Addicted?

I was sitting at home the other night watching TV. In the show I was watching, the girl had to go to a drug rehabilitation center. While she was there, the doctors and nurses made her give up any form of technological devices she had with her, just so she could focus on herself and recovering. She explained later that she felt incomplete without her phone or computer to talk to people or to surf the Internet. As I sat there with the TV on, my laptop open, and my phone beside me, I realized how much I was constantly relying on my technology to stay busy. I really thought about how many hours a day I spend on the Internet, mostly on social media sites. I could probably say, on average, I spend about 5 hours on the Internet a day. Like I stated in a previous post, I don’t have a Smartphone so all of this Internet activity is on my laptop. I know many people spend that much time online and even more but I began to wonder if I, along with my generation, has some sort of an Internet addiction. I was browsing through Mashable and came across the perfect Blog post that was relating to my question. On the post, there are statistics shown that really shocked me. I realized I wasn’t the only one feeling like I have an addiction to the Internet. Out of a survey of 602 people, 61% stated that they feel addicted to the Internet while only 39% think they could quit if they wanted. I know a few people that are hardly ever on the computer, except for schoolwork, and have NEVER created a social media site. I have spoken with them and they never have been able to understand the addictive nature of the Internet. Looking at my generation and at these statistics, these few people I know are very rare during this time. Going into the Advertising field, Internet and social media will play a large role in my career and probably even more in the future. Even though I enjoy being outside and participating in activities outside the Internet, I don’t find it odd that people say they spend countless number of hours online. Social media is a big part of today’s society and it establishes many connections between people and businesses. So do you consider yourself an addict of the Internet? Check out this Blog post to see how you compare to the statistics.

Addicted to the Internet?