Psychoactive Nature of Internet

Akin to every new technology, Internet has the ability to improve the quality of life to a great extent. However, different scientific studies have confirmed about the psychoactive nature of Internet in the sense of its impending abilities for advocating compulsive use and abuse for few individuals. The psychoactive nature of Internet also affirms its ability to alter mood and offer environment to impact behavior. Internet is one of the most available advanced technologies in the modern world. This has enormous ability to become used or abused and at the worst end, addictive. Thought-provoking content, simplicity of access, expediency, low expense, visual excitement, independence and anonymity are all the key factors that make Internet such an interesting technology. In most of the cases, the effect of Internet is truly positive, but sometimes this positive contribution fails to outweigh the negative. Many users of Internet agree that Internet offer a mood-altering environment for them. Many of them count on using Internet whenever they feel depressed or sad or going through any other negative mood state.

There are essentially seven signs that may ensure the risk of Internet addiction or compulsive Internet use. These are – (1) total number of using Internet – the higher the number is, the higher is the risk for becoming compulsive user, (2) when other people perceive that the user might have a problem with Internet usage, (3) going through serious consequences as a result of Internet usage, (4) going through intimate relationship online, (5) when the user usually hide the amount of time spent online, (6) age – young people are at higher risk and (7) persistent extreme urge to be online.