Surfing the internet can be fun and informative but new research has shown it can be addictive.
An increasing number of people are spending hours and hours surfing the internet is this becoming an issue?
Are there many people who have fallen victim to internet addiction?
According to internet instructor Sam Lyons, the internet provides the best encyclopedia of information. However, for Lyons, you can get caught up in all this information.
There's images, there's text, there's sound, there's video. It's all there for you.
For Mark O'Toole from Internet Exchange, as you get used to using the internet you should spend less and less time online as you become for focused and skilled in searching.
Really, it's only a tool if you can harness it and an addiction would not be a harnessing of it.
Some internet surfers at Planet Cyber Café in Dublin are not concerned about becoming addicted to the web.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 9 December 1997. The reporter is Sharon Ní Bheoláin.
