Internet

My first couple of years of college, as I struggled with balancing my suddenly unlimited Internet access with maintaining good grades and an active social life, I often wondered if I was addicted to the internet. I often wondered why I was the only one who seemed to be affected so deeply by this. It seemed like none of my friends needed the Internet as badly as I did.


Yet I’m increasingly finding out that, however my friends may be, I’m hardly unique in my obsessive relationship to technology. This is particularly apparent in a recent study conducted by the University of Maryland’s International Center for Media and the Public Agenda ,which had 1,000 college students from around the world go without any media at all — including the Internet, television, music players and even cell phones — for 24 hours. Their website for the project, called the world UNPLUGGED, details the results. Across the world, nearly all the students reported feeling deprived and lonely without their technology, some more extremely than others.
An infographic of sample responses shows the similarities of responses around the world, in countries with vast differences in culture, political climate and socioeconomic status:
From the UK: “Emptiness. Emptiness overwhelms me.” “Unplugging my Ethernet cable felt like turning off a life-support system.” “I feel paralyzed — almost handicapped in my ability to live.”
From Lebanon: “I kept hearing the sound of my Blackberry messenger ringing over and over in my ears…It was haunting me!” “I couldn’t not listen to music. I listened to almost 40 seconds of a song and then I was ‘satisfied.’”
From China: “I sat in my bed and stared blankly. I had nothing to do.” “The feeling of nothing passed into my heart…I felt like I had lost something important.”
From Uganda: “I felt like there was a problem with me.” “I counted down minute by minute and made sure I did not exceed even a single second more!” “I felt so lonely.”
From Mexico: “The anxiety continued for the rest of the day. Various scenarios came to my head, from kidnapping to extra-terrestrial invasions…”
Multiple students described themselves as “addicted,” and one student from the US even said, “I felt like a drug addict.”