Internet influence on adolescents

How Internet Addiction Impacts Teens Health
Introduction
The hypothesis of this study is that the Internet influence on adolescence can be negative in terms of mental, social and emotional health if Internet engagement is not moderated.
This research is important because more and more studies are showing that teenagers are getting addicted to technology, to mobile devices, to social media, and that they have not developed important communication skills needed for the real world. Thus, they are unable to develop real world relationships and support networks, and instead rely on Internet-based relationships, which are superficial and not sufficient for real sociality.
Adolescents are the primary population affected by Internet and social media addictions—but these addictions can last into adulthood.
The traditional thoughts on the topic are that social media and the Internet are new media and teens turn to them because their peers are there and they can communicate and share information on these virtual platforms more easily. There is little awareness in the public view of the negative effects of too much Internet.
Internet and Depression in Adolescents
Cheung, Chan, Lui, Tsui & Chan (2018) examined the correlations between Hong Kong adolescents’ Internet use and self-esteem levels, loneliness levels and depression in a sample of 665 teens. The major factor they found that correlated with Internet addiction was online gaming. They also found that self-esteem levels were negatively correlated with Internet addiction while loneliness and depression were positively correlated with Internet addiction. The data was self-reported based on a questionnaire distributed through email to the sample, obtained through schools in Hong Kong. The researchers concluded that the psychological well-being of adolescents may depend upon moderating Internet usage. However, the study was limited by the fact that it only looked at those three variables and did not include others that might impact the young person’s level of loneliness or depression—such as family life, support network, religious or philosophical beliefs, socio-economic status and so on. It could be that other factors are causing depression and loneliness in teens and to cope with this they are turning to the Internet the way other teens turn to drugs or alcohol. It is possible that the Internet is a kind of self-medication for teens—but this is not really explored in the study by Cheung et al. (2018). They simply show a positive correlation between Internet addiction and loneliness and depression in Hong Kong teens. The reasons for this correlation could be virtually anything.
The study by Agarwal, Verma and Agarwal (2017) looked at 900 adolescent students who were involved in some form of violence in the prior six months. The students were surveyed and it was found that 650 of them used the Internet, nearly 500 of them had been bullied, while nearly 400 of them had minimal depression. The only significant relationship the researchers could establish was that depressed teens were more likely to be the victims of bullying than non-depressed teens. Any correlation between depression and Internet usage was definitely not depicted as being causative. The study did not reveal any surprising evidence, but it did suggest that depression and Internet usage may be linked, though it could not provide details on the reasons for this relationship.
Internet Addiction and Substance Use Disorder in Adolescents
As Festinger et al. (2016) show, the Internet has become a tool for adolescents to obtain illicit drugs. Prescription drugs can be obtained from Internet pharmacies without a prescription and in the study by Festinger et al. (2016) it was found that teens are using the Internet to obtain pain killers and other drugs. These teens then go on to develop substance use disorders, which in turn impacts their mental and physical health and their adulthood. Festinger et al. (2016) used a convenience sample of 1800 participants and found that 2.4% of teens in the sample were using the Internet to obtain illicit drugs. They also deduced that dealers could be using Internet pharmacies to obtain drugs that they sell to teens on the street. However, one limitation of the study is that relied upon self-reporting, which is not always the most accurate and effective way to obtain data from a population.
Law (2019) finds that adolescent Internet addiction is increasing around the world and impacting teens’ in their physical, psychological, social, and spiritual domains. Family, peers, groups and access to media all impact addiction. Law (2019) examined how various family processes, such as parental behavioral control, parental psychological control, parent-child relational qualities, and family functioning, might impact or influence adolescent Internet addiction among the Chinese population. Law’s (2019) sample included more than 3000 Chinese adolescents. The researcher found that the better parental behavioral control and parent-child relational qualities existed the less likely adolescents were to be addicted to the Internet. In other words, if parents have good relationships with their children and set effective boundaries and parameters on when the Internet can and cannot be used and for how long, the child is less likely to become addicted to it.
Sajeev Kumar, Prasad, Raj and Abraham (2015) conducted a cross-sectional study to test the correlation between Internet addiction using Young’s Internet Addiction Test and substance abuse among teens. 800 teens participated in the study and 13% were found to test positive for Internet addiction while 5% were found to use alcohol. 8.3% of the sample was found to use some type of substance (glue, drugs, alcohol), and 1.8% of the sample was found to have a substance dependency. The researchers noted a significant association between substance use disorders and excessive Internet usage, and their recommendation for future research was to test the effects of Internet usage on the brain development of adolescents.
Internet Can Lead to Suicide in Adolescents
Gorzig (2016) shows that there is a significant association between teens who experience cyberbullying, online content related to suicide, and suicide ideation among the same teens: in other words, the Internet for some adolescents becomes a place of extreme vulnerability as these young people can be the victims of cyberbullying; not knowing where to turn, they began reading about suicide online, and before they know it they are thinking about taking their own lives. Gorzig (2016) obtained data from nearly 20,000 adolescents about their online experiences in Europe. The data was self-reported, which indicates a similar limitation to the data obtained by Law (2019). However, the variables selected allowed Gorzig (2016) to collect information on the participant’s cyberbullying role, viewing of web content related to self-harm, and suicide intentions. Gorzig found that “viewing of web content related to self-harm was higher for all cyberbullying roles, especially for cyberbully-victims” (p. 502). Gorzig recommends that some investment in web resources that can help teens who are thinking about suicide be provided, as the study indicated that teens would also be amenable to web-based interventions.
Summary
In summation, it appears that Internet usage and addiction have been found to correlation with depression and loneliness in teens and also to substance use disorders. Suicide ideation has also been linked to cyberbullying. Whether these negative mental health, emotional health, social health, and physical and spiritual health effects are directly caused by Internet usage or whether teens turn to the Internet for comfort and for self-coping is unclear from the research. More study needs to be done on identifying a causal relationship rather than a mere correlational or associative relationship. It is not surprising that depressed teens should be found using the Internet. After all, these teens have grown up as digital natives and the majority of them have access to the Internet, so they are going to use it. Teens who suffer from loneliness and depression could be suffering from these issues for a variety of reasons, but the studies do not explore these issues.
One issue could be that the studies are primarily quantitative and are not qualitative in design. The research could benefit from looking at more qualitative research that is exploratory in nature to see if there is any evidence that Internet addiction is causing depression or loneliness or vice versa. An exploratory study using the interview method could help to shed light on the nature of the relationship. Thus, future research on this topic should focus on obtaining qualitative studies to see what researchers have found with respect to the nature of the relationship between Internet addiction and depression, suicide and overall health.
References
Agarwal, A. K., Verma, A., & Agarwal, M. (2017). Internet victimization and depression among adolescents, 14(3), 60-62.
Cheung, J. C. S., Chan, K. H. W., Lui, Y. W., Tsui, M. S., & Chan, C. (2018). Psychological well-being and adolescents’ internet addiction: A school-based cross-sectional study in Hong Kong. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 35(5), 477-487.
Festinger, D. S., Dugosh, K. L., Clements, N., Flynn, A. B., Falco, M., McLellan, A. T.,& Arria, A. M. (2016). Use of the internet to obtain drugs without a prescription among treatment-involved adolescents and young adults. Journal of child & adolescent substance abuse, 25(5), 480-486.
Görzig, A. (2016). Adolescents’ viewing of suicide-related web content and psychological problems: Differentiating the roles of cyberbullying involvement. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(8), 502-509.
Law, Y. M. (2019). Family factors and internet addiction among junior secondary school students in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Doctoral Dissertation.
Sajeev Kumar, P., Prasad, N., Raj, Z., & Abraham, A. (2015). Internet addiction and substance use disorders in adolescent students-a cross sectional study. J. Int. Med. Dent, 2, 172-179.