How Technology Affects Mental Health

Ever thought about how Technology affects mental health because life without technology seems next to impossible these days.

Technology has completely changed how an individual lives. The usage of technology is not limited to any specific age group.

If you look at the surroundings, you will for sure see the preschoolers using smartphones and tablets. The usage and dependency are increasing day by day because of the rapid advancements in the field of technology.

But have you ever thought about how technology affects the mental health of a human being? Technology has occupied a larger portion of our lives, the main of which is our mental health.

Technology has made our lives even more convenient and simpler than that before. But look at your surroundings for a while, can you see the emerging effects of technology on mental health?

Being extraordinary and overly connected with every kind of digital media, internet, and technology, one can easily identify the emerging negative effects of technology on mental health.

24-hour digital connectivity is good at some point but most importantly it is an alarming situation for all of us.

The greater the dependency and its usage are increasing, the more harmful an individual becomes to society.

In this article, I will mainly highlight the negative effects of technology on our mental health. So let’s get started with amazing content to go through.

You can also read about the effects of technology on health and how we can minimize their impact.

Negative Effects of Technology on Mental Health:

Apart from the positive effects of technology and its never-ending contributions to our lives, there are so many negative effects of technology on our mental health.

The excessive use of technology made us so much obsessed that we have considered ourselves as a product for an online world and let others value us as a product.

We not only allow others to value us according to their perceptions but also consider the viewpoints about us so much seriously that the perceptions affect our mental health badly.

It is said;

mental health is not a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you are going

Personally, professionally or academically, our life from all these three aspects revolves completely around technology and the internet.

This constant and excessive use of technology and the internet affects our mental health and makes us addicted to its usage and even more dependent which thus invites varieties of problems that cause negative effects on our mental health conditions.

As per the conditions of the world ongoing, technology is the need of today’s world even for survival, it is necessary. But when the need becomes an addiction, it gives rise to the problems that directly affect our mental health.

So without any further delay, let’s have a comprehensive look at how does technology negatively affects our mental health:

Isolation from the Society:

Ever thought, how isolation affects the mental health of human beings who are social creatures? Let’s have a look:

Humans are the communal and social creatures on earth. They are born to get social with the individuals living in society. But unfortunately, technology has vanished this in a bad way.

The excessive use of technology made us so much addicted that we by ourselves have destroyed the element of human interaction.

The more we use technology, the more we feel disconnected from the real world which results in the loss of mental peace.

According to the research conducted in September 2017, 

humans are the social creatures, and living an isolated lifestyle for a prolonged period can have a bad impact on their physical health and even more on their mental health

Isolation from society does not happen all of a sudden, the excessive use of technology made you addicted and isolated little by little, slowly and gradually.

It is said;

isolation and Lonliness is a comparable health risk as smoking 15 cigarettes a day

Even in a social setting, we can not keep ourselves disconnected from technology and the internet.

Despite spending quality time with our friends, family, and professionals, we prefer to spend time on the internet which results in making us feel alone even in the crowd later on.

Isolation from society increases when an individual suffers from the fear of missing out. Or I should say fear of missing out on something that you achieve through the usage oftentimes leads to severe isolation.

I will be discussing more related to the fear of missing out (FOMO).

According to the research conducted by the team of McGill concluded Isolation that the longer a person remains isolated, the more there is a chance of high levels of anxiety, depression, and even the feeling of hallucination in most severe cases.

Lack of Proper Sleep:

Technology has impacted the quality of our sleep hugely. The excessive use of technology causes severe stress and it is next to impossible to sleep properly in stress.

Sleep is something that complements aggregates your overall health. You can not achieve good mental health until and unless you don’t sleep properly.

The overnight usage of the internet causes improper sleep patterns which thus leads to severe headaches and stress.

The rays emitting from the devices force us to use them more and more and hence result in the disturbance of our sleep patterns. The gadgets that we use continuously keeps us awake.

Weird attitude:

One of the negative effects of technology on our mental health is that it ruins our personality.

The excessive use of technology made human beings react unacceptably in a social setting,

As I said earlier, human beings are social creatures, it is important to interact with human beings in a proper social setting to gain mental peace.

But unfortunately, we prefer our smartphones, our engagements on digital media over communication with our friends and family that are for sure the most important part of our life.

Their bad behavior is due to the lack of communication that they don’t even know how should they respond in their respective environment and social setting.

The lack of communication gives rise to bad behavior and a weird attitude which thus spoils our reputation in social gatherings.

Addiction:

Have you ever thought about how many times you check your phone in a day? Even without any good or relevant reason, we keep on checking our phone so many times in just a single hour. Ever thought why?

You might be answering that this is our need, it is important to be updated, etc., etc.

But I don’t believe these answers because most of the time, we do not check our phones due to any relevant need, we check it out of habit, we check it continuously because we are addicted.

It is only addiction to technology that is the root cause of many emerging problems and affects our mental health badly.

Every age group has different sorts of addictions like you will see children who are addicted to playing games. Teenagers are addicted to social media whereas adults are addicted to the technology of their choice.

Thus, in a nutshell, you will be seeing individuals of every age group are getting addicted to the excessive use of technology. Therefore, you will be seeing people with the unstable mental health of almost all age groups.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO):

Are you the one who is completely distressed and suffering from the fear of missing out on things that are unfortunately completely unimportant?

The fear of missing out is becoming even more common these days in the age group of roundabout 20-25 years.

Fear of missing out is effectively and absolutely nothing but just an addiction to the internet and technology.

The fear of missing out on even a single new feed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked In, etc. makes us so much curious and anxious which thus makes us frustrated.

I believe that the rise in fear of missing out can be decreased if and only if we bring a stop to our capability of building connections more on social media than that in real life.

It is an actual (FOMO) fear of missing out that causes anxiety, depression, and a sense of insecurity towards many serious matters in people of almost all age groups.

Anxiety and Depression:

Can technology cause anxiety and depression? For sure the answer is yes…

Anxiety and depression are some of the most common effects of technology on our mental health. Fear of missing out, a sense of insecurity sometimes causes a person to suffer from an inferiority complex which thus results in anxiety.

The excessive use of technology and social media is one of the major causes of anxiety and depression which affects mental health, mental peace, and mental stability in a bad way.

Due to its overwhelming negative effects, it is becoming even more harmful and the positivity and benefits are almost equal to none.

Final Thoughts:

Apart from the countless contributions of technology in various fields, technology is no less than a threat to our society.

The only thing is to keep our mental health in a stable position, we have to set a boundary line for ourselves first only then we can achieve our goals.

Do share your feedback regarding the negative effects of technology on mental health. Let me know if you have any queries, I respond promptly to all queries.

Keep reading and learning with TechBaji.