Dina Rika Yandini A1B214242

Internet Addiction: A New Problem among Young People

There is no doubt that internet has become the most helpful technology in this era. Many people in the world gain information and insightful knowledge. Nowadays, if people open the internet, their purpose is not only to search something, but also to know what other people do through social media. The use of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, ask.fm and so on, has become the most influential thing in making people addicted to the internet. There is a high percentage of people who use social media in Asia, particularly in Indonesia. According to We Are Social’s compendium of world digital stats, Indonesia now has 88.1 million active internet users, up 15 percent over the past 12 months ("Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem", 2016). Indonesian people are the active users of social media beyond other countries. Not only adult who use social media, but also young people. Even children under 12 ages have been able to use the internet, mostly social media. We know that the internet is very easy to attract people. This can make addiction. Addiction of any kind is traditionally associated with an uncontrollable urge, often accompanied by a loss of control, a preoccupation with use, and continued use despite problems the behavior causes (Young, 2016). We also know that addiction is not the positive impact in the use of internet. Young people like teenagers and children if they use internet too much, it will not only cause addiction, but also other negative impacts.

Other negative impacts of addictive use of the internet to children and teenagers such as it can change their sleep patterns which can lead them to academic performance problems and it can affect their personality, behavior or their health. Academic performance problems in children or teenagers can cause poor grades and eventually expulsion from school. Children or teenagers who spending most of their free time in the internet, give effect on their physical and mental health such as it may hurt their eyes and may result in feelings of loneliness and depression (Patrick & Patrick, 2016). Based on this problem, we need to think some solution in order to dissociate children and teenagers from internet addiction. One of the solution is to let children and teenagers to involve in some positive activities or enroll them into a full day school. Another solution is with therapy. Therapy can give children or teenagers a tremendous boost in controlling internet use and also help learn healthier ways of coping with uncomfortable emotions, such as stress, anxiety, or depression (Javaid, 2016).

However, Indonesian government has made another solution to prevent kids from the internet addiction. The first possible solution is that the government’s program which can control particular websites which not appropriate to children and teenagers. The name of the program is Internet Positive. Nevertheless, this solution is cannot be the only one solution. We cannot bestow the internet addiction problem to the government’s program. We need to get involved to help children and teenagers from internet addiction. Here comes the best solution which may be effective in preventing young people from internet bad effect, which is by letting them to get involve in some positive activities they like to do in real life.

People might think that parents should concern about this issue. Therefore, many parents apply rules in their family life in order to prevent their kids from internet addiction. However, in my opinion, parents should not use or apply rules to make their children decrease time spending in the use of the internet. They should make the children understand by educating them, not by forcing them. Communication is the key to make them understand and parents should communicate openly with their children. Children will come to their parents if something disturbing on the internet happens if the parents build an atmosphere of trust and understand what their children experience in the internet world.  Parents should direct the children to spend their free time in a good way. We need to lead them to do what they love to do, such as their hobbies, their interest, their passion besides the internet. This can effectively switch the children or teenagers’ attention from the internet.

We need to know that young people use the internet too much because they do not have any other activities to do in real life, so they focus only to the internet, on social media particularly. The internet is such an interesting way to get escape from the hectic real life. This can be fixed by getting ourselves or the children and teenagers involved in society. We need to find other real interest to get out of the internet. We and other users of social media especially children and teenagers do not have to check our Facebook account or our twitter timeline every minutes. Children and teenagers have to take their time to enjoy real life activities such as take a look at people while talking or read books while waiting and so on. These kind of small activities that makes life more colorful and less boring.

In conclusion, basically the internet is not the one who control us, as the users of the internet, but we are the one who control the internet. The Internet offers many considerable and necessary benefits for people lives. Even children and teenagers can be internet addicts. This is a serious problem which can lead to health problems, academic problems, relationship problems and the like. We need to teach children and teenagers about time management, so they will be wise to use their time on the internet. Children and teenagers can enter some positive activities such as music course, sport course or language course. This can make them forget the internet for a while. By letting them enter the new activities, children can learn to manage their time which can help them in developing their soft skills.  Besides that, parents can talk to their child about underlying issues. Compulsive computer use can be the sign of deeper problems (“Campsmount”). Dealing with internet addiction for children and teenagers is definitely difficult thing to do. Some of the solutions above are not easy procedures or practices but by getting involved in preventing them from internet negative effects will keep children and young people out of harm’s way. It is equally important to empower children by equipping them with online literacy skills. This includes teaching and encouraging them to master available ICT tools, and how to make good decisions (alone and in groups), so that they will grow to become the next generation of responsible and trusted influencers (“Internet Society - Children and the internet”, 2016). After all, the thing about internet is that it is needed for their academic growth, social development and very valuable for them if only they use it effectively.

REFERENCES:

Young, K. (2016). Internet addiction (1st ed.). Retrieved 24 December 2016 from http://my.ilstu.edu/~dfgrayb/Personal/internet%20addiction.pdf

Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem. (2016). Techinasia.com. Retrieved 24 December 2016, from https://www.techinasia.com/indonesia-web-mobile-statistics-we-are-social

Patrick, J. & Patrick, J. (2016). Physical and social effects of internet use in children. LIVESTRONG.COM. Retrieved 24 December 2016, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/516549-physical-and-social-effects-of-internet-use-in-children/

Javaid, M. (2016). Psychological impact of internet usage on children. Academia.edu. Retrieved 24 December 2016, from https://www.academia.edu/6092687/Psychological_Impact_of_Internet_Usage_on_Children

Children and the internet. (2016) (1st ed., p. 8). Retrieved from http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/bp-childrenandtheinternet-20129017-en.pdf