Addicted to Facebook

Genes are to blamed for women’s obsession with Facebook, Twitter and online shopping. Scientists say that the addiction to Internet, just like the addition to nicotine, is hereditary and most often concerns women.  

The way we look and behave is determined by our genes. 

Genes; however, are also responsible for our additions, like our addition to alcohol or Internet. Christian Montag from the University of Bonn claims that “Internet addiction is not a figment of our imagination. Researchers and therapists are increasingly closing in on it.”

Scientists from Bonn interviewed 843 people about their Internet habits. The results showed that as many as 132 men and women were addicted to Internet. They admitted that they think about Internet all day and the lack of the Internet access causes their poor state of mind, irritation and outbursts of anger.

The next step of the research was to examine genetic variants of those 132 people. 

It turned out that many of them had the same genetic variant, which was also responsible for nicotine addiction. “Within the group of subjects exhibiting problematic Internet behavior, this variant occurs more frequently – particularly in women.” And added that this phenomenon “could be linked to a subgroup using social networks like Facebook.”