How Web Dependent Are We? Internet Addiction By The Numbers

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Jennifer Latkiewicz

Last year, Ben Alexander, a 19-year old college student obsessed with the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft, made headlines as the first client to check into reSTART, the country’s first Internet rehab, a residential treatment center for individuals trying to ditch their digital dependency.

While some may dismiss the idea of “Internet Addiction Disorder,” the fact that an Internet rehab like reSTART even exists says a lot. A study of 200 students at the University of Maryland from earlier this year reveals a more serious psychological and behavioral problem — during a 24-hour break from all things media, students felt the symptoms of withdrawal. They reported feeling “jittery,” “miserable,” “anxious,” “crazy,” and “lonely” among other things, without cell phones, Facebook, laptops and iPods.

Loosely defined as an online-related compulsive behavior that interferes with normal living and causes severe stress to one’s relationships, IAD is arguably less destructive than a balloon of heroin. But according to CNN, some therapists have reported a growing number of Internet users who they say, blur the line between social networking and social disfunction. As the Web and advanced technology continue to play bigger roles in our everyday lives, cyber-bingeing is easier and more accessible than ever before.

While IAD has been the subject of new research, its status as an official medical diagnosis is still widely debated. Spending 4 or more hours a day online is considered to be excessive – after a full-day in the office, personal emails, Facebook updates, online shopping, etc., most of us would probably meet the criteria for IAD. However, many argue that addictions to the Web and online video games do indeed exist (imagine how you’d react to a 24-hour media fast) and have even been linked to clinical depression in younger children.

More research has to be done before Internet Addiction Disorder can be considered as an addition to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders but here are a few interesting numbers to chew on in the meantime.

Internet Addiction by the Numbers

12,000,000 to 20,000,000: The estimated number of Americans who have at least a mild Internet addiction, according to a Harvard study that concluded that five to ten percent of people online are described as suffering from overuse of the Internet or being “Web dependent.”

13,800,000: The estimated number of Americans who have a drinking problem.

39%: The number of adults who are self-described “Facebook addicts,” according to a recent poll by Oxygen Media.

57%: The number of women in the study, ages 18 to 34, who say they talk to people online more than they have face-to-face conversations. And 42% think it’s okay to post photos of themselves intoxicated on Facebook.

5: The number of days that self-admitted Internet addict Mark Malkoff will spend locked in a New York bathroom in an attempt to ditch his online dependency.

2.5: The number of how many times more likely that teens who use the Internet will develop depression than teens who are not addicted to the Internet.

2,000,000: The number of Internet addicts in South Korea, according to the Government. (1 in 10 online users are addicts.)

23: The number of hours a week that the average South Korean high school student spends playing Internet games.

15: The number of hours a week  that the average American spends on the Internet.

10: The number of hours a night that South Korean couple Kim Jae-beom and Kim Yun-jeong spent in Internet cafes. They were later charged with negligent homicide when their 3-month daughter died of starvation after she was left alone during an overnight gaming session.

11: The number of Internet addicted participants in a recent South Korean study that tested the effects of the antidepressant Bupropion on video game addictions, conducted by Han, Hwang and Renshaw from the Department of Psychiatry at Chung Ang University, College of Medicine.

2: The number of study participants who were divorced because of their StarCraft video game and Internet addiction.

23.6: The percentage of decrease in Internet cravings that the group reportedly felt after six weeks on Bupropion.

20,000: The estimated number of hours that Donald Smallwood spent playing the game “Lineage II” over a 5-year period. Averaging around 9 hours a day of gameplay, Smallwood says he became “psychologically dependent and addicted” and is suing the makers for not warning him of the dangers.

$14,500: The cost of a 45-day Internet addiction recovery program at ReSTART in Redmond, WA (near Microsoft headquarters), which deals with the “excessive use” of video game use.

$9: The monthly cost of Saavi Accountability, accountability software and “parental awareness program that helps people address online addictions from the inside out.”

333: The number of fans on the “Internet Addicts” Facebook page, as of Thursday morning.


We want to know: What do you think about Internet Addiction?