As we move further into a new digital age, it’s becoming increasingly evident that people of varying ages, but especially young people, suffer from chronic online use, and what’s worse, many know about it but continue to ignore the warning signs.
Most people now have a smart device that they carry around with them everywhere for directions, taking photos and so many more regular tasks, making it hard to live without one. It’s such an ingrained part of our society to be able to always have access to the internet or social media that now many can’t even imagine life without it.
“I’ve seen people trying to sneak their phones in class just to scroll on TikTok,” Malaina Rolack (9) said. “It’s affected them by making them not pay as much attention in class, making [their] grades drop.”
Internet usage has become less a tool for living life and instead a way to escape life in the real world, immersing ourselves in fake lands, whether through gaming, bingeing or scrolling, and avoiding the things that stress us out the most. It’s an addiction more than anything else, and it’s starting to be recognised as that in the health community.
The World Health Organization has officially recognized gaming disorder in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is when gaming starts to take over your life, becoming something you impulsively do and your main priority over nearly everything else, sometimes including even bathing or eating. Some health professionals are trying to have internet addiction and social media use disorder added to the ICD as an actual medical condition akin to gaming disorder. This gives the issue more of the attention it deserves, so hopefully, soon, families and individuals can start to solve this problem with the help of medical care.
Excessive screen time has already been proven to lead to a lot of physical and especially mental health issues. Being online too much, which experts find to be more than 1-2 hours per day, can have some mental health implications, including an increase in stress and anxiety, addictive behaviors, Attention Deficiency Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)—or ADHD-like symptoms—and increased loneliness. It can also have physical health implications: sleep interference, obesity, an increase in heart problems, hypertension, lack of hunger, lower insulin levels and vision problems. All of these problems can lead to a low quality of life and, in extreme cases, even suicidal ideation.
“Students have developed an inability to sustain their attention for significant periods of time,” Columbia Academy (CA) Geography teacher Ms. Jennie Bradd said. “Students are also used to Googling [or using ChatGPT] for answers instead of reading and putting the information together in their own words. This has affected them in negative ways as the quality of thinking has overall gone down.”
People are spending so much time on social media and devices that we’re overconsuming to the point of lowering our attention spans. We have basically everything we could ever want or need as close as a click away, making efforts to do anything that takes longer feel like too much effort. There’s no effort involved in most of what we do online, especially scrolling through social media. It’s free dopamine, which isn’t natural and can quite literally lead to addiction. One of the other unnatural side effects of these kinds of quick dopamine hits is as the addiction ramps up, it becomes harder to release said dopamine for pleasure, ultimately leading to bouts of incurable boredom.
There’s so much stimulation on the internet that it’s not satisfying to watch content or participate in it anymore because it’s the same thing over and over again, even if the content itself is different. There’s no meaning or purpose to scrolling, which makes us not enjoy it in the long term, even though our brains trick us nearly every time into craving it in the short term. As humans, we enjoy things more when they’re meaningful; scrolling is pointless, and we know it.
If we don’t do something about social media, internet addiction and being chronically online, our future is going to look pretty bleak. A messy house full of takeout containers and in the center of it all, you could find yourself sitting on your phone, scrolling through social media with no purpose in life but to stay alive.
We don’t have to let this happen, especially since it’s only going to get worse. If we can’t agree on the best course as a society, we can at least do something as individuals, lessening our activity and trying to reduce our reliance on the internet and social media by going outside, spending time with friends and family, or participating in hobbies you enjoy that do not require the internet.
