Friday, January 21, 2011

Internet Abuse :Effect on Body & Mind



Internet has brought sea change in  human life style recently. The judgment, choice, resourcefulness, entertainment everything depends on internet connection and their intensity/accuracy depends on bandwidth.

Internet now saves a lot of time, which we earlier got wasted in information gathering. As a result   decisions have become quick & informed one. Institutions such as IITK and corporates like ITC ,have earlier tried to use the power of internet for rural India through their program like “Info Thela” and “e-Chaupal”. Even government recognized the power of internet and tried to digitalize their legacy systems through project  like e-Dhara etc.

I will consider e-chaupal as a real social networking platform ,where internet was involved in a different format and provided a place where residents  came together PHYSICALLY.

The social media in its present format has give birth to an oxymoronic phrase which may be called “Socially Connected Unsocial”. People have become addictive to Face Book status .They refresh their browser (by hitting F5) before logging off, so that they don’t miss a status message. Need not to say ,some of us never log out from Face Book or Twitter.

As the TV, Radio, Gaming, Video Watching, Blogging, Email, IM and social networking all comes together on your laptop/desktop, people are going to become more immovable. I guess, people will spend 12-16 hrs with their laptop daily, while rest 8-12 hrs being traffic jam and daily routine activities.

The sedative life style will result in weight gain, obesity and other life style disease. Obesity is often cited as one of the top negative health effects of sedative life style. Hours spent sitting in front of desktop/laptop/palmtop instead of exercising take an obvious and noticeable toll on addicts. Even your life style can affect your brain along with making you obese.




Effect on Brain:
  1. Life with internet has become very easy. Once the brain learns to respond to this method of getting information, it becomes unfamiliar with other way to learn as a result learning ability impaired.
  2. An excess of passive brain activity from watching videos, Social Media participation can also affect sleeping patterns. In adults, memory loss and poor sleep can be attributed to internet addiction.
  3. Internet replace the time with interactive and creative activities, such as games, hobbies  and prevents your holistic development 
Effect on Body:

  1. Hours spent on internet reduce the time you can spend on physical activities. Physical activity is vital for health, blood circulation, muscle development and metabolism.
  2. Sitting passively instead of engaging in physical activity leads to lower metabolism and could lead to unhealthy weight gain. This may result in life threatening disease like diabetes.
  3. Using excess of internet can affect your eye sight and can cause severe headache for those who have photo phobia.