Cyberpsychology. Juan Moisés De La Serna
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alone in front of the television, knowing that after four hours of watching it, the child will be more likely to suffer from low self-esteem, and over time will be more exposed to depression and anxiety disorders, clinical conditions that will require in the future of appropriate treatment by the specialist.
Cyberaddiction:
But the health dangers these young consumers do not remain there, and although technology is a tool and as such depends on the use or misuse, we give it, it may have greater influence on life and relationships.
Currently, it is difficult to find a student who does not routinely use the Internet for their work or leisure, so they may suffer from Internet addiction.
Each time the incursion of new technologies is carried out at an earlier age, practically from the first years of life, children now have touchpads and with a few more years have their own Smartphones with Internet access.
Today, even in schools, the use of new technologies is encouraged, through touchpads instead of books, in addition to the teacher using his/her electronic board all connected to the Internet where specific consultation materials are designed for classes.
But when you start with the Internet, there is no limitation in its use, especially when you go into games or social networks, an activity that increasingly requires more time, until you without knowing, developed an addiction.
One of the most prominent risks in this area is that of technology addiction, since it must be borne in mind that any human substance or activity can become addictive provided that the following conditions exist:
- Loss of control of will.
- Use of excessive time in this activity by removing it from others, whether labor or social relations.
- Certain level of isolation, unless they are “social addictions”
- With negative consequences both economic, emotional and family, due to such dependence.
- With “inclusions” of thoughts, making it difficult not to think about it, and causing an elevation of anxiety and restlessness when you are without access to such addiction.
- With negative consequences on academic performance.
- In some cases, it also entails some personal neglect that can be shown in lack of hygiene.
All this explained by the same neuronal mechanisms that allows to tend to repeated behaviors, given for its pleasant and positive consequences thus facilitating learning.
It also happens with the use of new technologies, which, if they cease to be useful for work or daily life, and become “necessary” or “essential”, may be giving rise to a technological addiction, either to the “excessive” use of new terminals, Smartphone or touchpads, as well as the intensive and “uncontrolled” use of instant messaging services, such as Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter or Tuenti.
This has caused the emergence of novel phenomena that did not exist before, so they have had to create new terms to contemplate it, as is the case of the F.O.M.O. (Fear Of Missing Out), or fear of missing out on the latest, that is, the need to be aware of social networks at all times so as not to miss the last mobile device that has come out or the last video of your favorite singer, identified by the University of Essex (England) together with the University of California and the University of Rochester (USA) published in the scientific journal Computer in Human Behavior.
For its part, Villanova University (USA) has described for the first time a new phenomenon called “Sleep Texting”, which refers to the phenomenon of not having a regular sleep, as there are constant interruptions to read messages and send new ones. This phenomenon accounts for a decrease in the quantity and quality of sleep among young people, who are the main users who suffer from it.
In this sense it has been carried out by a study by the University of Washington and Lee University (USA) whose results have been published in the scientific journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture.
It analyzes the influence of the use of M.S.N. (acronym in English for text messages) in the health of university students. Eighty-three students participated in this study, where health quality was analyzed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, which provides information on three indices: exhaustion, sleep problems and social relationships.
We wanted to study the effect on these three indices based on the number of messages that were received and sent during the day, finding that the three indices were negatively affected as the number of messages that had to “manage” grew, but where the greatest effects were found with respect to sleep problems, where starting from “moderate” levels of messages were already beginning to cause high levels of anxiety and thus difficulties in falling asleep.
The lower quantity and quality of sleep will have consequences in “day life”, with a lower retention capacity and attention among students, and if this situation is maintained over time, it can even affect health.
Hence the importance of “educating” the youngest in the use of these electronic devices, since as indicated, these can generate problems of performance and concentration, in addition to affecting social relations and the most serious of all, It can affect your health, due to the maintenance of high levels of stress and lack of quality sleep.
And all this assuming that the person is “owner of his/her will”, that is, that he/she has not yet fallen into a technological addiction, which would have even greater negative effects. The main problem of detecting these types of situations is that parents do not know how to assess to what extent it is something “normal” or has already passed the line of appropriateness and has become unhealthy.
Likewise, the person who suffers it, despite realizing the difficulties and harmful consequences that it entails, is unable to recognize that they have a problem and that they need help from others to overcome it, even that they may need a specialist to overcome their addiction.
As can be seen in the previous result, technology can cause serious difficulties in the day-to-day life of the person, both that can put their health at risk, as in the case of damaging the quality and quantity of sleep due to having to answer message that they receive.
Today it is difficult to think that a young man does not own an account on Facebook, Twitter or Tuenti among others, since they were born in the era of social networks, considering themselves as “digital natives”, that is, those who were born after the decade of the eighties and that they always had access to this new technologies.
Those who have a few more years, those who were born before the 80s, have to make an effort to stay informed and trained with this of social networks, and that is what is called “digital immigrants”, that is, people who were born without these possibilities and now they have to enter this world, sometimes confusing and sometimes disconcerting, but in any case useful and necessary.
Just as previously it was requested for some jobs to have a driver’s license and a minimum educational level, now it is required that candidates have sufficient skills in handling computers and social networks. Following these new tools, unthinkable jobs have emerged a few years ago, such as Community Manager, responsible for forums and virtual communities, or the most technical ones responsible for promoting websites such as S.E.O. and S.E.M., which seek to achieve greater visibility in the social networks and on the Internet of a particular brand or company.
For their part, young people have been incorporating the tools offered by this new technology in their life, both academic and leisure, there are already many universities that partially or totally teach their teachings online, being able to connect from any fixed or mobile device, such as touchpads, iPads, or smartphones.
Teachers having a double function, that of organizing and recording the classes to be taught and that of virtual tutoring to solve the doubts that may have arisen from them.
This has made it possible to open the doors of universities to students from all over the world, with the only requirement that they have the necessary linguistic skills to follow the classes, and yes, a device with an Internet connection.
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