Death Of Reality.

1. Head, Neck or Back aches.
2. Skipping Meals/Eating late into the Night.
3. Low Personal Hygiene.
4. Constant Change in Sleep Pattern.
Sounds familiar? Those are just a few of the many symptoms of Computer Addiction (in most cases Internet Addiction). Probably, in one form or the other, most people with access to good Internet invariably get addicted. Generally, people get addicted to massively multi player online role playing games (MMORPG) or social networking sites (or both for those who are unfortunate enough).
Some User Statistics:
Facebook:

• More than 250 million active users.
• More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day.
• More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college.
• The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older.
• Average user has 120 friends on the site.
• More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide).
• More than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day.
• More than 8 million users become fans of Pages each day.

Second Life:

• In January 2008, a total of 28,274,505 hours was spent "inworld".
• On an average, 38,000 residents were logged in at any particular moment.
  
• In 2009, 124 Million User Hours, an increase of 42%.
• The peak concurrent users was 88,200, an increase of 33%.

Orkut:

• 18.6% of the users are Indians.
• 18-25 age group constitutes 54.65% of the total users.

One can clearly see that there has been a drastic increase in the usage all around the world and thus the worry with regard to computer addiction is not unwarranted. Internet today has infinite avenues for interaction, ranging from social networking sites (like Orkut, Facebook, Hi5, etc) to complete stranger chat rooms (like Omegle). User demographics show that 15-25 and 35-45 age groups form the majority. In India, 15-25 age group represent the majority users, most probably because it is this age group that in general represents the first Internet Generation of India. Most sites quote 35 as the median of the user demography. The problem with addiction, as I see, has two separate faces. One dealing with social networking sites and the other dealing with MMORPG.

Social networking sites are probably the bliss of Internet as well as its curse. With these sites, one can find all their old friends and keep in touch with many people whom otherwise would have been forgotten with time. They also give a nice way of making new friends based on interests. Now, there lies the problem. People may start to obsess about making friends with more and more strangers on these sites. In general, most people find it easier, to open up or talk on the Internet. While in the case of some introverts, it might enable them to become more social and outgoing in their real life, in most cases, it completely blows away the real world. Social networking site addicts, find it hard to make friends or interact with people in the real world. They seems to be satisfied living a vicarious life. Capitalizing on this, some sites allow users to create an avatar thus pushing the real personalities further into the depths of an abyss. The nature of anonymity allows people to share secrets with strangers, as it would have no real value, which they otherwise would have never shared with anyone else. In effect, social networking sites become the real world where addicts are happy interacting with people.

As for MMORPG:
"...there are a variety of mechanisms in MMORPGs that may encourage obsessive usage. MMORPGs employ well-known behavioral conditioning principles from psychology that reinforce repetitive actions through an elaborate system of scheduled rewards..."
There are three major factors for attraction:

• Elaborate reward system.
• Network of relationships that can be built while playing.
• Fascinating virtual environments.

(source - http://www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/attraction.html)

Be it MMORPG or any form of multi player Gaming (on LAN or Internet), as long as it involves some form of cooperative game play and player interaction, addicts are abundant. For most, gaming starts out of curiosity or boredom and soon becomes the most important thing in a given day. Gamers in general loose any sense of time. Though most games are repetitive, and most gaming also becomes reflexive, quitting is NOT easy. Most people who do quit eventually relapse. I myself have found this out the hard way. I would say that 2-3 hours of gaming a day is not bad if it is a replacement for TV. But the real problem with gaming is that the obsession carries on into the remaining hours of the day. Addicts either think or talk about it incessantly. Also, games in general make the mind weary and lead to low enthusiasm and strength for the remaining day. Eventually, the end effect is constantly changing sleep cycles, odd appetite, aches, etc. For those who play around 8-10 hours a day, the effect is unfathomable.

One can say that in general both social networking sites and MMORPG feed on the desire for a different life. Somehow, the vicarious virtual world is always more fascinating than the real. In effect killing reality. The current trend of technology demands greater and greater usage of computers, which is inevitable in everyone's life. But, adding entertainment addictions to an already sedentary life makes whats is already bad into a horror show. There are many psychological and health related concerns with respect to computer over usage. Its probably the best time to evaluate oneself and decide the course of action to prevent any permanent damage. After all; Internet, Social Networking sites, MMORPG, etc. should be controlled by us and not the other way around.