Studies show that young people addicted to technology, especially the Internet, show serious disturbances and dysfunctions in their social life. Specialists say that they end up losing a good part of their real life relationship skills. In addition, the balance of substances in the brain changes.
More and more young people are becoming addicted to the Internet PHOTO Adevărul
More and more young people are becoming addicted to the internet and technology in general. Most teenagers and young adults consult their cell phones almost compulsively, experts say, almost every five minutes. Many are addicted to the Internet without realizing it, it being considered natural to be permanently connected to social networks, to exchange ideas or to find out information, constantly, on the Internet. The paradigm shift also happened with the evolution of technology, but also with the fact that mobile phones, smartphones, with sufficient performance, came to be accessible to almost all social categories. Which makes internet addiction even more pronounced. A recent study, as well as psychology specialists, show that the effects of internet addiction and excessive time spent online can have devastating long-term consequences.
Rich life online, ruined life offline
A recent study published in the specialist journal PLOS Mental Health and coordinated by the specialist Max Chang, a master's student at the Institute of Child Health in UCL Great Ormond Street, demonstrated the cruel effects of internet addiction on people in general and young people in particular. More specifically, they would have, first of all, difficulties in maintaining social relationships in real life. The specialist in psychology and speech therapy, Laura Dănilă, confirms these aspects for “Adevărul”, with a wealth of experience from current practice. The specialist from Botošan says that first of all, the virtual world of the Internet addict begins to completely break away from the real one.
“Becoming addicted to the Internet and information technology in general, on social networks, especially teenagers end up creating their own “bubble”. Behind the screen, in front of the keyboard, they feel powerful, important, and easily cut off from real life. They create new ways of relating, distinct from those in real social life, new features of language. Obviously they are starting to have clear relationship problems in real life. They no longer know how to relate, they lose their ability to relate. And the effects are long-term. They have problems at job interviews, they have problems integrating socially, both in informal groups and at work, school, etc.“, says Laura Dănilă.
In addition, experts say these young people are prone to depression and anxiety, especially because of the reduced ability to adapt to real life. In addition to social and psychological effects, there are also somatic effects. “It turned out that they have sleep disorders, concentration problems and even digestive problems. And that's because they turned their lives upside down. I stay up very late on the devices, the circadian rhythm is upset, which implicitly means sleep disorders. As a result, they cannot wake up for normal activities during the day, school, work, for example. Or they are not effective due to fatigue. In the long term the effects are serious.”adds Laura Dănilă.
“There are disruptions in the development areas”
The already mentioned study indicates even more serious effects of Internet addiction. More specifically, disorders at the brain level. Cross-sectional testing of 237 10- to 19-year-olds diagnosed with Internet addiction over a ten-year period showed that changes in brain chemistry occurred, with implications ranging from behavioral problems to physical coordination problems. In fact, Max Chang, the coordinator of the study, showed that these effects are especially evident in teenagers, when the brain is vulnerable to Internet addiction. Experts say that many problems related to this addiction to the Internet and gadgets begin in early childhood.
“I noticed especially in children who have access, in excess, to television, the Internet, devices in general, that there are disturbances in the areas of neuropsychic development. They no longer have that expressiveness, specific to children, they are no longer interested in socializing, open to different activities”, says Laura Dănilă.
Moreover, in the last decade, a new form of autism has been defined in the case of internet and gadget addiction. It is virtual autism or pseudo-autism. “Specifically, parents bring gadgets around children from a very young age. The first is the TV left on for long periods in front of the children, then the phone and the tablet. In the first stages of development, from the first year of life, we know very well that neurons develop, then neural synapses, and if we do not interact adequately with the child and leave him only in the presence of gadgets, there are some extremely serious consequences in development, and I mean to cognitive consequences, at the level of language, of social interaction“, states the psychologist and speech therapist from Botošan.
