Children who are hooked on computer games, the internet or their mobile phone can now seek help from what is thought to be the first dedicated technology addiction service for young people in Britain. Skip related content

Capio Nightingale Hospital, in central London, launched the service following calls from parents concerned about their children’s behaviour.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Richard Graham said parents told him their children flew “into a rage” when they were told to turn off their computer and police had even been called to sort out the rows.

Dr Graham, who is leading the new addiction treatment, said services need to “adapt quickly” to help young people affected by technology addiction - who he dubbed “screenagers” - rather than sticking with the same treatment models used for substance abuse.

“Mental health services need to adapt quickly to the changing worlds that young people inhabit, and understand just how seriously their lives can be impaired by unregulated time online, on-screen or in-game,” he said. “We have found that many of the existing services fail to recognise the complexity of these situations, borrowing from older models of addiction and substance misuse to very limited effect.

“This is why Capio Nightingale Hospital has launched the first Young Person Technology Addiction Service, which we hope will address the underlying causes of this addiction to transform screenagers back into teenagers.”

The treatment aims to increase off-screen social activities and improve the person’s confidence in face-to-face situations, the lack of which may have made them more susceptible to technology addiction.

There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said.
The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.
The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems.

The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire.
Recruitment was via links on social networking sites. People were asked how much they used the internet and for what purposes.
They were also asked a series of questions to assess whether they suffered from depression.
It should not be concluded, however; that heavy internet use causes depression. It is more likely in fact that those suffering symptoms associated with depression are likely to find longer periods of access to the internet fits more comfortably with their general well being, in comparison, perhaps, to getting a job or doing the washing up.
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A psychologist is urging people to get off Facebook and other social networking sites, and get a life instead.

Dr Aric Sigman says the amount of time we spend with each other has slumped dramatically and in turn is damaging our health.

He says our devotion to such sites could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, and the function of arteries, and influence mental performance.

Levels of hormones such as the “cuddle chemical” oxytocin, which promotes bonding, altered according to whether people were in close contact or not.

This could increase the risk of health problems as serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease, and dementia.

Dr Sigman spells out his warning in the latest issue of Biologist, the journal of the Institute of Biology, and maintains that social networking sites have played a significant role in people becoming more isolated.

He said: “Social networking is the internet’s biggest growth area, particular among young children.

“A quarter of British children have a laptop or computer in their room by the age of five and they have their own social networking sites, like the BBC’s myCBBC. It’s causing huge changes.”

Dr Sigman said 209 “socially regulated” genes have been identified, including ones involved in the immune system, cell proliferation and responses to stress.

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People’s health could be harmed by social networking sites because they reduce levels of face-to-face contact, an expert claims.

Dr Aric Sigman says websites such as Facebook set out to enrich social lives, but end up keeping people apart.

Dr Sigman makes his warning in Biologist, the journal of the Institute of Biology.

A lack of “real” social networking, involving personal interaction, may have biological effects, he suggests.

He also says that evidence suggests that a lack of face-to-face networking could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, the function of arteries, and influence mental performance.

This, he claims, could increase the risk of health problems as serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease, and dementia.

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Me to Sophie – “Sophie I think this webpsychosis website could be really big ” Sophie to Me with raised eyebrow – “ Isn’t that like an alcoholic running a pub ? “

Having worked developing internet content, applications and businesses since 1998 I have become very familar with the stress associated with working in the internet media industry. Firstly as a developer you are at the mercy of rapidly changing technology, as a business owner you are at the mercy of the challenges of keeping up with your competitors, as an online marketeer you need to be up to date with the latest cool way of selling product, viral, social, email or banner. But one thing that unites all of us in our quest for internet glory is the understanding and appreication of what it takes to succeed in internet marketing. The term “google dance” was coined to describe the effect websites feel when google goes through an update due to algorithmic, architectural or other changes. The google dance  has a very negative effect on those people actively involved in the business. For example if you run a business that employs 8 people, turns over $3 million USD per annum and relies on Google for 80% of its customers you can guarantee one thing, the google update is going to take you for a ride.

For SEO professionals the latest update (April 2008) seems to have put a bigger cat among the pigeons and while this post is about webpsychosis rather than SEO, the latest google update is where the two meet. There is a psychological condition called “learned helplessness” and I am sure this is what most SEO professionals are feeling right now.

 Defined by Wiki:

“Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to believe that it is helpless in a particular situation. It has come to believe that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result, the human being or the animal will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when it does actually have the power to change its circumstances. Learned helplessness theory is the view that depression results from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation, or situations(Seligman, 1975). Examples can be found in schools, mental institutions, orphanages, or long-term care facilities where the patients have failed or been stripped of agency for long enough to cause their feelings of inadequacy to persist.^[”

Google controls so much more that our search engine rankings, they control or business, our sales, our riches and our subsequent happiness.  Maybe we need to wake up to what might be happening.