1. Internet Addiction Marcia J. Schlafmitz, Ph.D. Department of Computer Science New Jersey City University Jersey City, New Jersey

2. Can't Resist the Online Pull AP, August 1999 n Close to 6% of Internet users have some symptoms of addiction to the World Wide Web n Survey conducted by ABCNEWS.com conducted a study of 17,251 online respondents n With extrapolation to 200 million users worldwide, about 11 million affected

3. n Findings released at meeting of the American Psychological Association n "Marriages are being disrupted, kids are getting into trouble, people are committing illegal acts, people are spending too much money" –David Greenfield, Ph.D, psychologist West Hartford, Conn.

4. Familiar Stories n An otherwise responsible mother connects to the Internet at 9pm and suddenly finds the sun rising outside n A college freshman gets a midterm warning about low grades; instead of working on his school papers he is spending all his free time Emailing his former high school friends

5. n A sixth grader's grades suddenly drop precipitously and she is falling asleep in class; she received her own computer for Christmas n A corporate department head stays late every night to meet deadlines; an internal audit finds that the deadlines have not been met but there has been repeated evening access from his computer to Internet gambling and pornography sites.

6. Welcome to my Internet Addiction Page * n "I began to suspect that I had an internet addiction problem when I would get up at 3 a.m. and surf the net; and then I talked to a friend who hadn't been to bed yet. He was still surfing at 3 a.m." * www.seanet.com

7. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs n Physiological needs n Safety Needs n Love, Affection, and Belongingness n Esteem n Self-Actualizaion

8. Maslow's Approach n Teach –authenticity –transcend cultural conditioning –discovery of vocation –transcend trifling problems; concentrate on serious problems of life –to make informed choices

9. Some Active Researchers n Kimberly S. Young, Ph.D. –University of Pittsburgh n JohnSuler, Ph.D. –Rider University n David Greenfield, Ph.D. –psychologist, West Hartford n Ivan Goldberg, M.D. –psychiatrist, New York City n Maressa Hecht Orzak, Ph.D. –Harvard Medical School

10. Internet Addiction Questionnaires n Internet Stress Survey n Addiction to Online Gambling n Addiction to Online Auction Houses n Addiction to Online Trading n Addiction to CyberSex

11. Some Online Resources n Center for Online Addiction –www.netaddiction.com n Computer Addiction services –www.computeraddiction.com n Psychology of Cyberspace –www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber

12. Presenter's Contact Information n Dr. Marcia J. Schlafmitz –Department of Computer Science –New Jersey City University –mschlafmitz@njcu.net –201-200-3197 n If you are interested in forming a working group on this topic, please contact me