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Teenagers and Internet Addition in Hong Kong

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According to Internet World Stats (2014), there are more than 5 million Internet users in Hong Kong; approximately three-fourth of Hong Kong’s total population. Among them, teenagers are accounted for the largest part of cyber addicts. Seventeen percent of teenagers in Hong Kong are addicted to the internet (Department of Psychological Studies of HKIEd, 2013) while most of them are suffering from gaming addiction. Yee (2006) explained that “hard-core players tend to be younger players who suffer from emotional problems or low self-worth and esteem” (as cited in Young, 2009, p.3). With the innovation of handheld computers and other digital devices, the problem is getting worse in recent years. Cyber addiction, which causes bad effect on teens, should be combated as soon as possible once be detected and none of the four virtues- addicts’ effort, peer and family help, education, professional advices- is dispensable. Internet addiction has a lot of repercussions to teenagers’ life. First, they will perform worse in their studies. When addicts are with their computer, they usually are not aware of the time just withering away and thus spend a long time on non-productive work with the Net. As a result, it is very likely for them to finish their works incompletely or at lower quality, leading to poorer academic and non-academic performance. What is more, cyber addiction may weaken their social skills. Addicts may be afraid to talk to others face-to-face. For even worse cases, they are isolated by the others due to poor social skills. It is believed that people feel more depressed when they spend more time with computers. Poor social skills plus depression may make youngers, who require a lot of attention and identification, discontent with the real world. As a result, they may want to escape from the real world, leading them to be more addicted to the internet. It is best to treat the disease early before it takes a hold. Wong (2013) argued that “the longer the problems linger, the easier it is for their children to withdraw from society” (as cited in Mok, 2013, para. 7). Therefore, we shouldn't wa

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