Communication is a means of connection. We live in such a community where we are interlinked and connected by technology; technology has now become inevitable and essential. The present struggle of man has been facilitated by various means of technology. It is well said that judicious use of technology is a boon and voracious use of technology is a bane that mars the very essence of communication.
The internet, uses of social media and online games are fraught with limitations. We have seen gullible people becoming victims of social media’s frauds and cybercrime. The excessive use of these online communications has created havoc in the social and psychological domains of men. Irrespective of age, people are rapidly becoming phone addicts, social media addicts, and online game addicts as a result, divesting them from human values, and they become insensitive human beings.
The concept of man as a social animal is depleting day by day. Many social and psychological problems creep into life. These problems are based on the injudicious use of technology. Some people are wasting precious time. Relationships are severing and becoming insensible. Fissures are developing in families; mental health and hygiene are deteriorating for the victims. Physical strength and social concern are diminishing by what we now call phone mania. Phone mania is a state of social psychological illness and is now described as nomophobia by clinical psychologists. It is a state of psychological condition when people have a fear of being detached from a mobile phone or connectivity. It is one of the most demanding problems before clinical research centers.
Cell phone addiction has dangerous health hazards. The cell phone mania is caused by the overuse of smartphones. We have a multitude of media facilities and forums. Billions of people across the globe use it, but few of them know about fair use and its utilities; it kills our precious time if we fail to check and control ourselves from excessive use of this small gadget.
Studies have revealed the stark reality of tech anxiety among children and youth. Even addiction among some people has reached the level that addicts feel life without it impracticable and impossible. The cell phone Mania is proving more dangerous now, even much more than alcoholism and smoking. There is a surge in cell phone abuse and other related incidents across the world. No doubt, due to new technology in communications, electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers, tablets, and other sophisticated devices have proved friendly and fruitful by and large, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity, career, profession, and economic status. On the other hand, these devices play spoilsport, causing behavioural aberrations due to addiction or overuse. The use of mobile phones during eating, driving, and walking has caused many problems and accidents besides psychosocial problems.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the overuse of mobile phones as dependence syndrome, so preventive and precautionary measures are necessitated. The problem has percolated into public health; many harmful radiations have caused a threat to eyesight, mental composure, and mood swings which directly affect the behavioural domain of an individual IN the family, workplace, and in society. Though the cell phone was considered a friend due to its positive psychological function, to overcome distances in communication and relationships, it deals with solitude and conquers isolation as it acts as a multimedia antidepressant and anti-anxiolytic. But now it is observed some mobile phone functions are quite contradictory, extremely adverse, and causing social psychological illness.
The radio frequency emitted by mobile phones is 1000 times more than from base stations, thus mobile phones can be a great source of any adverse health effects. The overuse of mobile phones has steered us into recognizable psychological illnesses such as personal illness, insecurity, loneliness, lack of confidence, mood fluctuations, sleep disorders, insomnia, neck pain, rigidity, dry eyes, computer vision syndrome, weakness, lack of appetite, hunger, thumb and wrist weakness, increased frequency of Quervain’s consosynovisus, delusion, auditory and tactile hallucination, in students mobile phone addiction causes mental health problems.
The mobile phone addiction behaviour in students has shown an absolute relation to depressive disorder, obsessive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, habitual behaviour, and mobile addiction. Internet use disorder (IUD). Individuals suffering from IUDs would experience preoccupation with the internet and subsequently suffer from withdrawal symptoms if he/she is disconnected from the internet. These are the main issues that affect our society, and the majority of victims and their families do not understand as there is not much publicity of these issues in society.
The parents fail to assess the victims; as a result, their relations suffer, and commonly we take it casually. The need of the hour is to start the awareness about mobile phone abuse and addiction so that future losses can be averted. Bullying, withdrawal, depression, and anxiety are some of the causes of this new type of addiction.
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Dr Imtiyaz Rasool Ganai