeople get addicted to different things, but people aren\u2019t going to be addicted to things like PowerPoint or Prezi.
\n\u201cOur Challenge is to figure out how potent something like Facebook is compared to something like gaming,\u201d said Doan.
\nThere are so many misconceptions about just how addicting the Internet is. There are people, such as Matt McKenna, that get so addicted to the internet that they flunk out of college and lose people to it.
\n\u201cAll I wanted was that buzz. In real life, you have to work hard for that feeling of accomplishment, and it\u2019s usually well-earned. But in gaming, you don\u2019t have to work hard for it,\u201d McKenna said.
\nMcKenna isn\u2019t the only one who has gone through this, but McKenna also realized that he had to do something about his problem. The problem was, that every Gamers Anonymous group was online, and there was nothing face to face.
\n\u201cIf it\u2019s bad, you don\u2019t even want to go on the Internet, but so many support groups are online,\u201d McKenna said.
\nMcKenna tried other things but felt that no one understood him.
\n\u201c[Internet addiction] has serious repercussions we shouldn\u2019t overlook,\u201d
\nKuss said.<\/p>\n