hile most students can attest that it is not difficult to be distracted from studying when the temperature hits 70 degrees, the sun comes out and ultimate frisbee beckons, students with high-speed Internet access see the potential for diversion double - regardless of the weather.
"I think sometimes it can be a distraction to have the Internet right here in my room," said Courtney Martin, a sophomore fashion merchandising major. "Having it so easy to get to, sometimes I'd rather be talking to friends or looking up interesting Web sites than doing my homework."
Melissa Bowman, also a sophomore fashion merchandising major, agreed.
"Sometimes I get on the Internet and I procrastinate," she said.
Bowman, who sometimes spends up to five hours a day online, said although she frequently plays online games like pool, euchre and hearts, communication is her primary use for the Internet. Even while playing games, "I like to chat with the other players," she said. "It's fun."
The popularity of instant messaging services like AIM, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger has led an increasing number of students to define recreation as staying in, chatting with friends and surfing the Internet. Some psychologists believe that such behavior is anti-social, but Bowman did not think her online time has had an adverse effect on her social life.
"Obviously I'm not out as much, but I do talk to people when I'm on here, so it evens out," she said.
Martin said she primarily uses the Internet to e-mail friends and to shop, so she has avoided the preoccupation with instant messaging that has plagued many of her peers.
"If the Internet was taken away from me, it wouldn't affect me as much as it would most other people," she said. "I'm sure people who are using [AOL] Instant Messenger all the time wouldn't know what to do without it."
David Hamilton, a junior telecommunications major, said he has mixed feelings about Internet communication.
"It has its good sides and its bad sides," he said. "E-mail is great, because I have a friend in Italy, and the speed of e-mailing is so much better than writing letters and waiting for them to come through."
Hamilton acknowledged, however, that instant messaging can be a major time vacuum.
"Two years ago, when I had [AOL] Instant Messenger in my dorm room, I was on it all the time," he said. "It's easy to get sucked into that."
Most students agree that instant messaging is what occupies most of their online time, but instant access to information also provides possibilities for entertainment.
"Since I'm a TCOM guy, I'm really into films, and I'm always looking up the latest news on movies," Hamilton said. "Without the Internet, I wouldn't know about new movies until they come out, like everyone else."
That ability to access entertainment at the push of a button is one of the Internet's biggest draws, said Greg Siering, Instructional Designer for University Teleplex.
"We now look for recreation in an instantaneous way," he said. "Whether it's finding a game or something fun to read, high-speed Internet access has made everything instantly available."
In spite of all its positive potential, however, the availability of the Internet on college campuses also comes with a serious risk - Internet Addiction Disorder, or IAD. The disorder, which is not officially recognized by the American Psychological Association, has been likened to gambling addiction, because it leads to compulsive behavior without the influence of a foreign substance into the body. Two years ago, an ABC News study found that nearly 11 million users suffer from IAD, but some psychologists believe the condition is simply another manifestation of addictive and compulsive personality disorder.
According to The Center for Online and Internet Addiction, www.netaddiction.com, college students in particular are at risk, because "the combination of unstructured, free, and unlimited Internet use" on campuses makes for an addict-friendly environment, where students can easily isolate themselves with only their direct Internet connections and computers.
But IAD is rare, and even if more students are finding recreation in their personal computers, Siering said he does not believe that means they are becoming less social.
"There is even an element of communication in computer games," he said. "The Internet hasn't necessarily made us more isolated. People are just gathering in different ways."
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