"I was half asleep at 4 a.m, with my laptop in front of me. I clicked F5 *refresh button* and nothing happened. I clicked again and still nothing. I thought *This is pathetic'," Robert - not his real name - recalled the moment he decided to quit the social networking website Facebook for good.
While he said that he may return, the idea of relying on Facebook as a sole entertainer on sleepless nights had become too much for him. "When you can't sleep, you read a book or something," he said.
Previously Robert had been a fairly active Facebook user, with page after page of tagged photos in his profile, and constant, interactive status updates.
Wahyu Indianti, a psychologist from the University of Indonesia, said one is considered addicted to using a social networking site or other entertaining online features when the activity disturbs one's daily responsibilities, such as work. She added that some cases could require therapy.
"The key is self control and discipline. You must decide to say no," Wahyu said in Jakarta on Saturday after a talkshow on social networking sites.
While adults should rely on themselves and, occasionally, therapy sessions to overcome their addictions to the Internet, children and teenagers need guidance to control their Internet usage.
Wahyu suggested parents give access to the Internet to their children as a reward.
"For instance, if they read one chapter of a book today they can use the Internet for one hour," she said.
However, parents should not allow children be exposed to the inherent risks of the online world, such as pornography and addiction, she said.
But such risks are no reason for the government to ban social networking sites or even the Internet in general.
"If the government resorts to that, it means it is no longer capable of controlling *the media* as something positive," Wahyu said.
She argued that the government should take into account the possibility of depriving some people of jobs as a result of such a decision. "The excess must be accounted for."
Last week, Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring said he was hoping to pass a bill to regulate Internet content, by the end of this year, despite cries of disapproval from journalists and bloggers who feared the law could hinder freedom of speech.
Wahyu said social networking sites and other leisure sites had benefits, for instance they could help channel the urge to prove one's existence, for example for people who have had a hard time doing so in other ways.
In the pre-social networking website era, people, including teenagers, used to assert their existence in life through circles of friends or through institutions such as schools.
"Asserting one's existence can be achieved through feeling how we have been useful to others," Wahyu said.
