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Internet addiction is a disease of the future

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
 
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02 July 2013, 09:00

Of the 20 Ukrainian students interviewed, only one can not visit the Internet pages daily. What is this: a modern need or a new kind of dependence? Experts are inclined to the second opinion.

Symptoms of the new disease are found in most of the younger generation. Children who have experienced stress from the absence of the Internet, describe a feeling of complete emptiness and fear. Such attacks of anxiety, according to psychologists, stand alongside abstinence in drug addicts and alcoholics. The statistical results of the Goreshin Institute are disappointing: over 70% of Ukrainian youth do not think of life without immersion in the World Wide Web, and almost half of teenagers have a painful dependence on communication through Ineta.

Manic necessity of finding in the virtual world is a disease of the future, acquiring world scale. Official medicine is seen as a deviation from the norm so far. A number of countries, such as China and the United States, attribute this type of dependence to mental disorders and are already creating special medical institutions.

In adolescence, the ailment is particularly hard to resist. The first signs of the disease in young people associated with the emergence of anxiety, if within 15 minutes were not checked mail, chat, etc. Psychologists reinforce the symptoms of a sedentary lifestyle, a decrease in academic performance, non-contact outside the network, which threatens to worsen the physical condition, as well as the development of serious mental disorders.

Why explain themselves to the students themselves? Social networks, online games, finding information for study, downloading music and movies - these are the most common list of "acute need". The time of sitting at the monitor varies from a few hours to a whole day.

What happens to teenagers when the Internet disappears? They begin the very breaking. A psychologist from St. Petersburg conducted independent testing. Young people (12-18 years) were deprived for eight hours of "gifts" of civilization - TV, mobile communications, radio and computer. The results of the experiment were shocking - only 4% of the group of volunteers managed to survive such a restraint. The remaining adolescents had attacks of dizziness, sweating, suffocation, abdominal pain, nausea and panic attacks.

Replacing the real life of a virtual is fraught with a number of problems. Being on the net is very easy to communicate even with strangers. Try to do the same thing when you go out into the street. For sure, you just dumbfounded. Sitting in front of the monitor, children stop performing basic hygienic rules and do not have time to fully eat. Once - waiting for another exciting dive.

The concept of internet addiction disorder was introduced by Ivan Goldberg in 1995 and is equated to the problems of drug addiction and alcoholism.

It would seem that Internet is not as dangerous as drug and alcohol dependence. However, these disorders have the same principle - to find themselves in a comfortable illusory space, only the means are different. Life on the web does not require you to be truthful, you can be anyone and deceive as much as you like. All this gives rise to a feeling of boundless freedom, joy, euphoria. Is not it a new drug?

Of course, the ability to use the Internet helps in learning, opens the horizons for finding a new job or acquiring the necessary skills. Psychologists are frightened by possible attacks of causeless aggression, irritability. Only a sense of proportion, a kind of golden mean that parents should control, can lead to the harmonious development of a young person.

trusted-source[1], [2], [3]

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