Internet Disorders..

Most of us (half the world population, about 3.6 billion people) are connected to the mother of all networks, commonly called the Internet.

It may be the over-exposure to the Internet or sitting long hours in front of the laptop or mobile phone, browsing Internet, it exposes humanity to many illnesses and mental conditions. This article tries to list and create an awareness on some of the issues and suggests some remedies. 

Let us begin with some of the psychological disorders ..

• Phantom Ringing Syndrome
• Nomophobia (no-mobile-phobia)
• Cyber Sickness
• Facebook Depression
• Internet Addiction Disorder
• Online Gaming Addiction
• Cyber-chondria
• Search Engine Effect

Some of the physiological impacts are mentioned here.

1. Obesity
2. Back-pain or low backache
3. Headache
4. Eyestrain
5. Body weakness
6. Lack of concentration

The above Table I is taken from Kimberly Young's article ( click here for article ..) is a simple test to understand whether one is having Internet addiction. If you answer YES to five of the questions, you are psychologically ill with Internet addiction .. 

It requires some attention from us not to be on Internet for long periods of time and suffer from these mental and physical ailments. 

Internet gives us information and lots of leisure helping us to utlise our time more responsibly. It is up to us to be wise with our Internet time. The mantra to benefit from the Internet and at the same time enjoy physical and mental health is to take frequent breaks and engage in walking and other light physical exercises, like climbing stairs, walking to the shop for shopping, use the automobile less frequently (in fact, I have sold my automobile and use public transport and walking to add to my subconscious daily exercise chores.

This online quiz (click here for the quiz) can help you to know whether you are really addicted to the Internet ..

George..

Ref : 1. ROOIJ, ANTONIUS J. VAN  and NICOLE PRAUSEA, (2014), A critical review of “Internet addiction” criteria with suggestions for the future, Journal of Internet Addiction, Dec 2014, 3(4), 203-214.