Internet, gadget, game addiction growing menace

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penix
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Internet, gadget, game addiction growing menace

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http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_20/Inter ... ng-menace/

Internet, gadget, game addiction growing menace
Margarita Bogatova
Jan 20, 2013 18:15 Moscow Time

The global market in mobile communication devices is at 1.5bln each year. The number of Internet users is in the billions. In China alone, the connections are at over 500mln, and in Russia, at 70mln. Many people get so deeply sucked into the online world that they lose contact with the real one.

In China, a middle-aged man tried to put an end to the online game addiction of his 23-year-old unemployed son by hiring Internet killers to eliminate the son’s gaming characters. Successive eliminations, however, did nothing to cure the addiction and persuade the lad to find a job.

Another young Chinese man died of exhaustion after spending three days on end in an Internet café. Yet another young man survived 27 days in an Internet café, but did not live to see the 28th day. A similar death in Taiwan long stayed unnoticed, because the gamer did not change his position at the monitor after he died.

Often ignored or even encouraged by parents, early gadget mania seriously hampers the socialization of the sufferer.

Russian psychologist Dr Natalya Tolstaya speaks about the neurophysiological nature of the affliction:

"Gaming creates positive emotion, linked to high blood levels of substances known as endorphins. Addiction arises, similar to that observed in drug addicts."

Dr Tolstaya also says there is no curing an Internet or game addiction without turning the addict’s attention to the offline world. And in this, only efforts by the addict’s family and close friends can be of help.

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