Pathology of Internet Addiction

Entering any new technology to communities, puts a significant impact on the lives of people. Although technology is not inherently good or bad, but there is some damage that happens just by entering the technology. One damage in connection with internet is the excessive use of the internet or “internet addiction” thatis to be addressed in this paper. Excessive and obsessed use of internet causes psychological, social, academic and occupational problems to gather with physical problems such as eye pain, back pain, changes in sleeping and eating patterns,all of which are defined as “internet addiction”. The sample for this study includes all users in the cafenets of ShahinShahr, Esfahan (Iran), in the winter 2009 that have used Internet. The data needed for research questions were collected interview with 170 of users. For gathering the basic information of research, the Young Questionnaire IAS was used. The results showed that 4 persons (2.3%) got scores above 80 (sever addiction), 46 persons (27.5 %), had average addiction and 120 persons (70.58%) had scores lower than 50 and (normal users). There was a relationship between the excessive use of the Internet and satisfying the needs. Now the subject of “Internet addiction” in society is normal but it is expected that the second group (the average addiction) moves to serious addiction.