When Theodore Twombly discovered that "Samantha," the operating system he was in a romantic relationship with, was cheating on him, he collapsed.
The plot of the movie “Her” may sound surreal, but the danger of users becoming addicted to the Internet is becoming more and more realistic. “Prolonged computer use has an impact on social skills,” said Dr. Artemis Tsitsika, associate professor of Pediatrics-Adolescent Medicine at “P. & A. Kyriakou” during yesterday’s Nickelodeon conference “Children and the Internet: Opportunities, Challenges, Risks.” “According to the results of a survey in 7 European countries, 1.2% of adolescents surveyed display Internet Addiction Behavior (IAB) and 12.7% borderline addiction behavior.”.
“The average age of our patients is 25 to 26 years old and they are mainly boys who are addicted to online role-playing games,” explains psychiatrist Stella Christidi, scientific manager of the Problematic Use of the Internet department at 18 Ano. Girls are consumed by Facebook, looking for their own prince in the online chaos. The addiction unit, which has been operating since 2009, is contacted by parents in alarm when they are informed about the decline in the academic performance of their children – now students. “These are adults who as children were overly involved in the Internet, were victims of school bullying, grew up in a violent environment with a lack of communication.” There is another member of the family with addictive behavior (59.3%), usually the parent (38.2%). An equally large percentage, 60% of addicts, have comorbidities with depression, substance dependence, pathological gambling, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, etc. In addition, young people who are addicted to the use of the Internet neglect basic biological needs, such as food and sex. The responses show that 46.5% do not have a relationship with a person of the opposite or same sex, "many times they have not even started their sexual life at twenty-five.".
Source: kathimerini.gr
