by Maxwell Payne

Created on: March 01, 2007   Last Updated: February 24, 2009

Are you addicted?

This 'new' addiction is actually an officially reconized addiction in a few countries (I believe Japan recently launched a campaign to end it and in Amsterdam a group of researchers opened a clinic for video game addicts).

There is a fine line between internet addiction and internet obession. I believe all of us here on Helium are addicted to the internet. But we're addicted because we crave new information and love the idea that the internet allows us all to have a voice in the world. The internet has shattered so many barriers it is mindblowing.

Procrastination has also been increased due to internet addictions. There is a whole world at your fingertips with everything imaginable just a click away. And I think it is this feature of the internet that leads to internet obession. I check my MySpace and Facebook wayy too often, I check my email about 15 times a day when I have access to high speed internet; I browse messageboards and look at online shops... I probably spend an average of 5 hours a day online, maybe on AIM, maybe on the web, maybe just staring at a page. These are pretty harmless things I do online and for most of this, our 'addiction' is just spending too much time blogging and too much time checking pointless sites.

But like I said the internet is the gateway to a world of information and access to everything one can imagine. Once one slips into the darker side of the internet, thats when the obession begins...

Take online gambling and online poker...for many of us this is just a way to practice our poker skills or play for a little bit of money when we cant drive to the casino. But for some it turns into a dark addiction, where with just a few mouseclicks thousands of dollars can be won or lost. "Doesn't it look so fun online, those digital chips look colorful, its hard to believe these chips represent my hard earned cash."- This is what many gambling addicts say, and for one week it was what I started to believe. It was a game, I was up hundreds of dollars and couldn't stop. I lost my initial buy-ins but kept buying back in, hell I figured I could win it back its easy. Within one week I had finally cut myself off, but lost hundreds of dollars doing it. The pleasure and fun was gone and alls that was there was an empty feeling and a feeling of regret. I was lucky, because many people struggle daily with gambling addictions online and can't stop for a while.

Pornography and adult content- One click and I can be at a collection of

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