Staying off the Internet and BlitzMail for one full day could be an impossible feat for about 10 percent of students, according to a recent study conducted at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by psychologist Keith Anderson.
Anderson's research described this group of students as "Internet Dependents," defining them as those who spend time online to the point of depriving themselves of sleep, allowing their social interaction to decline and jeopardizing their academic standing.
Most students, like Jack Crabb '02, a computer science major, expressed little concern over a problem of Internet dependency at Dartmouth, even for computer science majors.
"Though Dartmouth has a very reputable computer science department, we're not an engineering or technology school," he said, suggesting that this problem may be more common at that type of institution.
Jeff Dwyer '02 said he did not feel that being a computer science major made him more prone to becoming Internet dependent. "After spending all day in a computer lab, half the time when I get home I just want to get away from the computer for as long as possible."
Dwyer also questioned the legitimacy and seriousness of the term "addiction."
"If you had an article that said that 25 percent of the country has a caffeine problem, people aren't going to be like 'Oh, look what's happening!' There might be a problem, but I don't think an addiction necessarily means that much. Classifying something as an addiction isn't really that big of a deal," Dwyer said.
While most Dartmouth students interviewed reported being unaware of heavy Internet users at the College, computer science major Chris Masone '02 said "there are definitely people that are Internet obsessed. One kid refers to himself as a 'beta-phile.' He spends a few hours a day finding the latest in say, Enviro-technology but it's more on the order of a hobby ... I wouldn't say that he needs to do it, but he definitely really enjoys it."
Anderson remarked that there is a certain difficulty to accurately calculating the number of Internet addicted users with the method he used -- student surveys in several college classes.
"They might not show up in class," he said.
Crabb also pointed out that, "it's hard for people to admit to being stuck on the computer."
Anderson suggested that institutions may have a responsibility to monitor the extent to which students are using the Internet.
Changing policies to allow Dartmouth to monitor its students' Internet use is something Assistant Dean of the College Carolynne Krusi said she has not considered, but she said she was not sure a problem exists at the College.
"Do I think there are students who might do better if they spent less time on the Internet? Certainly." Krusi said. "But without having done any research I don't see any addictive usage."
"In order to see if a problem exists, we have to do research." she said, adding that this is not something the College has yet investigated.
College officials at Dartmouth reported having dealt with no cases of Internet addiction.
Of the 1,078 Internet users in the survey, 106 students fit the standard criteria for dependence. In addition to less sleep, lower academic standing and social interaction, the study showed that dependent Internet users were also more likely to report having spent more than three consecutive hours online twice in the previous week.
They also reported getting less than four hours of sleep more than once due to online activity, looking for an alternative way to go online when not on campus and using online activity to feel better when feeling down.
"Internet dependence is more likely to occur among men majoring in the hard sciences," Anderson explained in a recent interview with The Dartmouth. He included computer science, physics, engineering, chemistry and math majors in this category.
The American Psychological Association has also recently reported that students are facing computer addictions. Bridget Murray, a staff writer for the APA Monitor reported that, "students' studies and social lives are suffering as a result."
Anderson's results showed that students dependent on the Internet average almost four hours online daily. Other students average about one hour per day.
Keeping up on developments and communicating with friends were the most cited reasons for Internet use by students classified as "dependent." Cybersex was reported as the least common.
