Internet addiction: A hoax now proved to hold staggering truth – Part 3

However, the rest of the world, especially the West, is caught in thick of it. The recent survey conducted on a sample space of 35 people from the age of 14 to 21 was made subject to eight questions. This oral investigation was followed by their brain scans that revealed a lot to the researchers.

Following are the most important questions that were asked to the subjects:

Do you feel nervous, temperamental, depressed, or sensitive when trying to reduce or quit Internet use?

Have you taken the risk of losing a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the Internet?  

Have you lied to your family members, therapist, or others to hide the truth of your involvement with the Internet?

Do you use the Internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving an anxious mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilty, anxiety, or depression)?

Anyone who replied in a YES to five out of eight was segregated as an addict. The rest were labelled normal or in-control. Then families and academic instructors of these subjects were contacted to note their social lives. That showed supporting evidence to both categories.

Brain scans then followed. This step was crucial to research to provide some tangible evidence to prove the hypothesis.

The scans were revealing enough to support the claim that IAD is not a hoax created to gather media attention but it has physical impact on the human brain. There were changes in volume of those who were addicted to the internet as compared to the in-controls.

This volume consists of what is referred to in general as white matter. This matter contains neurons that connect with each other to send communication from one hub to the other. This matter in other words can be called the runway for the communication, both inter-body and intra-brain.

The places that had the difference in volume of white matter are responsible for social responses like processing information, executive thinking skills and attention, and cognitive control. Malfunctioning of these processes results in a dull mind not capable of executing academic, professional activities and is socially disconnected.

Though the fact that internet resulted in such malfunctions or was it the man who indulged into such activity to find an escape from the miseries in life is still debatable. But that would remain a point of argument that it has been an imperative part of science.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on May 30 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.