Internet addiction: negative impacts on relationships

Internet addiction: negative impacts on relationships
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Internet addiction: negative impacts on relationships
Often, individuals find themselves glued at the computer desk or their personal mobile phones
for long than expected. There is continued debate of whether this is harmful or not. Internet
addiction according to the World Health Organization, is the excessive use of the internet such
that it interferes with the daily life (Toker & Baturay, 2016, p. 672). This condition can be
described as Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD).Psychologists argue that the internet is quite
compulsive since it allows the users to meet, socialize and reciprocate ideas through chat rooms,
social websites and blogging sites. Furthermore, the internet offers an opportunity for virtual
fantasy to link with real people that would be quite hard in real life. This fantasies hurt
relationships in different ways.
In my local community, Internet addiction has contributed to isolation of some individuals.
Several studies have been conducted and results indicate that besides breakdown of intimate
relationships between different partners, addiction to the internet affects the relationships
between family members (Grassi & Pallanti, 2017, p. s21). The studies found out that individuals
who are addicted to the internet rarely takes up family responsibilities. Furthermore, majority of
them do not show up to family members when needed and this eventually leads to breakdown of
communication among family members. Psychologists argue that strong relationships among
people are built on communication. Therefore, the breakdown of communication among internet
addicts compromises the quality of relationships. Shek, Yu, & Sun argue that addiction to the
internet makes it difficult for the affected people to seek advice during hard times (Shek, Yu, &
Sun, 2015, p. 42). Furthermore, they fail to share their innermost feelings with other family
members. Finally, the addicts become isolates. They completely cut off and find themselves in

self-created worlds of their own where they cannot demarcate the narrow line between real and
virtual or right and wrong.
People addicted to the internet engage in cyber-sex which is a threat to real life as well as the
authenticity of relationships and this is a both a global and local community problem. Starcevic
& Aboujaoude state that majority of those addicted to the internet engage in cyber-sex (Starcevic
& Aboujaoude, 2017, p.319). Eventually, the cyber-sex offer gratification of desires and
fantasies that one would easily countervail in real life. The study further illustrates that the
reason why most of these addicts engage in the cyber-sex is due to the convenience, anonymity
and escape accompanied by the internet. Psychologists argue that cyber-sex is known in
destroying the joy of real life physical intimacy. This is because it brews improbable
expectations as well as demands in real life that are hard to express as well as meeting their
sexual partners. Cyber-sex is not an exception to married couples with an interesting debate that
has been on for quite some time. Some psychologists argue that cheating only involves physical
contact while others are of contrary opinion that as long as a partner has expressed the desire and
willingness to engage in cyber-sex, then that is cheating. In this context, cyber-sex is therefore
considered as a form of cheating that hurts relationships leading to divorce. Arslan, in his article
states that 14% of cases of divorce are as a result of cyber-sex (Arslan, 2017, p. 62).This is a
huge number that needs urgent interventions.
Addiction to the internet contributes to conflicts between parents and adolescents. Savci &
Aysan, in their study elaborates how most of parents don’t fancy their children using the internet
too much. The children on the other hand feel that their parents are being too hard on them or are
infringing on their freedom. The two groups are therefore at loggerheads constantly (Savci &
Aysan, 2017, p. 208). In another almost similar survey conducted recently, most of the children