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ABSTRACT
College students worldwide are vulnerable to Internet addiction because the Internet is becoming more easily accessible with colleges, and a majority of college students now use the Internet as part of their educational tools. In Korea, college students are the highest level of Internet addictive users.
Glasser (1985) has used Choice Theory to explain addiction. Recently, Lewis & Carlson (2003) and Howatt (2003) have taken advantage of Reality Therapy for a core addiction recovery tool. In this way, Reality Therapy can be used widely as a treatment for addictive disorders such as drugs, sex, food, and work as well as Internet.
Group counseling appears to be the predominant modality for treating addiction (Fisher & Harrison, 1997). The support, confrontation, and insight gained from other individuals experiencing similar cognition and emotions facilitate therapeutic recovery.
Thus, this article explores the application of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy as an Internet addiction recovery vehicle, and develops a group counseling program that group counselors can use when working with college students with Internet addictive disorders.
INTRODUCTION
The prevalence of Internet use worldwide has increased markedly during the few years. Along with all the benefits the Internet brings, problems of excessive Internet use are becoming apparent. There are also some clinical observations that some people 'get hooked', and develop an Internet addiction.
The Internet is becoming more easily accessible with schools, colleges, and public libraries all going online. Many college students now use the Internet as part of their educational tools. In addition, the cost of computers is becoming more affordable so the number of home computers is on the rise. With such ease of access, the Internet has become an integral part of our lives (Huang & Alessi, 1997; Griffiths, 2000). With these changes, it is anticipated that the number of those who excessively use the Internet will also continue to increase in Korea. Typical Internet behaviors among excessive users included participating in chat rooms, checking e-mail, scanning messages on Usenet groups, and playing multi-user games (Young, 1997).
The Korean Ministry of Information and Communication conducted a survey of cyber addiction. They recruited 2600 ranging from elementary level to adults. Of these, 4.8% were classed as Internet addiction disorder. Of Internet users, 7.9% were college students,...