ARE YOU AT RISK OF DIGITAL ADDICTION?
Overuse of smartphones is an addiction that makes neurological changes
in the brain similar to habitforming opioid painkillers such as
oxycontin, according to a new study. Getting hooked to social media also
causes behavioural changes associated with substance abuse, making
users withdraw socially and feel isolated, lonely, depressed and
anxious, found the study published this week in the journal
NeuroRegulation.
Much like cigarettes, digital technology is designed to be addictive. Pings, push notifications, vibrations and other alerts trigger our biological response to danger, triggering the same neural pathways that once alerted our ancestors to an imminent threat — like a predator attack — and compelling us to look at unnecessary bits of information so we could figure out how to fight or flee, and survive.
The loneliness is partly a consequence of replacing face-to-face interaction with communication that excludes body language and other physical signals.
People are also almost always multitasking while communicating, which doesn’t give the mind and body time to relax and regenerate. This results in ‘semi-tasking’, where people perform two or more tasks at the same time but do them half as well because they are not focused enough, said researchers from San Francisco State University.
The World Health Organization has included ‘gaming disorder’ in the draft 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the standard diagnostic tool that doctors, researchers and epidemiologists use to identify global health trends and diagnose and categorise conditions. It is scheduled to be published later this year.
It defines gaming addiction as a pattern of gaming behaviour (‘digital-gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’) characterised by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that it takes precedence over daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite negative consequences.
Everyone playing games on their phone or console is not an addict.
According to the ICD-11, for gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behaviour pattern must be of sufficient severity to significantly affect personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning, and should be evident for at least one year.
Much like cigarettes, digital technology is designed to be addictive. Pings, push notifications, vibrations and other alerts trigger our biological response to danger, triggering the same neural pathways that once alerted our ancestors to an imminent threat — like a predator attack — and compelling us to look at unnecessary bits of information so we could figure out how to fight or flee, and survive.
The loneliness is partly a consequence of replacing face-to-face interaction with communication that excludes body language and other physical signals.
People are also almost always multitasking while communicating, which doesn’t give the mind and body time to relax and regenerate. This results in ‘semi-tasking’, where people perform two or more tasks at the same time but do them half as well because they are not focused enough, said researchers from San Francisco State University.
The World Health Organization has included ‘gaming disorder’ in the draft 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the standard diagnostic tool that doctors, researchers and epidemiologists use to identify global health trends and diagnose and categorise conditions. It is scheduled to be published later this year.
It defines gaming addiction as a pattern of gaming behaviour (‘digital-gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’) characterised by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that it takes precedence over daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite negative consequences.
Everyone playing games on their phone or console is not an addict.
According to the ICD-11, for gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behaviour pattern must be of sufficient severity to significantly affect personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning, and should be evident for at least one year.
The inclusion of gaming disorder in ICD-11 will focus the
attention of governments and clinicians on the risks and lead to
prevention and treatment measures.
The red flags are playing for increasing amounts of time, thinking
about a game when not playing, lying to family and friends about how
long you play, getting restless, irritable and angry when asked to cut
down on the time spent with the gadget, and withdrawing from social
networks, family and hobbies.
Though addiction affects a very small proportion of digital- or
video-gamers, those who play regularly must stay alert to the amount of
time they spend gaming and whether it is affecting physical,
psychological and social functioning.
India’s first recorded case of gaming addiction was reported in
the International Journal of High Risk Behavior and Addiction in 2016 by
doctors from New Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, where two brothers
were hospitalised for a month of rehab in the psychiatry ward. The men,
aged 22 and 19, were socially and, to a large extent, physically
dysfunctional by the time their parents sought help.
They had been playing non-stop for days at a time, making no time for meals or bathing or studies.
Games are designed to make it difficult for people to stop
playing. Addictive games are both challenging and compelling and
periodically give players small wins to induce a rush of dopamine, the
‘reward’ chemical in the brain that triggers feelings of achievement and
pleasure.
Players are constantly egged on to beat a high score or reach the
next level for a hidden clue or target and given a feeling of being in
control as they create, discover and destroy worlds, defeat armies and
kill monsters. The anonymity of role-playing allows players to escape
reality and create their own unique character that they often become
emotionally invested in. Added to that are the bonds they form with
likeminded anonymous players who accept them as their online avatars,
and one can see why it gets harder and harder to exit that virtual
world.
There are things you can do to lower the risk of addiction. Turn
off alerts and push notifications and schedule periods of no media
interruption, so you can focus on offline activities, relationships and
conversations. A rather more extreme measure is to exit social media
accounts and limit conversations to texting, calling and meeting people,
which should perhaps be easier to do now that we know how social media
posts are exploited by industry to change behaviour and affect outcomes.
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