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Internet addiction has same effect as cocaine on brains: study
This is your brain on the Internet: Messed up where there should be connections for making decisions and having normal emotions.
Results of a new study suggest people who cannot control, cut back or stop their use of the Internet have abnormal white matter structure in the brain similar to what is seen in cocaine and crystal-meth addicts.
According to the study’s authors, as the number of people logging onto cyberspace soars, “Internet addiction disorder” — which is poised to enter the official lexicon of psychiatric illnesses — “is becoming a serious mental-health issue around the world.”
The disorder, as described in the study published this week in the journal PLoS One, is defined as “problematic” or pathological computer use that can cause “marked distress” and interfere with school, work, family and social relationships.
For their study, led by Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, researchers scanned the brains of 17 teens and young adults, aged 14 to 24, with Internet addiction and 16 healthy “controls” of similar age.
People were classified as suffering from Internet addiction disorder, or IAD, based on a questionnaire that included the following: Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet? Do you stay online longer than originally intended? Do you feel restless, moody, depressed or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use?
Smile, you’re on my stolen laptop’s candid camera
The pictures are innocuous: They show a man sitting in bed, sleeping on the couch and driving a car. But the photos were taken remotely by a spyware program installed on a laptop that was stolen from a Californian home.
Joshua Kaufman was able to use the pictures and the spyware to track down the man in possession of his stolen computer. Now he’s got his laptop back and police have arrested a 27-yearold taxi driver.
After police classified the theft as a low priority, Mr. Kaufman posted the pictures on a Tumblr This Guy Has My MacBook.
Social media networks like Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr have been some of the best ways to stay up to date with the events in Egypt. Here’s our quick guide to using these tools to keep up with developments in the Middle East.
Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
