Greg Beato Internet Addiction Summary

In “Internet Addiction,” Greg Beato explains that internet addiction is, in fact, real, and we need to act. Beato claims that 3 to 6 percent of internet users are addicted, and “we check our emails more often than necessary.” Over the coming years, internet addiction may grow more than any other addiction because of the constant improvement of technology if we do not act. Beato also included in his writing that “the introduction of flat monthly fees, online gaming, wide spread pornography, Myspace, YouTube, Facebook, WIFI, iPhones, netbooks, and free return shipping on designer shoes with substantial markdowns does not seem to have made the internet any more addictive than it was a decade ago” (214, 215). I disagree with Beato because the fact is,

reSTART is a $14,500 forty-five-day program that helps people get rid of their addiction problems by doing outdoor activities like building chicken coops, cooking hamburgers, and engaging in therapy in an outdoor setting. Beato then proceeds to give incidents where addiction has caused some people to lose jobs, and some to do outrageous things like a teen in Ohio shooting his mother and father for taking away his Xbox, or how 200 students at a university went for 24-hours without social media, some of them stating that they felt “miserable, and crazy.” In a 2009 study it was found that 3 to 6 percent of internet users were addicted and that over the years internet addiction has the potential to grow more than any other addiction. Although internet addiction is not being included on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the American Psychiatric Association will think about adding it to the “behavioral addictions” category as more research data is