In our society today, social media has impacted our lives tremendously. Internet usage has had a great deal of influence on how we think. Recently, there have been studies claiming that iPhone usage could be detrimental to our mental health. As research in this area gains more traction, we can discover detrimental effects as well as beneficial effects due to Internet usage. An article in Psychology Today titled, “Brain, Behavior, and Media,” Bernard J. Luskin investigates how the media is psychologically affecting our brains and our behavior by looking at brain research using MRI.
The article discusses the recent development of Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD). The symptoms include tremors, shivers, nausea, and anxiety. The symptoms of this disorder are similar to symptoms found in other addiction disorders so similar that some professionals believe that IAD is analogous to substance abuse. or behaviors like gambling and eating disorders. Detaching people from the internet or from iPhones can be very difficult. This is typically illustrated in everyday life when students attempt to sneak in a text message in the middle of a class or couples sit at dinner with their phones beside them. Within this addiction, within excessive internet usage, there are mind-altering applications. The effects these devices have our brain however are not always detrimental.
The article discusses the growth of media psychology which is presently being applied as a tool to benefit Internet addicts. Media psychology uses positive messages to enhance the knowledge and public awareness that lead us to positive behavioral changes. Interesting beneficial media effects mentioned int the article are that IQs are rising, we see more girls pursing careers in science, and communication across cultures has skyrocketed. On the other hand, the article cites detrimental effects including a direct link between media stimulation and ADD, there is an immense desensitization to violence, and the average number of sleep hours decreases in an inverse proportion manner to the number of hours per day on Internet use all due to Internet Addiction Disorder becoming more commonly diagnosed.
Furthermore, this is an interesting field of research that presently and in the coming years will be even more prevalent to our society. However, testing hypotheses related to this field of research could be very difficult. For instance, researchers would have to develop creative experiments in order to examine internet use affects on different parts of the brain.
Sources; https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-media-psychology-effect/201203/brain-behavior-and-media
It never occurred to me that excessive internet usage can so negatively affect my mental health, but after reading this article, it makes a lot of sense. The way we interact with our smart phones seems so normal that I hadn't considered it as unhealthy. Even something as casual as putting you phone on the table while I eat or never leaving a room without it is so evident of its grip on my mental state. I do not feel connected to the world unless my phone is in my hand or in my pocket and that is huge contributor to my anxiety. I was shocked to read that IAD is equivalent to drug addiction and eating disorders, but of course the emotional attachment and obsessiveness people feel towards drugs and social media do look identical. The only difference is that one is significantly more detrimental to a person's functioning than the other.
ReplyDeleteI find this blog post really interesting, because one of my research interests in on drug addiction and the biological mechanisms of the reward pathway. This makes me wonder how physically similar internet addiction might be to actual drug addiction. Like the author of the blog stated, testing hypotheses related to this field could be very difficult. I wonder if there could be a way to effectively test whether or not excessive internet use activates the reward system in the brain in a similar manner and to a similar extent that drugs of abuse do. Perhaps one could actually measure dopaminergic neurons in the reward pathway and see how they fire in response to a certain amount of internet usage.
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ReplyDeleteThis blog post interested me a lot. I think about the negative effects of cell phone use often, but this does not cause me to use my phone any less. I honestly do think our society is addicted to cell phones; including myself. It is very interesting to compare a cell phone addiction to an addiction of a substance or gambling. I don't think that people realize just how addicted they really are. I could not tell you how many times I would completely distract myself from school work or even class with my cell phone use. I was even thinking the other day of back when my mom was first showing me text messaging when it was not even popular. In this short amount of time texting and cell phone use has completely taken over almost everyone's lives. How do we fix this problem? I don't think it is fixable and this honestly scares me. I am concerned for the generations to come.
ReplyDeleteThe Internet is the largest source of information in the world today, I agree with the article now a days the internet is so enjoyable that it is almost addictive. I also believe that lonely people or non sociable are more likely to become an Internet addict.
ReplyDeleteDrug addiction can be said to be slavery to a substance but addiction is an illness that affects all of us one way or the other.
Internet addiction is described as an impulse control disorder. I would describe this Internet addiction as a compulsive behavior which interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones and ones work environment. This has become a severe addiction there are times that when we need to spend time with the family it becomes impossible because we need to have our phones next to us, and we always put the Internet and texting first then to have a normal conversation with our love ones.