Impact of internet abuse on human relationships

Abstract

Young generation spends more and more time using internet and addiction to it seems to be an increasing problem. In the context of social life each addiction, including internet addiction is a destructive attachment, which leads to functional disturbance in relationships with other people, strengthens suffering and loneliness.

The objective of this study was to show influence of the internet overuse on human relationships and displaying network addiction features in young generations.

Out of the group of 100 students 68 daily internet users aged 19 to 24 were examined. An anonymous inquiry containing 28 questions was used. The inquiry was constructed basing on available tests checking internet addiction and authors` observations. Age, sex and place of residence were taken into account as the characteristics of the examined group. The examined population included 10 males and 58 females, 57 of them lived in the cities, 11 of them in the villages.

The results showed that internet overuse is a reason for family conflicts in 50% examinees, due to long term stay on-line young people have problems in learning, work, and family duties, on-line stay above 5 hours a day may be followed by an increased risk of addiction. Prolonged internet use influences reduction of contacts with real friends.