Social networks, chat, cyber sex and broadband, an addictive and dangerously explosive cocktail
I do not think it is necessary to explain what the Internet is since you and all those who are interested in reading this article probably already know what it is, you enjoy and know this unimaginable virtual world and tremendously powerful that we have it just a click away, there a Through the PC, the laptop or mini laptop, a tablet, a mouse, a telephone line, a modem or a smart phone… and voilà !, Internet ready to navigate.
It is a whole world, prepared and attentive, to satisfy all our needs; We can relate (as long as they are connected) with people from all over the world, we can initiate and establish professional, personal, emotional and even sexual relationships, through the well-known “cybersex”.
We have a whole range of possibilities: professional, personal, commercial (we can sell and / or buy) and also, why not, we can enjoy music, games, videos, in addition, we have several mail options, but I have not Most interestingly, there is no police, there are no faces or faces or gestures or signs of who we are, therefore, we can safely steal, lie, hack and trade with prohibited and penalized topics.
And so, for all those people who are alone, introverts, those who have mental problems, those who do not have social skills, those who have communication problems, those shy people, with difficulties in establishing interpersonal relationships either because of their personality or because of personal events such as divorce, the death of someone close…, as well as anyone with psycho-emotional problems, the Internet, indisputably, can be an incalculable source of satisfaction, to the point of becoming an addiction.
Just as drug addicts look for an ideal, ghostly or idyllic world (pleasant, beautiful, pleasant) in drugs, even knowing that this is unreal, cyber-addicts, in an analogous way, look on the Internet for an unreal world where they can hide their fears, and even adopt a personality different from the real one. It is common for these people to adopt virtual roles very different from the real ones, both in age and sex. Basically, the goal is to hide behind the cloak of anonymity that the Internet easily offers you.
According to a study published in the February 2010 issue of the journal Psychopathology, compulsive Internet users who tend to have more virtual social interaction (chat rooms and online social networks) than real, could suffer from depression. The study is presented as the first powerful among Western youth on cyber-addiction and depression. Of the group under study, 1.2% were classified as Internet addicts and showed a higher incidence of moderate or severe depression. The study also concluded that younger users are more likely to be addicted, with a mean age of 18 years among the addicts detected in the study.
"The Internet now plays a very important role in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a negative side", says Dr. Catriona Morrison, who led the study, "While many of us use the Internet to pay bills, buy or send e-mails, there is a small subgroup in the population that finds it very difficult to control how much time they spend using the Internet, to the point that this interferes with their daily activities, "and adds," What is clear is that for a small group of people overuse of the Internet could be a worrying sign of depressive tendencies. '
According to a study carried out by the National Institute of Communication Technologies - Spain (INTECO), the risk related to the use of the Internet, which worries parents the most is dependence or abusive use (39.5% mentioned it in a spontaneous in the survey conducted). The abusive use and / or addiction to ICT (Information and Computing Technologies) are widely known phenomena, both among parents (8 out of 10) and among children (6-7 out of 10).
The risks related to addiction worry parents, since dependence or excessive use is considered by 42.8% of parents a fairly or very serious risk. In the case of social isolation (giving up other activities because they are connected) 34.5% of the parents judge this behavior as very or quite serious. According to the same study, almost 3 out of 10 minors have made abusive use of ICT. 28.7% of the minors declare having experienced situations of social isolation (understood as giving up being with friends) and 26% admit having suffered episodes of dependence or excessive use.
A research team from the Kaohsiung University of Medicine, Taiwan, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health a study that was based on questionnaires about Internet use and behavior that were filled out by 9,405 adolescents, determined that 25% of adolescents Boys and 13% of the girls were addicted to the Internet. Of that group of addicts, 37% reported showing aggression (such as threatening or hurting others), during the year prior to the survey, compared with 13% of girls and 32% of boys overall.
According to the most recent study, stated Dr. Delia Hinojosa, director of dissemination of the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association (APM), an expert in psychotherapy, “it is said that the massive use of technological resources has caused an addiction to the Internet and it is estimated that the number of affected people can reach 2% of the population ”, the most alarming thing is that this pathology is occurring a lot in children and young people, who cut ties with reality and with people to take refuge in a communication and relationship with a machine, added the specialist.
Such a situation was exposed in the National Congress of Psychoanalysis "Inconsistent dreams and sexuality" that was held in Mexico City, in which mental health issues of Mexicans were analyzed and among which the Internet addiction and new technologies. An addict to the Internet or some electronic medium, said Delia Hinojosa, begins to feel symptoms such as anguish, intolerance, anxiety when not being in front of the object to which he has generated a certain addiction. "Let's think of a guy who is addicted to the use of the Internet, to the computer: when he does not spend time on the computer chatting with friends, he begins to feel anxious, intolerant and even violent," he exemplified.
In the volume 2: 4 Spring 2009 of the Pediatric Connection magazine, in the article «Will Internet addiction become the epidemic of the XXI century?», Publishes the article «Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009; 163 (10): 959-960 »from Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH Megan A. Moreno, MD, MPH PhD, translated by Dr. Andrea Silva, where it is noted that after work, on August 1, 2005, LEE Seung Seop walked into an internet cafe in Korea. Fifty hours later, this 28-year-old boiler repairman would have suffered a cardiac arrest after a binge of Internet games in which he did not eat or sleep. His death triggered an investigation into the problem of Internet addiction in Korea, where current estimates are that 4% of children suffer from this disorder.Computer recess time doubled between 8 and 18 years of age between 1999 and 2004. Estimates from China are much higher, 15% of children are considered addicts.
On March 18, 2010, the most widely read general and local information newspaper in Spain (20 minutes), shows the article "A clinic for children addicted to the Internet" where it points out that a London clinic has opened its doors to "rehabilitate" to children from 12 years, whose addiction to the Internet is such that their health is at risk, according to the newspaper "Evening Standard". The Capio Nightingale Hospital has already received calls from numerous parents to admit their children there, who fly into a rage when told to turn off the computer, to the point that, in some cases, they have required the intervention of the police to calm them down.
On Tuesday, November 29, 2011, in Argentina's NoticiasNet, in his article "More online than in bed", he told us that not only is the time that one spends connected to the Internet at work, but also the hours that one It is dedicated to the Web via cell phones and lately, tablet browsing has been added. Hand in hand with new and more complex devices, the time that people spend connected to the network has multiplied. What's more, 25 percent spend more time online than in bed. According to a study carried out in the United Kingdom and published by the local press, according to the Sky Broadband company, one in four people spends more time online than sleeping. And in the case of men it is worse. According to work, more than 25% of men spend six hours or more a day connected to the Internet,while in the case of women it is one in five or 20% of them.
He keeps telling us that one in 20 people is so obsessive about their messages that they check their email more than 20 times a day. Regarding social networks, the study determined that 14% of users visit their profile more than six times a day. With these data, it is clearly understood why more than half -51% - claim to suffer from "anxiety" if they are not able to check their email or Facebook and not to mention if, by mistake, they leave their cell phone in the car and worse, but much worse, if they leave it at home.
My dear reader, indisputably the use of technology and information is essential, but, with a but in capital letters, we must learn to handle it in a rational and intelligent way, never, but never in a pathological (unhealthy) way since it should be us (homo sapiens) those of us who manage and control technology and NOT the other way around.
Footnote:
1. Scientists at the University of Leeds, in England, sent 1,319 people between 16 and 51 years of age online questionnaires and analyzed their responses: they had to answer how much time they spent on the Internet and for what purpose they used it.
