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Impacts of the Internet on the mental health of people

Authenticity Statement:
I ______________________________ declare that this work is my own original research and writing and that all
original sources used are credited.
Signature_____________________________________
Date_________________________________________

Assem Dulambayeva
Zhansaya Tatyeva
Global Perspectives & Project Work
Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Math & Physics
Almaty City, Kazakhstan
2015

Introduction
Every year much more people are exposed to mental disorders because of the
Internet. My first perspective is that the influences of the Internet are favorable for
psychological health. People, especially teens surf the Net because they have fun and want to
rise their mood. The second perspective is sitting for hours and hours they waste time, sitting
still they have a risk to have various problems as depression, anxiety, lack of focus. Moreover,
some actions, which are demonstrated in the Internet, upset thereby affecting them negatively.
Likewise, mind of teenager s more susceptible to psychological illness, because their mind is
young enough to be subjected to various diseases. My thesis is that the Internet has significant
influence on mental health (depression, anxiety, feeling of loneliness, stress, lack of
communication with real people) .
Context
The context is the issue of the Internets influences among teenagers, exactly in
teens lives. More precisely the impacts of the internet on mental health disorders among
teenagers. On mental disorders, I can relate depression, anxiety, stress, feeling of loneliness,
deprivation of multitasking, concentration patterns, lack of interest in daily activities, and
consistently feeling like a failure, Internet addiction, suicide, lack of communication between
people and thoughts that nobody understands them and nobody can rise their mood but the
Internet.
Aims
The aim of this research paper is to indicate problems referring to the mental
disorders which caused by usage of the Internet, indicate whether there are good sides or bad
sides among influences and to find out the features of appearance these diseases, overall
impacts of the Net on psychological impairments among people, also by identifying
influences.

Methods
To reach my goal, I used secondary and primary research methods. Thereby, I read
various articles, interviews, researches of research centers and institutes, did survey to identify
opinions and facts of people about the impacts on them. In my survey participated 66 people,
who answered at various questions about acceptable and inferior sides of Internet influences,
and their acquaintances who have such psychological impairments.
Body
There are two perspectives about whether Internet aftermaths on teens and
adolescents health at all are good or bad. My first perspective is that they are favorable.
People use the Internet to communicate with people from far range, stay in touch, watch
various videos and films, amusing cartoons, read curious articles and books, for online
shopping, online games etc. Thus the first reason why the influences of Internet usage are
beneficial to psychology self-distraction and boredom relief. To get acquainted with evidence
we can look through notes of Dr. Shannon M. Rauch, of Benedictine University at Mesa and
Whiteman H. (2014), in other words the evidence of this is work of people whom I mentioned
before. The second reason why the Internet usage favorable for mental health is that many
users put forth the Net to gain attention and boost self-esteem. The evidence is the study of the
research team, led by Dar Meshi of the Freie Universitt in Germany which was mentioned in
the report of Whiteman (2014). Accordingly, it is relevant data because the information is
related to my reason, and topic like: human browses at the photos and videos in the hope of
recipiency of likes, or to promote themselves, become man or woman with a lot of likes,
that means with attention of many, thereby boost self-esteem, which means that the
influences are acceptable. The counter-argument is that the impacts of this are problematic
( the second perspective). It is discussed hereinafter, in the next paragraph. Deducing this all,
the Internet usage in good sooth affect positively mental health of society.

Another perspective is that the Internet affect people in a negative way. Because the
Internet can cause mental health problems not only mental happiness ( when you are
happy). They can be harmful. The first reason why influences are adverse is that people
endure stress, addiction, cyberbullying (which affects in a doubtful way to mental health of
people), loneliness etc. The evidences are showed below. Sang-Min Whang, Ph.D.,1 Sujin
Lee, Ph.D.,2 and Geunyoung Chang, M.A (2003) remark that High dependency on the
internet of the internet addicted group of respondents was associated with interpersonal
difficulties and stress in reality. They pressed for avoiding loneliness by spending time with
shallow online friends thereby repelling from family and close people. So that the
researches explain that as a consequence of such dysfunctional social behaviors, they would
feel lonelier, because their need to belong is insufficiently met. Michele L. Ybarra, Ph.D
(2004) observes more than one in 20 young people report being the target of Internet
harassment which affect negatively people. Furthermore it observes that 54% of young
people with symptoms of major depression reported emotional distress following the Internet
harassment compared to 35% of young people with few or no symptoms of depression. 30%
of targeted young people report feeling very or extremely upset by the online incident. Along
with it, referring to the research of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression, Ward
and Piercarlo Valdesolo specific patterns of Internet use such as chatting, peer-to-peer file
sharing, all of them cause a propensity to experience symptoms of depression. The analysis of
Enough is Enough (EIE), an organization which endeavor to make the Internet use safer for
children and families, and Whiteman H. (2014) observes that 95% of teenagers who use
social media have experienced cyber bullying. At the same time the results of a study
published in 2010 in the American Medical Associations Archives of General Psychiatry and
confirm that cyber bullying increases peoples risks for mental health disorders. Moreover the
Commons health select committee (Campbell, 2014) in its report points out that promotion of
anorexia, self-harm and cyber bullying can affect negatively childrens and young adults mind

posing a danger to mental wellbeing. So reading this all we observe that public suffer from
negative sides of Internet usage, because of fake, shallow communication, being the target
of Internet harassment, such as cyber bullying etc. The second reason why influences are bad
is that public catch suicidal idea from the Internet. As evidence the study results of Yotaro
Katsumata, Toshihiko Matsumoto, PhD, Masahiko Kitani and Tadashi Takeshima, PhD (2008)
found out that 208 subjects were interviewed about history of suicidal idea, so most of them
caught it from the web and others from the adolescents. 15.9% respondents had this idea from
the Internet, 32,2% said that felt anxiety about not replying for their letters, emails. Then as
Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga Paul Roumeliotis and Hao Xu ( 2014) claim, cyber bullying
among teenagers between 14.31.8 can straight lead to suicide through the depression of
course. So in conclusion of this perspective according to Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark, Kiesler,
Mukophadhyay, and Scherlis (1998) proclamation the greater use of the Internet the greater
declines in social, increases in depression and loneliness, taking into consideration that a
psychological state is associated with social involvement, then it becomes obvious that the
greater use of it the worse a psychological state of users. Respectively, it is relevant data
because the information is related to my reason, and topic which I have developed before.
The counter- argument is that the Internet usage effects on mental health are good was
mentioned before in the previous paragraph.
Results
In my survey 58 people of 66 answered that the influences of the Internet on mental
health exist. In addition to this, 90,77% said that the feature of them are unkind and
unacceptable. When they are asked what is the most prevalent psychological disorder they
said suicide. At the questions such as whether internet is one of the of the reasons which cause
teen suicide and depression, obesity and anorexy or not, the volunteers submitted, with the
rate 89,39% 66,13% and 74,19% respectively to each problem. The results of my survey
indicates that the most susceptible to have such illnesses are teens unlike the adults, and as a

reason of it, respondents repute the youth, young habit of mind. They think that the psyche of
teens is more vulnerable and susceptible to have these sicknesses. To my question how to
decrease the quantity of patients and afflicted, or predict about half of them suggests to
censor, and less part of them proposes to make some restrictions to web-sites and
children/teens too. To my last question, whether have they heard about people who suffer
from the severe Net influences or not, 46 out of 66 gave a positive answer.
Limitations
One of the limitations is a program Survey Monkey with number of questions
only 10 and some incredible sources.
Conclusion
The Internet is a pervasive mode of peer interaction in the lives of young people
today. Year by year the technology develops, so that the amount of users grows, along with
the new era people, especially teens develop too. But such essential mortal issues as suicide,
even depression and cyber bullying will go in conjuction with the modern century. Influences
of the Internet on the psychological health will be inevitable. So as I observed in my survey, I
found out that more than half of people know such afflicted part of society who undergoes
such kind of sicknesses. Besides Internet has significant influence on mental health. Taking
into consideration my results of research, I conclude that young adults teenagers by using
too much the internet, can be exposed to anxiety, depression, disability to concentrate,
disability to switch to another activity or perhaps study. The impacts of the Internet are bad,
and should be restricted by the government. The implication is to make censorship stronger
and reinforce it.

References
Campbell, D. (2014, November 5). Mental health of children and young people at risk in
digital age. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/05/children-cyberbullying-self-harm-gamingmps-concern
Cyberbullying Can Lead to Substance Abuse, Mental Health Issues. (n.d.). Retrieved
February 26, 2015, from http://www.recoveryranch.com/articles/addictionresearch/cyberbullying-can-lead-to-substance-abuse-mental-health-issues/
Donnelly, L. (2012, July 8). Facebook and Twitter feed anxiety, study finds. Retrieved from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/9383609/Facebook-and-Twitter-feed-anxiety-studyfinds.html
Katsumata, Y., Matsumoto, T., Kitani, M., Takeshima, T. (2008) Electronic media use and
suicidal ideation in Japanese adolescents. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 744-746.
Retrieved from http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Direct.asp?
AccessToken=95QQ4IM8XQKKDD5P1MXDQXEXDQXR81X55M&Show=Object
Kraut, R., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukophadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998).
Internet Paradox: A Social Technology That Reduces Social Involvement And Psychological
Well-being? American Psychologist, 1017-1031. Retrieved February 25, 2015, from
http://paedpsych.jk.unilinz.ac.at/PAEDPSYCH/NETSCHULE/NETSCHULELITERATUR/KRAUTetal98/Krautetal
98.html
Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., Roumeliotis, P., Xu, H. (2014) Associations between Cyberbullying
and School Bullying Victimization and Suicidal Ideation, Plans and Attempts among
Canadian Schoolchildren. PLoS ONE 9(7): e102145. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102145

Whang, L., Lee, S., & Chang, G. (2003). Internet Over-Users' Psychological Profiles: A
Behavior Sampling Analysis On Internet Addiction. CyberPsychology Behavior, 6(2), 143150. Retrieved February 25, 2015, from http://mail.encognitive.com/files/Internet Over-Users'
Psychological Profiles - A Behavior Sampling Analysis on Internet Addiction.pdf
Whiteman, H. (2014, April 16). Social media: How does it really affect our mental health and
well-being? Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php
Ybarra, M. (2004). Linkages Between Depressive Symptomatology And Internet Harassment
Among Young Regular Internet Users. CyberPsychology Behavior, 7(2), 247-257. Retrieved
February 25, 2015, from http://innovativepublichealth.org/wpcontent/uploads/2009/10/CPB_10.2.pdf
Zur, O. (2014). Teen Violence, School Shootings, Cyberbullying, Internet Addiction, T.V. and
gaming Violence & Teen Suicide: Facts, Ideas, And Actions, Online Publication by Zur
Institute. Retrieved Februar,27,2015 from http://zurinstitute.com/teenviolence.html.

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