Mental health of internet users

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You forgot those with Napoleon Complexes.

 

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I think its quite possible that abusing anything is indicative of mental health issues. I remember when I first went to Saudi Arabia, I was surprised by how much more use I was getting out of my mobile phone. I did not even own one in India, because the landline was enough and there was no need for a phone 24/7, most of the time was spent with either family or friends or colleagues in patterns which were so set in their ways that it was unnecessary to contact anyone on the go. Now its imperative to have a cell phone, because the set ways no longer exist and in fact, if you switch off your phone when you leave work you are likely to face a reprimand from your immediate boss the next time you meet.

Likewise, when I went to the US, I received emails at 4 am for jobs which I would begin at 6 am. This was very strange to me, since I had not previously worked in an environment where people communicated important work related information in this impersonal and time constrained manner. I was expected to check my email at all time points from 4 am to 12 am before undertaking any task, lest there be some changes in procedure which had been decided in the interim. It was no joke to find myself freezing in the snow locked out of a facility at 6 am because I did not have a computer at home to check emails at dawn telling me that the person with the key would be coming in later.

It took me a month to get a cell phone in Saudi Arabia and adjust myself to a work environment where supplies would come in at any time of day or night and I was at the mercy of a cellular phone outside work hours - for all practical purposes I was on duty 24/7. It took me just slightly longer to invest in a laptop where I was on duty 365/24/7, about two years to get on facebook and other social networking sites and about four years to discover online forums. None of these were of any significance for the 30 years before that. You can imagine how much more relevant it became when I came back from a two week tour and found myself in danger of losing funding because I was on the road and had no access to emails during my annual vacation. Apparently, being on vacation is no excuse for not checking in online.

So is compulsively checking emails or posting on social networking sites a sign of declining mental health? Depends on which society you want to live in. I attended a talk by a psychologist recently and her definition of mental health issues was related to the impact and interference it had on your "normal" life. However, she had no definition of normal life.

That said, I haven't noticed a preponderance of mental health issues in internet users as compared to say, video game users or cell phone users. I notice the approach to technology differs from culture to culture, you have only to visit Asian cell phone stores to see the difference. I think the level of interaction is on a completely different level being simultaneously more intrusive and more distant and some of the conversations on online forums are impossible in real life. In which case, it would be time to check into that adage, the only normal people are the ones you don't know.

 

yup!

 

This is a smart, mostly anonymous place to be. A safety zone for our inner thoughts, no matter how tormented they may be.

 

According to psychology 101, substance abuse is indicative of mental health issues. However, I think it depends on the social milieu. Some of the things which predicate higher substance abuse, for example, early maturity, listening to rock and roll music, lower religiosity and higher intelligence, are also predicators for mental health. Low emotional intelligence is a pretty sound indicator of both.

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http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog.../201010/why-intelligent-people-use-more-drugs

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http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/03/casual_fridays_music_fans_favo.php

Not really. The expectation of being available even off duty is something common to most work environments today. At least if you're a professional in the field of health.

We did, actually, question it several times but apparently this is the status quo for those working in research especially biological research in an academic environment. Not everyone has a PI who gets up at 4 am of course, but this was an example of how "normal" life blurs the definition of what constitutes mental health issues.

I'm surprised you would think that. I enjoyed it. I worked long hours it is true and it was surprising to be expected to be available off duty, but it was no hardship.

Exactly. And yet, I still have friends in India who do not even use email or have a personal computer at home. Same school same society

Did I give the impression that I suffered? Not at all, I indicated how my "normal" life was redefined and how the use of the internet - frequency, duration - is dependent on the kind of social milieu you find yourself in.

For example, I would not be surprised to find that most people who are on online forums are in the same social bracket as those who use drugs - ie they are young, intelligent, listen to rock and roll and quite possibly are early maturers; in addition, on sciforums, they are also more likely to be atheist/

What do you think?

That assumes that mental health means being average or close to it. Some people may prefer that but as someone who has always been single minded and driven I have to say the attractions of being average are rather poor. I prefer people who think for themselves rather than use social norms to define and decide their own behaviour.

Lets just say that non-conformity is habit forming.

No I've never somehow got into either the video game or the cell phone revolution. But yes, seeing people talking to themselves on the street, in the car, on the elevator, down the stairs, well, is it normal or is it insane? Perhaps its just change and every generation has to adapt to the normal that follows it.

If you have kids today and they are not computer or internet savvy, they are decidedly out of step with the world.

 

Ok, first of all, ya need to stop beating around the bush..Are you trying to say something here?...You're being extremely vague.:bugeye:

Can't say I'm any more depressed than anyone else here...

Paranoid? Not really...Those people really are out to get me!

Religious fixations? Oh God no...hehe

Schizo? No we are not schizo..

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S.A.M: Someone with OCD says what?

 

If at first you don't succeed, try try again?

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In my undergraduate courses, one of the psych courses I took was abnormal psychology. That was when I realised exactly how much of a soft science psychology is. I think normal is a hypothetical measure that no one can meet. Can you name one person you know who does not qualify for at least one of the "disorders" in Textbook of Abnormal Psychology?

My friends three year old kid figured out what the mute button is, while my 70 year old father struggles with the universal remote. We are not the same people our parents were, how can we satisfy a norm that is based on their minds?

 

Not really sure..But, I'll bet they would say it more than once..

 

I also had friends who were like that, in private matters.
One would send me an email about something, and then call me an hour later why I don't reply. And this was back in the times of dial-up modems.
(I broke off with her later.)

I think this is indicative of lack of empathy and of a lack of practical organisation skills.
New technologies introduce possibilities that some (many?) people are not psychologically or practically equipped to deal with. So these lacks can then manifest similarly as mental problems, or exacerbate already existing mental (and practical) problems.

Without good personal organisation skills, new technologies can easily swallow up an otherwise sane and functional individual.

 

Thats true. Access is a two way street. Nowadays, I have access to people I haven't seen for decades, without even meeting them. But they also have access to me. This creates more demands on my time and sometime its frustrating to try and meet everyone's expectations. At other times, its rewarding to be able to connect with people you cherish and who are far away.

But yes, in some ways its a downer that you have to be "on call" even when you are not officially at work. But I have friends who are doctors who have to be on call, pilots who are on standby, cops who have to go when summoned and crew who have to go in when there is an emergency. Being accessible has become easier and there are always people who will exploit it. But it comes with the field. Even schoolteachers give holiday homework.

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I would say, if its stressing you out, you need to address it. I moved from the US because I found the work environment too intrusive. It was not possible to get away even for a few days without a sense of guilt. Now its the other extreme. In India, when you sign off, you sign out.

 

I think that people have a need to talk about moral and spiritual topics, in one way or another.

In our society that strives to be democratic and egalitarian, there are few avenues where (every)one could do that IRL. I have the impression that IRL, we are ideally supposed to be "rationally neutral" - not really have a strong stance on anything and be infinitely flexible.

The internet provides opportunities for satisfying that need to talk about moral and spiritual topics, and to take strong stances.

 

The internet allows people to be themselves a lot more. In real life people stop short of saying what they really think, saving themselves any embarrassment. So people are more likely to be brutally honest on a forum about what they think.

If you could read minds in real life and know what that guy next to you on the bus was thinking you would probably move away....until you realised the driver is also some sort of psycho!

 

The internet as an evolution has moved from early warning/defence systems, to scientific communication/shared experimentation, to greater communication between companies and eventually the mass marketed "consumer" version that we see to day.

During these periods we've seen various "generations" of intranet/internet user, starting with people that optimally had higher IQ's and over time giving way to their consumer weight over IQ.

In the early days of the internet when their was no Wiki's, information was present and more accurate but likely in an intellectual format that most might have trouble comprehending. Information was free prior to people working out that perhaps they could make money out of it.

As soon as the influx of consumers started increasing on the internet, the influx of junk started to increase.

The first major consumers of the internet were those that could either afford the internet revolution as a folly(Rich folk with plenty of expendable cash) or those that had been governmentally funded due to various impairments.

Obviously over recent decades this has become a greater variety of people and stretched to those that are classed as poor.

Recent studies of the Internet and SMS texting have placed concerns that this 24/7 lifestyle that people attempt to lead is leading youth astray by introducing them to new forms of peer pressure and new ways of getting involved in sordid activities they would of otherwise likely missed. (The whole smoking, drink, drugs and crime spree)

There is also the potential for some to become addicted to the internet by spending too much time online checking their facebook accounts, tweeting, blogging or otherwise participating in forums etc. This generates a number of potential problems like the alienation with the outside world or a form of overload in regards to information. (Some adults use to think that kids could be "Know-it-all", now they are armed with Google and a Wikipedia, it's a thousand times worse, if not a googleplex.)

Obviously addiction effects the mind of the addict, what's worse is if that addiction is based upon the "posed" human interaction of a counterpart that might be falsifying who they are and how they perceive the addict. (Namely they could manipulate them to think they were involved in an online romance, they could manipulate them through abuse to become moody and act out online etc.)

In essence I would suggest the internet is actually a very large social experiment that a number of doctors hiding in a lab somewhere have yet to conclude.

 

I doubt it. Most people don't have the leisure for such debate or the intellectual stamina or endurance to survive them even if they do jump in. That said, there are plenty of offline fora for such debate, although you are right in saying that western culture is stifled in such debate by the need for political correctness except when it comes to the current social scapegoat of the day.

 

How would you explain the considerable popularity of soap operas, or shows about crime and justice?

Soap operas are focused on moral and spiritual topics. Of course, on a level that academics generally do not find appealing. But for many people, there is a considerable thrill, and relevance, in witnessing the moral and spiritual dilemmas that the characters find themselves in.
Afterwards, the viewers talk about it, and these talks are examples of moral and spiritual reasoning.

Internet forums provide more direct, and more abstract opportunities for the discussion of such topics.