The Internet is on a constant uprise, from social media platforms to a wireless connection in the latest vehicles, the human race cannot seem to escape the digital age. As the younger generation consistently gets more involved with the relationship of this era, mental health decreases drastically. The Internet is one of the largest contributing factors to mental health issues among adolescents. Social media platforms are based on unrealistic expectations, social gatherings are incorporated in comments, and stories are posted to share every move. Bullying, violence, and emotional triggers also have a large standing on the web. Two of the biggest factors that contribute to the dilemma are Internet addiction and lack of empathy; both resulting in psychological issues that can carry on throughout life.
The negative impacts of daily Internet misuse can result in long term psychological factors, including Internet addiction. This rising problem can cause individuals to have negative relationships, academic and financial issues within their growing lives. These problems can consist of online backlash which can potentially result in broken relationships, failing grades from too much online activity and no focus factors, or even online spending or gambling addictions. As stated in a study done by the International Online Journal of Educational Sciences: “Internet addiction is also characterized by psychomotor agitation, anxiety, craving, depression, hostility, substance experience, preoccupation, loss of control, withdrawal, impairment of function, reduced decision-making ability, and constant online surfing despite negative effects on social and psychological welfare” (Akin and Iskender, 138). Despite all of these negative impacts that the Internet is capable of causing, people of all ages continue to utilize it daily. The construed outlook users obtain once on a domain such as Facebook, directly contributes to all of these impacts. Once overused, normal life is disrupted, potentially causing depression, a displacement of valuable social interaction leading to smaller circles, loneliness, and stress.
The Internet has in turn created a social barrier within the younger generations, giving little room for healthy interaction or communication. These attributes are viewed as normal in today’s society, thus eliminating room for improvement on the main websites that dominate our generations. Social media platforms are based on marketing schemes, like counts, and scrolls. Numerous individuals find themselves scrolling aimlessly, or constantly refreshing their feeds for new information to look at to pass the time, not realizing how much valuable reality they are wasting by being involved in the Internet’s grasp. Phones are firmly implanted in our palms as if our life depends on one device. Too often notifications are the source of excitement for a young following creating an unhealthy mindset. Not only does addiction accompany the Internet, but we are all a part of the ultimate business plan to destroy our reality completely and unhealthy relationship.
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Another crucial effect the Internet presents is providing a lack of empathy. Although there is plenty of love to go around, there is a high decline of empathy in the younger generation in today’s society. Face-to-face interaction is replaced with online communication, which prevents users from listening to the tone, seeing body language, and gathering social skills needed to have a healthy and reliable conversation. Assumptions, lack of knowledge, and ‘seeing what we want to see’ are all factors that are ingrained in online environments. Reality is yet again twisted to form a false pretense that is directly aimed at our society, and as human beings we give into the platform without regard to the after-effects. Internet trolling, causing problems for individuals on the Internet, is a very common term used for many users who lack empathy. Dark humor is very common, beliefs and controversy are sent on all platforms, creating divides in our society just by clicking send. Lack of common and courteous behaviors can result in serious issues online. Young adults present attitudes that would not normally be placed in a realistic environment, allowing bullying, criticizing, and toxic conversations to take place on social platforms. These aspects have the potential to result in mental health issues or acts of violence, even suicide. Numerous young adults have been victims of online abuse, as many have harmed themselves as a result or suffered from emotional distress. These outcomes directly correlate with the lack of empathy that surrounds the base of internet communication.
The Internet has many benefits. One of these benefits of the Internet is that it is the main form of communication. There are many pieces of equipment on the Internet that help us to communicate with each other. For example, Email, Facebook, Twitter and others. All these allow people to communicate with other people from around the world so that it can explore other different cultures and ethnicities. Also, today a lot of people use the Internet as the main source of information, because every second on the Internet, people are updating the information. For example, Google and Yahoo are search engine information on the Internet that provide all kinds of topics the information we need. The Internet has become successful because it provides a lot of entertainment that humans need. For example, today many people are watching or downloading free entertainment on the Internet, and many people are playing online games.
An online survey that was taken by 1000 young adults highlighted in the book ‘Computers in Human Behavior’, was given to measure the relationship between the Internet and empathy: “The findings show that spending time online does not displace face-to-face time nor reduce real-world empathy, and suggests that perhaps the lack of nonverbal cues in the online world contributes to overall lower levels of virtual empathy compared to the real world” (Carrier et al., 39). Given that this survey was done on young adults, it is clear that since the Internet has been very prominent during their upbringing, improper regulation has caused a lack of empathy and a rise in mental health problems among their generation. This in turn has led to terrible outcomes outside of the Internet and numerous acts that users cannot take back. Even with the long list of results from poor communication online, it still continues to take a toll on many individuals. This strong lack of empathy sits right next to Internet addiction, as it feeds off of our normal human values.
In conclusion, the Internet has a very critical outcome on the mental health of the younger generation. Consumed by the vast domains can in turn affect mental states, causing depression, anxiety, stress, and focus factors. The lack of communication face-to-face, in reality, creates a false reality, also ensuring a lack of empathy to be replaced with normal human behaviors. This can result in social issues, bullying, violence, or at the worst suicide. These two points prove that the Internet plays a huge role in the negative impacts on mental health in the younger generation. Proper regulation may assist in preventing false reality from affecting our youth, but with the world wide web surrounding our every move, it is hard to break free from its grasp. Although the Internet age provides us with many great outcomes for success, it can also be very detrimental to the well-being of many generations to come.
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