How many hours a day do you spend glassy-eyed, flipping through countless Web pages?

When does harmless Internet surfing cross into overuse — or Internet addiction?

If your Internet-use pattern interferes with your life in any way, shape or form, you may have a problem, according to Dr. Kimberly Young, director of the Center for Online Addiction.

According to Young, 6 percent of the population has online addiction, with the numbers rising to 19 percent on college campuses.

SMU junior Channing Leitch agrees that Internet addiction is a problem among college students. Leitch says social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace keep students’ eyes glued to the computer screen.

“I know people who spend two hours on Facebook instead of writing a paper,” said Leitch, 21.

But at what point should students be concerned about their daily and excessive habits of checking e-mail, browsing Facebook and browsing the Web for sports and entertainment news? (Take the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) at (www.netaddiction.com/resources/internet_addiction_test.htm).

The number of hours spent online doesn’t determine an addiction problem, but the effects of such use do. The Center for Online Addiction defines Internet addiction as any online-related, compulsive behavior interfering with normal living. Addicts compulsively use the Internet, lie or hide the extent or nature of their online behavior and fail to curb or control their online time.

Subtypes of Internet abuse include cyber-sexual, cyber-relational, net-gaming and information overload. Studies find physical symptoms to include sleep deprivation, backaches, eye strain and increased agitation. According to a recent MSNBC article, individuals are now seeking treatment for “tech neck” and “Blackberry thumbs.”

Young says college campuses can be breeding grounds for Internet addiction.

“The incidence of IA is more on campuses because students have better and quicker access,” Young said.

Young believes other factors include students having blocks of unstructured time, newly experienced freedom and the desire to escape college stressors. Some students might also use the Internet as a way to simply avoid school work.

Some SMU classes meet in computer labs where every student sits in front of a computer screen. SMU freshman Juliana Jones says she probably spends the entire 50 minutes of her CCPA class online.

“It’s a good distracter,” Jones said.

“It’s definitely a distraction,” SMU Professor Camille Kraeplin said.

Kraeplin finds it hard to keep students’ attention when teaching her journalism classes in the computer labs. Students constantly check e-mail, Facebook and news Web sites during class, and do not hesitate to do so even during a guest lecture, Kraeplin said.

“It’s hard to keep students who I think are basically polite people from being impolite in class,” she said.

Kraeplin tells some students more than two or three times to get off the Internet, but she says they continue to sneak back on.

“I say something, but you have to stay on them. It does cause me a lot of consternation,” she said.

For those who continue to ignore her requests, Kraeplin sometimes resorts to embarrassing the student in front of the class. While Kraeplin thinks being online during class is inappropriate, she does understand why students are so intrigued with checking e-mail and surfing the Web.

“E-mail is fun, you never know who you are going to get an e-mail from. To stay connected is a basic human desire,” Kraeplin said.

Excessive Internet usage is not a new concern. Social observers and behavioral scientists identified Internet addiction 10 years ago as they increasingly heard of compulsive Internet habits, such as gambling and marathon Web surfing interfering with people’s work and personal lives.

Today the Internet is quicker, richer in content and more accessible. PDAs and cell phones with Internet access now enable people to be on the Web at all times.

Internet users average about three hours online each day, according to a 2005 survey by Stanford University researchers. As reliance on the Web grows, some believe there are reasons to take Internet usage seriously. The study reported that one of eight Americans show at least one possible sign of problematic Internet use.

However, Internet addiction has yet to earn disorder status in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual.

A growing number of therapists and rehab centers are treating Web addicts with the same approaches used to treat chemical addictions, including 12-step programs and family counseling.

Visitors to Young’s Web site, www.netaddiction.com, can request an appointment with Young, and after paying $95 through PayPal, will have a phone appointment time e-mailed to them. Young also counsels people online — a practice she said is effective, despite the irony.

Young, an Internet addiction researcher, founded the Center for Online Addiction in 1995. When evaluating patients, Young says she looks at underlying issues such as depression, social problems and academic issues.

“Family therapy is the best method to treat the problem,” Young said in an e-mail interview.

Students who want to seek help for the addiction should talk to a counselor on campus, Young said.

Numerous Internet addiction recovery Web sites have blogs where netaholics can discuss their addiction and form support groups. Many of the sites offer intense counseling in person, by telephone and online in order to help clients get Web sober.

One site even offers a cure through hypnosis, available for visitors to download for $8.95. Young is currently lobbying for Internet addiction to receive recognition by the American Psychiatric Association in the next revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, due in 2012. Young says her current understanding is that it should be included in the manual under a general category of impulse control disorders.

Critics argue Internet addiction is not a real illness or it is a fad illness.

“I think we have moved beyond that issue as treatment centers such as ours exist in multiple countries including the U.S., China, Korea and Germany,” Young wrote in an e-mail.

China’s first Internet addiction clinic opened in Beijing in 2005, and its controversial methods for treating patients include military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shock.

Young says Internet addiction is increasing on college campuses, but what about after college?

SMU alum Hannah Seddelmeyer, 24, remembers sitting in her dorm room and instant messaging with friends who were sitting in the room with her. Seddelmeyer is more aware of her Internet use now that she is paying the bills.

While Seddelmeyer says her Internet use in college might have molded her Web habits, she also thinks it is a result of today’s technology-based generation. Seddelmeyer, now an editor for D Home magazine in Dallas, checks her e-mail at least 10 times every evening.

“It only takes a second,” she says. “Wow, I probably sound pretty pathetic.”