"I literally didn’t know what to do with myself" - a student from the UK.Students from the US seemed to be the most addicted, while China was a very close second.
"I didn’t use my cell phone all night. It was a difficult day… a horrible day. After this, I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT MEDIA! I need my social webs, my cell phone, my Mac, my mp3 always!" - a student from Chile.Students from 10 countries reported (when asked to talk about successes and admit failures) that they got withdrawal symptoms like distress, confusion, isolation, boredom and more. 23% of the Americans told that they showed signs of addiction, while 22% of the Chinese did.
"At the beginning, I felt irritable, tense, restless and anxious when I could not use my mobile phone. When I couldn’t communicate with my friends, I felt so lonely as if I was in a small cage on an island" - a student from China.Argentina had the highest number of students who said that they failed the experiment - 23%.
I admit that I would show similar symptoms. Especially when the media is available and I am told to live without it. Where is this world going? We are so dependent on our media right now. Internet addiction is seriously a problem in humans. I don't think it will be long before it is clinically diagnosed.
The World Unplugged blog has loads of (actually interesting) stats and results from the research.
[The World Unplugged via Ars Technica]
