Internet Addiction Statistics point to the chance of online addictions getting more common as our use and reliance on the net grows.
Due to a number of reasons there are rather few reliable global figures for an exact study of global Internet Addiction Statistics.
The key factors include the speed of growth in the web (based on research carried out in 2005. Every quarter a 25% increase in the rate of online use occurs), as well as there being no accepted criteria to spot web or online gaming addictions.
The often accepted central factors of addiction include: mood changes, tolerance, conflict, withdrawal and relapse, once these signs occur the subject could be said to have Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD).
The reported rates of IAD differ vastly between nations. This may well be due to different study tools being used to measure internet addiction statistics as well as the level of service to people in the various countries.
The other things which seem to affect the internet addiction statistics are the relative age and growth in the spread of technology. The age of the addicts seems to impact the incidence of high use of the internet for non work purposes. The type of work they were involved in affected the incidence of internet addiction in subjects of a study held in South Africa which showed that IT workers were more at risk that workers in other sectors.
The recent global upsurge in use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook will likely result in an increase in Internet Addiction Statistics (as showed by a study of their users conducted by Retrovo which found over 40% of people checked their Facebook accounts after going to bed) though no scientific study could be found to prove this.
The Washington Post said that Stanford University did research via telephone in 2006 which showed that 1/8 of those surveyed had at least one problem due to too much use of the web. This behaviour, such as the continued need to; check e-mail, visit chat sites and online forums was compared to the cravings which drug addicts experience.
Internet Addiction Statistics from Stanford’s research:
- Almost 12½ % often or very often were online longer than they intended
- The same number had seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point
- Close to 9% tried to hide needless Internet use of the internet from their bosses , friends and family
- Nearly 6% said that their relationships suffered as a result of too much time spent online
- Over 8 % used the Internet as a method of escaping problems or to ease a negative frame of mind
- Over 13½ % of people found it hard to stay away from the Internet for more than a few days
Use the embed code below to share this Infographic on your site:
The image width can be changed to suit your page
Infographic by: SodaHead
References:
Internet Addiction Statistics Study 1
Internet Addiction Statistics Study 2
