Apart from computer savvy or geeks,I am looking for the most appropriate English word for someone who is addicted to Internet?
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The challenge to answering your question is that the term Internet Addiction is really a catch-all phrase for someone with a compulsive personality or impulse control disorder who happens to exhibit that compusiveness while using the Internet. If not for the Internet, such a person would almost certainly find something else to be compulsive about. Thus there has been resistance among many psychologists to clasify Internet Addiction as a specific disorder. However, there have been some terms that have arisen which mean Internet Addiction and I list them here. Note that terms that are referenced in the question, such as "geek" or "savvy", as well as "nethead", "cybernaut", "netizen" do not necessarily mean addiction, and especially do not identify the specific addition or form that the compulsive addiction takes when using the Internet. In my opinion the best term is Obsessive-Compulsive, because that is the actual personality disorder. But here are some other choices:
A. Broken into specific forms that the addiction manifests itself in
"What is Internet Addiction?
Internet Addiction is a broad term covering a wide-variety of behaviors and impulse control problems. It is important to understand that there are at least five specific types of Internet addiction:
- Cybersexual Addiction (addictions to adult chat rooms or cyberporn).
- Cyber-relationship Addiction (online friendships made in chat rooms, MUDs, or newsgroups that replace real-life friends and family, this also includes the issue of cyberaffairs).
- Net Compulsions (compulsive online gambling, online auction addiction, and obsessive online trading.
- Information Overload (compulsive web surfing or database searches).
- Computer Addiction (obsessive computer game-playing or to programming aspects of computer science, mostly a problem among men, children, and teenagers)."
Texas State University Counseling Center
B. Impluse control disorder
Internet addiction is described as an impulse control disorder, which does not involve use of an intoxicating drug and is very similar to pathological gambling. Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery
C. Internet dependency/compulsiveness
Internet Addiction has been called internet dependency and internet compulsiveness. By any name, it is a compulsive behavior that completely dominates the addicts’ life. Internet addicts make the internet a priority more important than family, friends, and work. The internet becomes the organizing principle of addicts’ lives. They are willing to sacrifice what they cherish most in order to preserve and continue their behavior. Bradford Regional Medical Center
D. Screen addiction
It is called "Screen addiction" -- yes, it has a name -- and it is already widely recognized as a problem in Australia, Korea, China, and Taiwan.
"It's not just about Internet use, it's about any screen kind of device," says Dr. Kimberly Young from the Center for Internet Addiction. ABC News report
E. Internet use disorder
Internet addiction, or formally, Internet Use Disorder (IUD), may soon be included as an actual mental health disorder, although the authors do say it still needs a lot of additional study. Forbes
F. Internet addiction disorder
There’s been a lot of controversy over the concept of Internet Addiction Disorder Forbes
HOWEVER, note that simply being online a lot or enjoying something on the Internet more than, say, spending time with your wife, or more than your work, are NOT NECESSARILY Internet Addiction. It only enters into the realm of addiction when people continue to do it even when they no longer find it enjoyable or productive, as per CNN quoting Dr. Allen Francis
"People can spend 10 hours a day in front of a screen, blow off their wives, blow off their work, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're addicted," says Frances. "Addiction implies a pattern of use that you can't stop." The compulsion continues, even though time spent online is no longer productive or enjoyable.
Brillig
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"Net rat" : The Urban dictionary rates it as a slang.
I personally find the use of netfiend interesting.
weakphoneme
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