The first country to recognize Internet addiction as a clinical disorder was China in 2008, where it is now considered the number one public health threat for youth. Roughly 14 per cent of China’s youth are said to be addicted to the Internet, and, to date, more than 250 Internet detox camps have opened in China to try confront what’s being called an epidemic.
Last month, a 19-year-old Chinese boy known only as “Little Wang” went so far as to chop off his left hand to “cure” his Internet addition. And, tragically, people have been found, on more than one occasion, dead in their chairs at Chinese Internet cafés after long stints of gaming. In the case of 23-year-old gamer Chen Rong-yu, who is thought to have died of cardiac arrest brought on by blood clots, his death went unnoticed by other gamers for up to nine hours. But science still knows very little about the condition causing these harmful behaviors. According to Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist who advocated for the inclusion of Internet addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) manual – the standard used by mental health professionals in the US – the proposed disorder exhibits four key addiction characteristics: Excessive use, which may be accompanied by impaired sense of the passage of time and/or neglecting basic needs such as hunger and sleep; Withdrawal (when prevented from going online), which may manifest as anger, tension or depression; Tolerance, which in the case of Internet addiction may be indicated by longer and longer use, or a perceived need for upgrades or new software; And negative repercussions to the behavior, which may include arguments, fatigue, problems at school or work, lying, lack of achievement and social isolation. Ultimately, in 2013, Internet addiction was added to the appendix of the DSM to stimulate more research on the subject. In order to understand Internet addiction, however, one must first understand addiction itself.
According to Dr. Gabor Maté, a Vancouver addictions specialist and author of the book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, any behavior that a person craves and finds pleasure or temporary relief in, but which has long-term negative consequences and can’t be given up, is an addiction. “So according to that definition,” he says, “anything can become an addictive target.” Maté says there are three reasons why Internet addiction seems to be affecting so many people across so many demographics: First, it is widely and generally available. “If you made heroin available,” says Maté flippantly, “a lot more people would probably use heroin.” Second, people are inherently lonely. “People have very empty lives,” he explains. “They feel a void inside themselves and they try to fill it from the outside. You go on your cell phone, you go on YouTube; you distract yourself from the sheer discomfort of being with yourself.” Third, family attachments are being eroded, and artificial substitutes are taking their place. “The most powerful drive in human life is connection. Without that, we don’t survive,” he explains. “All our lives we spend much of our energy trying to connect with people – to be loved, to reproduce, to have community. But we live in a society that is increasingly depriving people of that community and connection.” In Maté’s opinion, parents are spending less time with their kids, couples are spending less time with each other, and extended families – cousins, grandparents – aren’t being valued to the same degree anymore, and filling their place are shallow peer-to-peer attachments in the digital realm.
The results can be devastating. “Emotionally, it takes the place of real contact and self-reflection. So you don’t get to know yourself. Physiologically, it has negative effects on the brain. And I’m not even talking about the negative, meaningless content, which does further harm to people’s psychological functioning,” he concludes. But Maté is quick to caution against blaming the medium. “You can relate to digital media non-addictively, and obviously it’s a fantastically-developed and powerful way of seeking information. The media itself is neutral – it’s a question of how it’s being used and by whom.
In his 2012 book The Big Disconnect: The Story of Technology and Loneliness, Slade establishes a scientific link between our reliance on machines and the isolating consequences.
“When we sit down with each other and have a meal together or listen to music together or touch each other or even sing to each other, there’s a hormone that’s released called Oxytocin. And that builds trust and relationships,” he explains in a phone interview. “You get that maybe from a telephone message, but you don’t get that from text messaging, you don’t get that from emails, you don’t get that from machines.” To reverse the effects, Slade’s advice is simple. Share things, join groups, go outside.
“It’s strange for us to talk about this in Vancouver, which is such a lovely natural setting, but get yourself into nature. Get yourself into nature with friends. We don’t trust it as much as we used to because we’re much less familiar with it than we used to be, but nature is there to restore you.” Other experts, meanwhile, believe it is our fear of human connections that created this dependence. According to a 2012 TED Talk by Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who has studied the social aspects of science and technology for more than two decades, by appearing to be an emotionally safer way of connecting, digital media is actually making us less connected, less proficient with real-life social interactions and also less inclined to engage in crucial self-reflection. “These days, those phones in our pockets are changing our minds and hearts because they offer us three gratifying fantasies,” she explains. “One, that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; two, that we will always be heard; and three, that we will never have to be alone. “And that third idea, that we will never have to be alone, is central to changing our psyches. Because the moment that people are alone, even for a few seconds, they become anxious, they panic, they fidget, they reach for a device.”
Last month, a 19-year-old Chinese boy known only as “Little Wang” went so far as to chop off his left hand to “cure” his Internet addition. And, tragically, people have been found, on more than one occasion, dead in their chairs at Chinese Internet cafés after long stints of gaming. In the case of 23-year-old gamer Chen Rong-yu, who is thought to have died of cardiac arrest brought on by blood clots, his death went unnoticed by other gamers for up to nine hours. But science still knows very little about the condition causing these harmful behaviors. According to Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist who advocated for the inclusion of Internet addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) manual – the standard used by mental health professionals in the US – the proposed disorder exhibits four key addiction characteristics: Excessive use, which may be accompanied by impaired sense of the passage of time and/or neglecting basic needs such as hunger and sleep; Withdrawal (when prevented from going online), which may manifest as anger, tension or depression; Tolerance, which in the case of Internet addiction may be indicated by longer and longer use, or a perceived need for upgrades or new software; And negative repercussions to the behavior, which may include arguments, fatigue, problems at school or work, lying, lack of achievement and social isolation. Ultimately, in 2013, Internet addiction was added to the appendix of the DSM to stimulate more research on the subject. In order to understand Internet addiction, however, one must first understand addiction itself.
According to Dr. Gabor Maté, a Vancouver addictions specialist and author of the book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, any behavior that a person craves and finds pleasure or temporary relief in, but which has long-term negative consequences and can’t be given up, is an addiction. “So according to that definition,” he says, “anything can become an addictive target.” Maté says there are three reasons why Internet addiction seems to be affecting so many people across so many demographics: First, it is widely and generally available. “If you made heroin available,” says Maté flippantly, “a lot more people would probably use heroin.” Second, people are inherently lonely. “People have very empty lives,” he explains. “They feel a void inside themselves and they try to fill it from the outside. You go on your cell phone, you go on YouTube; you distract yourself from the sheer discomfort of being with yourself.” Third, family attachments are being eroded, and artificial substitutes are taking their place. “The most powerful drive in human life is connection. Without that, we don’t survive,” he explains. “All our lives we spend much of our energy trying to connect with people – to be loved, to reproduce, to have community. But we live in a society that is increasingly depriving people of that community and connection.” In Maté’s opinion, parents are spending less time with their kids, couples are spending less time with each other, and extended families – cousins, grandparents – aren’t being valued to the same degree anymore, and filling their place are shallow peer-to-peer attachments in the digital realm.
The results can be devastating. “Emotionally, it takes the place of real contact and self-reflection. So you don’t get to know yourself. Physiologically, it has negative effects on the brain. And I’m not even talking about the negative, meaningless content, which does further harm to people’s psychological functioning,” he concludes. But Maté is quick to caution against blaming the medium. “You can relate to digital media non-addictively, and obviously it’s a fantastically-developed and powerful way of seeking information. The media itself is neutral – it’s a question of how it’s being used and by whom.
In his 2012 book The Big Disconnect: The Story of Technology and Loneliness, Slade establishes a scientific link between our reliance on machines and the isolating consequences.
“When we sit down with each other and have a meal together or listen to music together or touch each other or even sing to each other, there’s a hormone that’s released called Oxytocin. And that builds trust and relationships,” he explains in a phone interview. “You get that maybe from a telephone message, but you don’t get that from text messaging, you don’t get that from emails, you don’t get that from machines.” To reverse the effects, Slade’s advice is simple. Share things, join groups, go outside.
“It’s strange for us to talk about this in Vancouver, which is such a lovely natural setting, but get yourself into nature. Get yourself into nature with friends. We don’t trust it as much as we used to because we’re much less familiar with it than we used to be, but nature is there to restore you.” Other experts, meanwhile, believe it is our fear of human connections that created this dependence. According to a 2012 TED Talk by Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who has studied the social aspects of science and technology for more than two decades, by appearing to be an emotionally safer way of connecting, digital media is actually making us less connected, less proficient with real-life social interactions and also less inclined to engage in crucial self-reflection. “These days, those phones in our pockets are changing our minds and hearts because they offer us three gratifying fantasies,” she explains. “One, that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; two, that we will always be heard; and three, that we will never have to be alone. “And that third idea, that we will never have to be alone, is central to changing our psyches. Because the moment that people are alone, even for a few seconds, they become anxious, they panic, they fidget, they reach for a device.”
No comments:
Post a Comment