Internet addiction is no laughing matter
[?], psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg [?] the word " internet addiction disorder" as a joke.No one is laughing anymore.
Internet addiction has emerged as a serious and growing problem. As millions more [?], people are [?] engaging in risky behaviour. Tracy is one of them. A divorced mother of two in Portland, Oregon, she entered a [?] chat room last May and got [?]. Soon she was [?] meals and staying up late at night to chat with new-found male friends. She began missing work and neglected her kids.
Jay Parker, an addiction councellor in Seattle, [?] her she was [?] to the Internet. When she tried to stop, she fell into depression and attempted suicide. Finally on July 9, she [?] chat rooms and entered a six-week treatment center. By December, she was back at work, living [?] again.
No one knows how many people develop personal problems because of Internet [?]. An ABC News [?] of more than 17,000 people last year found that 6% of Web users, about 6 million Americans, could be addicted. [?] them are bored housewives obsessed with chatting rooms; students wired to online games and husbands having Internet affairs.