Do we have a disorder? We live in a world where technology has taken over everything. Where your best friend is your phone, where your social life happens through social networks, where you text more than you talk, where you express using emoticons more than facial expressions and where you’re so busy photographing everything that you forget to enjoy life. Time is spent facing the screen rather than facing people and places. Have we become slaves to technology? Could we even consider it a psychological disorder?
If the time you spend on gadgets leads to poorer performance at work or neglect of family responsibilities, then you have a problem. Some of us feel worried and anxious when we’re not connected. Many of us are angry or even outraged when our technology isn’t working.
If you forget your smartphone, would you go back for it, no matter the distance? Are you the person who says: “I can’t live without the internet”? If you answered yes to both questions, can we call you an internet addict? Maybe not. But we are dependent on our technology to a level that many feel is becoming problematic.
Internet addiction is a global issue that stands out in the UAE because of the country’s high internet penetration. Having access to the internet has become viewed as a right. But most of know at least one person unable to control their internet use, who spends way too much time online at the cost of other duties and social responsibilities.
However, there is no clear definition of internet addiction – there isn’t even clear agreement whether it is a psychological disorder at all. Some suggest that what seems like an addiction is really just a psychological problem in adjusting to a new medium. I disagree, because the internet has been around for decades now and the number of “addicts” is increasing not decreasing.
Internet-gaming disorder has been recognised by many clinicians. There are also many well-documented cases of severe harm and self-neglect. For example, in 2011, a gaming addict was reported to have died after playing an online video game for 40 hours straight at an internet cafe in Taiwan.
The games we play, the mobile phone we use to send text messages and the websites where we do our online shopping are all reflections of how the new technology is being used in all aspects of our lives – in most cases for the better. However, we have become too dependent on technology and maybe we ignore the fact that in some cases it can harm us too.
I feel that we are still in denial about the existence of internet addiction. I suspect in the next few years we will begin to see the emergence of serious psychological disorders associated with problematic internet use. The American Psychiatric Association has called for more research into excessive online gaming, with a view to recognising it as a legitimate psychological disorder.
As I wrote this, I was distracted continually by email and social-network notifications, which resulted in it taking much more time than was required.
Nouf Al Ammari is an engineering student at Khalifa University.
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