WASHINGTON – The signs of Internet addiction are growing.
More than a third of smartphone users get online before getting out of bed.
The average person sends or receives 400 texts a month, and teens process more than 3,000.
“The computer is like electronic cocaine,” Peter Whybrow, the director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, tells The Daily Beast.
He says the computer fuels cycles of mania followed by depressive stretches.
A growing number of studies are looking into what’s called “Internet Addiction Disorder,” the disorder that makes people lonely and depressed.
You see it at restaurants, the gym, people crossing the street — people are constantly checking Tweets, texts, emails and Facebook updates. Is it all too much? Have we gone into electronic overload? Or is it simply a part of life?