BEYOND THE HEDGES: Net addiction problem

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by Felisa Yang

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Officials at some colleges and universities are worrying about a new addiction plaguing students -- surfing the Internet. A small number of mental-health professionals believe that "Internet addiction" should be a serious concern of college officials.

Some administrators cite e-mail and MUDS, or Multiple-User Dungeons, as factors in the sliding grades of some students.

Several campuses, including University of Texas at Austin have attempted to remedy the problem through workshops. However, such efforts have suffered from poor attendance, which Maryland staff psychologist Linda C. Tipton believes is because students are often not aware of the problem.

Mental-health professionals say this new phenomenon is too new to know whether to classify it as an addiction in and of itself, or as a symptom of another psychological problem.

Yet others believe that this "addiction" is not really a problem, but that it is the novelty of the World Wide Web that attracts so many surfers. Detractors of the addiction idea expect that the novelty will wear off for most students.

The problem is often difficult to assess because universities are now promoting more use of the Internet.

Source : The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 1.

This item appeared in the News section of the March 22, 1996 issue.

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