From the Back Cover
Eight years have passed since publication of the then groundbreaking first edition of this work. During that time, the internet has become ever more prominent the world over, with 200% growth in usage outside the US, 100% growth in usage within the US, and with the highest penetration in America at 68% of all households. Psychology of the Internet, 2e explores the psychological considerations to using the internet and the internet’s effects upon the user. New coverage explores how children use the internet and how this exposure may be shaping their social development. Coverage also includes the effect of child exposure to pornography, predators online, and bullying online. Research on adult disinhibition over the internet is discussed, particularly the tendency for people to more readily self disclose in an online environment. Extensive coverage of socialization on line includes coverage of online dating practices, blogs, and sex online. Internet addiction is covered with respect to definition, precursors, and co-morbidity. Sociological research is also explored as to how people meet and work together online, computer mediated communication, and virtual work teams. Additional chapters explore the burgeoning availability and effectiveness of telehealth/online therapy, the implications of an increasingly virtual society of internet communities, the internet as a global brain, and the possibility that virtual experience may be expanding real consciousness.
About the Author
Dr. Gackenbach received her Ph.D.in 1978 in Experimental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently a Professor at MacEwan University. She has taught and done research at the post-secondary level both in the US and in Canada for 40 years.
As well as being a past-president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, she has numerous professional publications and on dreams and in the last decade on video game play. Dr. Gackenbach is editor of “Sleep and Dreams: A Sourcebook (1986) for Garland Publishers. She co-edited “Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain: Perspectives on Lucid Dreaming (1988) for Plenum Publishers; “Dream Imagery: A Call to Mental Arms (1991) for Baywood Publishers. Her first authored book is “Control Your Dreams (1989; 2012) for Harper-Collins. She was invited in 1992 to present her work on lucid dreaming to the Dalai Lama at a conference on sleeping, dreaming, and dying.
Dr. Gackenbach’s interests have shifted to computer-mediated communications. In this regard she has edited a book from Academic Press (1998; 2007), “Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Transpersonal Implications and co-wrote a book called “cyber.rules for Norton publishers (2007) with examines healthy and unhealthy internet use.
Dr. Gackenbach’s most recent research interest combines her dream and technology interests examining the dreams of video game players. She has released two related books. One was co-written with her gamer son, Teace Snyder, on the effects of video game play, “Play Reality. She also has an edited book “Video Game Play and Consciousness from NOVA publishers. Both books came out in 2012. She has pursued an active research program into gaming and dreams expanding it in recent years to include social media usage. Over her 40 year career she has 54 peer reviewed articles, 31 book chapters and 10 books with two translated into Chinese, one into German and one into Arabic.
The central question that has permeated her work over her 40-year career is, “what is real? Be it in dreams or in technology, the nature of reality and its phenomenal experience by humans has been a compelling question.
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