Does the internet impact my social life?

We have had a question asked. How is cyber addiction affecting personal relationships today? To answer this question I found a study called Relation between depression, loneliness, self-esteem and internet addiction. “In this study, analyzing the effects of depression, loneliness and self-esteem has been aimed in the prediction of the internet addiction levels of secondary education students.” (Ayas & Horzum, 2013) The researchers wanted to know if depression, loneliness, and self-esteem in teenagers had any relation to internet addiction.

One of the findings in this study is that people need to have social support and interaction to help lessen the effects of depression and loneliness. “Social support has a positive importance on individuals’ not sinking into depression and not feeling lonely. Since internet addicts usually abstract themselves from the social environment, they cannot benefit from the social support.” (Ayas & Horzum, 2013) They then go on to say that because the addict has withdrawn from the social environment they will turn to the internet for the help that they need. This then makes them lonelier because instead of interacting face to face with others they turn to a machine to try to fill their void. Because they are getting some ‘satisfaction/happiness’ from the computer they become more of an addict.

I personally know someone who has withdrawn from her social environment and lives her life through the internet. Things in her life were not going the way that she planned so she decided to get some help. She wanted to learn how to make herself happy. She first started out asking people for help but they didn’t always have an answer for her. So she did what a lot of us do, she Googled it. From her research she found some things that did help her. This was great! But then some other things went wrong so she again turned to the internet for help. This is when she discovered Pinterest. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pinterest and think that it is a very useful tool. I have a Pinterest account and use it frequently. Through my friend’s Pinterest use she got the idea in her head that she was not good enough.  Because of all these “ideal” pins she began to think that she was not skinny, pretty, or worthy of love. She started spending hours on Pinterest finding new pins of how to have the ideal body, makeup, hair, etc. She compared herself to these pictures so much that she did not find herself worthy of happiness. She slowly stopped interacting with her family and friends. She stopped doing things she loved because she was either on the computer or thought that she wasn’t good enough to be happy. She is so withdrawn now that she spends most of her day on the computer. When she does interact with others she is mean and harsh. She is not the same person anymore. It makes me sad to see what she has become.

I feel like I am on a mission to get people to go outside and interact with the world. “Instruments such as Facebook, wiki, weblog, twitter make individuals interact and increase their sharing on internet more. This situation make individuals spend more time on internet. From this aspect, technological advancement is likely to increase internet addiction day by day.” (Ayas & Horzum, 2013) I believe this statement to be true. Computers and the internet are fantastic tools. But that is all that they are. They are just tools not a means of socialization. If you want to socialize talk to someone face to face, go outside and explore, live your life. Have real experiences. Don’t just sit and look at pictures of others living their lives.

Be FREE!

 

Ayas, T., & Horzum, M. (2013). Relation Between Depression, Loneliness, Self-Esteem and Internet Addiction. Education, 283-290. Retrieved from http://search.ebsochost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=88141830=ehost-live