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Tech addiction? It’s time to take back control of your life
From being an aide, a ‘virtual assistant’, that was to help mankind in reducing burdens and chores, technology has become pervasive and all-consuming, literally taking over our lives. It is time to log out and live
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
Slowly, perhaps a touch too painfully so, we are waking up to the threat called technology. From smartphones with its innumerable addictive apps to TVs that streams endlessly, the consumer version of scientific advancements – fuelled by the power called internet – has become so ubiquitous that it is almost impossible to break free of its web. As many have come to believe, and portrayed grimly in the British anthology series ‘Black Mirror’, technology has taken over our lives completely.
Though exaggerated, mental health experts say this could well be a possibility before it is late. In 2014, India had its first technology de-addiction centre in Bengaluru. In the same year, Delhi, too, opened up a similar facility for web junkies. Chennai is yet to have an exclusive facility to help tech addicts, though counsellors and psychologists say there are a large number of people who are directly or indirectly affected by the virtual world.
A 2014 study by the National Institute of Mental and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, found an alarming 73 per cent of urban teenagers under psychiatric distress. They suspected the overuse of technology to be one of the major reasons. Four years later – and newer apps popping up since then – the numbers could have only grown worse.
Nobody is spared
This obsession can have a serious impact not just on the individual addicts, but their families as well. Explaining the case of one her patients, psychologist and psychotherapist Dr Abilasha recalled how a woman wanted to get out of the five-year-old marriage because the husband would rather be on his phone than spend time with her and their little daughter.
“Theirs was like any other happy family – wife, husband and child. Then he was introduced to an online game where a bunch of friends form a group and compete against each other. It seemed harmless in the beginning, but he soon developed a constant urge to check if anyone had gotten ahead of him in the game. If someone indeed did, he would spend even an hour at a stretch to return to the top, neglecting the family through all this. After having had enough, the wife is asking for a divorce now,” she said.
Though social media, especially Facebook, Twitter and Instagram among others, takes the brunt of the blame for reducing a generation to bent-neck faces glued on to screens, experts say it cannot be looked at in isolation but instead as part of a problem that runs deeper into the psyche.
“There are many who seek approval from social media, who get upset when they do not get the response they desire. A person who is happy within does not have to seek approval from the outside world. One may already have issues in their personal or professional life, and social media could add to this. With internet being so easily accessible, we are seeing more people coming out seeking help,” noted Dr Abilasha.
Most addicts are asked to limit their use – keep an alarm for twenty minutes after which they need to go back to their routine. Those who seek validation online, experts ask them to be more in touch with reality.
Phone addiction is the most common among the lot, claiming victims across age groups. “The only people who don’t seem to be affected by it are the senior citizens,” she remarked.
SMARTPHONE/INTERNET
- India has about 650 million mobile phone users, including a little over 300 million with smartphone, says Counterpoint Research, a technology consultancy.
- According to a study by US-based media agency Zenith, India will have about 530 million smartphone users this year - more than the combined population of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France.
- A report by Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm IMRB International says the number of internet users is expected to reach 450-465 million in 2018.
SOCIAL MEDIA
- Facebook is the runaway leader in the social media space, enjoying an almost hegemonic spread thanks to smart purchases that brought in its wake Whatsapp and Instagram.
- 241 mn Facebook has about 241 million monthly active users in India (as of mid-July, 2017), which is expected to grow to more than 370 million by 2022. (Worldwide now - over 2,000 million).
- 1,200 mn WhatsApp has 1,200 million monthly active users.
- 800 mn Instagram has 800 million users across the world.
- 330 mn Twitter has 330 million users worldwide (the company does not disclose country-wise breakup).
APPS AGAINST APPS
Technology has a solution for everything; there are apps that will help you not access other apps
- Freedom is an app that blocks your mobile internet for up to eight hours at a time.
- AppDetox helps you undergo digital detox. It allows you to set your own rules, and helps stop procrastinating and phubbing – ignoring loved ones in favour of phones.
- Stay Focused is a self-control app that helps you to restrict daily usage of blocked apps to a specified time and intervals.
- AntiSocial provides tools to manage, block and control your cell phone usage.
ESCAPE TO THE MOUNTAINS
- There are some who physically place themselves out of network coverage area. Manish Sharma, a professional photographer, makes sure that he takes a trip to the mountains every year, away from the madness of the world, mainly the virtual world.
- “I choose the mountains, as the Internet connectivity is extremely poor in those areas. Seven days of trekking without being disturbed by mails or notification! I have been doing this for the last three years,” said Manish. “It is difficult at first because your hand automatically reaches out to the phone. You check your connection and social media profiles hoping that you manage to get connectivity by some miracle. You take pictures and upload them on Instagram out of habit, realising only later that it is of no use. The second day is better, but you still continue to ask the locals where you can find connectivity. Eventually, it gets better.”
- For those wanting such a detox but without the discipline or self-restraint, this perhaps is a shortcut.
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