You may be a student, housewife, fast moving corporate or a serviceman but you will agree that in the last one decade your relationship with technology has changed drastically, most of you may be reaching out for your smartphone as soon as you wake up to check emails, birthday notifications, and text messages. The rest of the day too, you’re constantly on a PC, tablet, mobile device or on a laptop for personal or professional use. You’re messaging, browsing, friending, tweeting and/ or sharing.
It’s great that we today have the advanced technology that helps us to connect with people across the globe instantly, but there’s also a sense of disconnection to technology advancement. The psychology community believes that the rapidly changing technology and growing human dependence & addiction with it, will possibly going to create emotional, psychological and relationship issues in the coming days. Psychologist and Relationship Counsellor Shivani Misri Sadhoo today shares how technology can harm your relationships.
1. Depression & social Media
Heavy use of social media has also been shown to negatively affect mental health. A recent study from the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine examined depression rates in younger adults. The research determined that the more time young adults use social media, the more likely they are going to be depressed. The findings from this study could potentially help clinical professionals aid depressed patients.
Why would heavy social media usage cause depression? The exposure to “highly idealized representations of peers on social media elicit feelings of envy and the distorted belief that others lead happier, more successful lives,” says the study.
People that engage in activities of little meaning on social media makes them feel like they are wasting time. Spending more time on social media increases the exposure to cyber-bullying, thus causing feelings of depression. And social media fuels “Internet addiction,” which is considered a psychiatric condition linked to depression.
2. Distraction
According to a 2015 survey of 453 adults across the United States, nearly half of all the respondents reported being distracted by their phones in the presence of a romantic partner.
Those moments spent focused on technology can quickly add up to a sizable portion of a person’s waking hours. The same allotment of time that just a few years ago might have been considered an online addiction is now commonplace in smartphone use, especially amongst younger users. It represents a shift in how people spend their time and where they focus their energy.
Technology can also be a distraction when it is not in use. When briefly disconnected from their smartphones in a 2014 study, self-described heavy users indicated having higher anxiety levels than moderate users after just 10 minutes.
3. Tech Overload Leads to Cocooning
Technology for some people has turned into an addiction, so much so that taking them out to the physical world has become a difficult task . Conversations through social media and email take the place of traditional interactions and discussions; eventually, a person doesn’t even need to leave the house to communicate with others. The cocooning phenomenon leads to social isolation that can be crippling for some.
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