Internet Usage Addiction Can Be Akin To Drinking And Smoking British Study Says

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With the kind of access we have to the Internet on a daily basis, studies are finding that our reliance on and addiction to the Internet can have similar side affects as alcohol and smoking should we be deprived. This new study by Intersperience of over 1,000 participants showed 53 percent felt upset when there was no Internet access and 40 percent felt lonely if they could not get access.

When participants were asked to go 24 hours without Internet on any device, many of them said it was similar to trying to give up smoking. Participants had psychological and physical symptoms very similar to people coming off cigarettes or drugs cold turkey. They suffered from feelings of anxiety, isolation and even became fidgety.

The participants in the study, called Unplugged, were asked to separate themselves from email, Internet, media and even newspapers. What they suffered is called “information depravity.”

Addiction to the Internet (and everything involved with it) hasn’t been proven to harm us physically like smoking and drugs, but the social and psychological effects may not even be calculable yet.