Caught in the Web: Recognizing and Recovering from Online Addictions

by Kimberly S. Young

Every page from the first edition has been updated. New chapters reflect new areas of research: specifically, the introduction examines how internet addiction has grown over the last decade, and new chapters address the addiction to virtual worlds such as "Second Life" and to social networking sites such as "MySpace" and the prevalence of other technologies like BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices--sometimes called CrackBerries because they are considered so addictive--and text messaging--which has created a more generalized technology addiction.

Genres: Self Help, Psychology

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 1998

About the author

Kimberly Young is a licensed psychologist, an author, and an internationally-known speaker on Internet addiction. In 1995, she founded the Center for Internet Addiction and since then she has written numerous articles on the topic including four books, Caught in the Net, Tangled in the Web, Breaking Free of the Web, and Internet Addiction: A Handbook for Evaluation and Treatment. She is a professor at St. Bonaventure University and her work has appeared in hundreds of media outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, Time, and Newsweek, and she has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and ABC World News Tonight. She has written creatively on and off since she was eight-years-old, mainly working on poems and short stories. While recovering from retina re-attachment eye surgery, she was homebound for several months and decided to pursue her creative writing more seriously. The Eighth Wonder is her first novel.

Reviews

[Eyjólfur Örn Jónsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child of its time this book is quite seriously out of date but nevertheless holds a certain status as it quite literally started a serious discussion about problematic internet use. Today, internet use has quite literally skyrocketed and peoples use of the internet has changed dramatically with the advent of MMOs and social networking sites both of which are not covered by this book. However, Young had a point when she published this book and that point remains quite valid today; some people will have a difficult time regulating and controlling their behaviour online and this will be a major problem that should be of concern for mental health professionals. In my work as a clinical psychologist today I meet people on a daily basis who have lost control of some aspect of their internet use and are suffering for it. I look forward to seeing an updated version of this book in the future.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, although dated; some of it has a bit of an over-the-top "Reefer Madness" feel to it, although the problem addressed is legitimate and serious, and the lack of footnotes hurts it. I'm looking forward to the updated edition to see what new ground will be covered.

[L.A. Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although out of date (it talks about MUDs and MOOs and AOL chat rooms, and we have since graduated to MMO's), the steps for recovery are still pertinent. This combined with "Cyber Junkie" is an excellent addition to those who want to kick the 'Net habit. However, it's not worth the $30.

[Paul Wells · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possibly in 1998 it had a point, however slight, but now it's seriously out of date and out of touch with reality.