The pandemic has increased stress in people’s lives, and a convenient way to escape is using entertainment digital media- Lockdowns have exacerbated the problem.
- To help combat internet addiction, a number of tech firms have produced tools.
Internet addiction mainly due to COVID pandemic is a growing problem among adults and teenagers, reports BBC.
Internet Addiction
In a journal on Internet addiction, Martha Shaw and Donald W Black from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, classify gaming dependency as part of wider internet addiction.
The paper defines this as “excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges or behaviours regarding computer use and internet access that lead to impairment or distress”.
While many would argue that it is not as serious as alcoholism or drug addiction, it can still be debilitating for sufferers. And Dr Andrew Doan, a neuroscientist and expert on digital addiction, agrees that the lockdowns have exacerbated the problem.
“Stresses in life lead to cravings for behaviours and escape mechanisms,” he says. “The pandemic has increased stress in people’s lives, and a convenient way to escape is using entertainment digital media, such as gaming and social media.”
How to overcome internet addiction?
To help combat internet addiction, a number of tech firms have produced tools that can be used to help block or limit access to the web, or gaming websites.
Linewize
Linewize is one such product aimed at children, or – more specifically – their parents. The website and app allow parents and careers to remotely limit and monitor the time children can spend on gaming sites, or the internet overall, be it via the kids’ smart phones or laptops.
Linewize also contains the usual “parental locks” that prevent access to pornography or violent material.
Teodora Pavkvic, a qualified psychologist, and digital wellness expert at San Diego-based Linewise, says that young people are particularly susceptible to spending too much time online. This is something that parents of teenagers would be quick to agree with.
For adults, internet addiction can also blur into gambling addiction, with betting apps and websites fuelling the latter.
BetBlocker
BetBlocker is an app that allows people to block their access to tens of thousands of gambling websites and apps for a user-determined period of time.Once the restriction is activated, the person cannot access the gambling platforms until the restriction expires.
The BetBlocker app – which is free – can also be controlled by someone’s partner, friend, or parents.“The ease of access to remote gambling is unquestionably the biggest challenge that anyone with a gambling addiction will face today,” says BetBlocker’s founder Duncan Garvie.
Users can block gambling sites for hours, days, or weeks. And people can also use the app to block other websites, such as gaming ones.
GamBook
The Australian firm’s chief executive David Warr says “we are not anti-gambling”. Instead the focus is on helping problem gamblers.Dr Doan’s expertise in video games addiction has partly come the hard way – he used to be such an addict himself.
Dr Doan fears that given the amount of time we now all spend online, we will see more gaming and internet addictions.
Game Quitters
Mr Adair, a 32-year-old Canadian, has gone on to become the founder of Game Quitters, an online support group for people struggling with gaming addiction. It now has more than 75,000 members around the globe.
While technology, and specifically the internet, has helped to keep the world running during the coronavirus lockdowns, he says it has been difficult for people like him.
“I struggled with it for 10 years,” he says. “I dropped out of high school, never went to college, and pretended to have jobs to deceive my family.
“I eventually wrote a suicide note, and it was on that night that I realised I needed to get help. I’m now 3,860-day-free from my gaming addiction.”
Mr Adair’s work has been published in Psychiatry Research, and he is now an international speaker, talking about addiction.
Did you subscribe to our daily Newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe
Source: BBC
