>why are you addicted to the internet?
Not them, but it can provide an important social component which is probably very important to stay at least somewhat sane because on the internet you can find a group of people who believe/tolerate anything. Aside from the net itself providing a component for escapism, it also provides a vehicle to obtain media for that.
>the internet provides a sense of escapism from reality although i don't know if i can say that anymore given what the internet has turned into these days.
If you have hikki time, you have time to find the fun/interesting side of the web.
I will say though, for people who are withdrawn from society there are a lot of worse things you could be addicted to, like drugs or gambling. Drugs are rarer because of the money/social component but there are unemployed/hikki boards that have threads for horse racing gambling and it can get very ugly.