A new survey suggests that people who use the Internet too much may have mental health problems. The survey said that people who are addicted to the Internet have problems in life if they cannot get online regularly. The survey is from McMaster University in Canada. Researchers looked at the Internet habits of 254 students and then looked at the students' general mental health. Thirty-three of the students were addicted to the Internet. The researchers said another 107 students had problems because of their Internet use. These included depression, anxiety, impulsiveness and inattention. A professor said we still know little about the dangers of Internet addiction and need to do more research into it.
The lead researcher in the study, professor Michael Van Ameringen, explained what kind of problems he found with students. He said: "We found that [students addicted to the Internet] had significantly more trouble dealing with their day-to-day activities, including life at home, at work or school and in social settings." Professor Van Ameringen added: "[People] with Internet addiction also had significantly higher amounts of depression and anxiety symptoms, problems with planning and [problems with] time management." The professor said we needed to find out just how big the problem of Internet addiction is. He also said we needed to find out if mental health problems caused Internet addiction.
