8/9/2019 Dna Pune Internet Addiction

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Pay a mental price for Web habitA study has found that excessive use of the Internet can lead to mental ailments and even depression. With an increasing number of youngsters getting hooked to networking sites, gaming and other online activities, there is cause for worry. Speak Up finds out

It can causedepression

> Teenagers, who spendexcessive amount of time on the Internet,are one-and-a-half times more likely todevelop depressionthan moderate Webusers, a study in Chinahas found.

> Researcher LawrenceLam described somesigns of excessive use spending at leastfive to more than 10hours a day on theWeb, agitation whennot in front of thecomputer and loss of interest in socialinteraction.

> The paper waspublished in the

Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine

recently . It involved1,041 teenagers agedbetween 13 and 18years in Chinassouthern Guangzhoucity. Nine months later,84 of them weresuffering fromdepression.

Salman Khan is all for a noble causePledges support to Go India Foundations blood donation camp to be held on August 15Preeti Devnani

Bollywood star Salman Khanhas pledged his support to GoIndia Foundations initiativeof organising a blood donationcamp in the city on August 15.

Last Sunday, members of the Pune chapter of the or-ganisation met Salman at hishome in Mumbai seeking helpfor the cause. The actor notonly agreed to lend a helpinghand by endorsing thecampaign, but also launchedthe donor T-shirts.

President of Go India Foun-dations Maharashtra chapterVikramsinh Khatal-Patil,president of the Pune chapterJayraj Landage and vice-pres-ident of the Pune chapterShashikant Kamble along

with the chairperson of theorganisation from Delhi Alka

Lamba met Salman.So far, renowned personal-

ities who have supported thecause include chief of staff of the Indian Army Gen VNSingh, Sahara chief SubrotoRoy, fashion designer RituBeri,chief ministers and gov-

ernors of different states,am-bassadors of countries like

Russia, New Zealand, UAEand Sri Lanka.

Icons who have registeredthemselves as donors includeformer Indian cricket captainSourav Ganguly, former cap-tain of the Indian hockey teamDhanraj Pillay, actor Ritieish

Deshmukh,bronze medallist(boxing) of Beijing Olympics

2008 Vijender Singh andshooter Jaspal Rana.

A nationwide blood dona-tion drive will be held on Au-gust 15 over 250 districts.This campaign will create arecord by collecting a target-ed 63,000 units of blood in asingle day and will be a partof the Limca and GuinnessBook of World Records. Allthose who are a part of thiscampaign will create historyfor a humane cause.Our tar-get is to provide India 100%safe voluntary blood, so thatthe need of replacement do-nation never arises, saidLandage.

In Pune, blood donationcamps will be held at SP Col-lege, Mahatma Phule Muse-um on Ghole Road, Bharati

Vidyapeeth, MIT College atKothrud and Azam Campus.

Salman Khan signing a donor T-shirt

Vilas Avachat DNA

PUNE | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2010

www.dnaindia.com | epaper.dnaindia.com4SPEAK UP

People are forgetting theart of making conversation

With the increased amount of time that youngstersare spending in front of computers using Face-book,Twitter, gaming, chat or just surfing,theyare forgetting the art of making a conversationwith people in real life. I have seen many siblingswho are in the same room,but prefer to either SMSor chat with each other instead of talking. Obvi-

ously,technolo gy is a must for young people and its use must be

encouraged.However, it is important for youngsters to use it inmoderation, take adequate breaks and have other real hobbies,activities and interactions as well. Remember that there is aworld other than the cyber world too!

Ankit Fadia, ethical hacker

These young patients used tospend over 18 hours online

Last year,we received three cases of Internet addiction.They were severe cases of addictive behaviour,where-in the patients were spending more than 18 hours a dayplaying online lottery, games and general web brows-ing. Their social life and education was disturbed. Allthree were below 18 years.They had also got into thehabit of munching chips and consuming soft drinks,

which made them obese.We receive two to three cases every month for consultation.

I feel the situation is grave. Awareness among parents regard-ing symptoms of addiction is lacking. We have been receivingsuch cases since the last two years,but there may be many morethat go undetected.

The only difference between such obsessive Internet use andsubstance abuse is that the physical dependence is not there in

the former; it is a kind of mental addiction. All the patients wehave received till now are youngsters. Therefore,it all dependson how parents handle such problems in the initial stage. Theyshould be vigilant about what children are doing on the Inter-net. The truth is that the Internet is part of our life now. It isimportant to control its use and keep children from abuse.

Mukta Puntambekar,project director, Muktangan De-Addiction Camp

Look out for symptoms likewithdrawal from social circle

The problem of Internet addiction has been high-lighted in urban areas.Addiction is not limitedonly to alcohol and drug abuse.It goes beyond thatand has various forms like lifestyle addiction,which includes dependence on the Internet.

Parents can identify symptoms like withdraw-al of the child from social circles and activities.

Today, parents are aware of whether the child is using the In-ternet excessively. Generally, this kind of addiction is found inthe teenage and above group. Parents have control over the childtill he/she goes to school. The problem starts as soon as the childsteps into college and wants to enjoy his/her independence.

Apart from online gaming, youngsters also get hooked to so-cial networking sites and general Web browsing. Parents shouldbe more aware of what the child is doing online.

Considering the social aspect, it is a full-blown addiction if youngsters start isolating themselves, do not develop their so-cial skills or cannot function for a day without the Internet.These youngsters become aggressive and reserved. It is a suresign of addiction.In this case,it is better to seek expert help.

Natasha Dcruz,psychologist

Its not an addiction if yourprofession demands working online

The problem of Internet addiction exists, but thesituation is not as serious as depicted.If your workinvolves extensive use of the Internet,it cannot betermed as an addiction. I have to spend more thannine hours on the Internet every day.It does get alittle monotonous, but I am doing it only becauseI get paid for it. On Sunday, I just stay away from

the Internet and try to get together with my friends and relatives.I dont think it counts as an addiction if you have to be on-

line at work, but overuse among youngsters can be hazardous.I do feel depressed when I am overworked,but find a way to getout of it. Addictive behaviour can be related to anything;it de-pends on how you handle it.

Sangita Sahu,search engine optimisation (SEO) expert

Rajesh Rao, Jay Tripathi & Mallika RaleGET IN TOUCH: Please email us your views at

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teamspeak up

EXPERT VIEW

Web addiction isnot as harmful

I believe that an ex-cess o f any th ingleads to addiction.The dependence onsocial networkingsites, constant needto be updated on the

Internet is a falsely created phe-nomenon.In fact, it is like any oth-er addiction.An addict needs hisfixand if he does not get it,he feelsagitated,distraught and depressed.This is what happens with an In-ternet addict if he does not get hisdaily dose of the virtual world.

It is important that you exercisecaution and not get carried away. Ialso feel that it cannot be termed asharmful until it affects the addictphysically, though there are psy-chological addictions too.

I can go weeks without actuallychecking my Facebook account, butthere are many who just cannothandle not being online.They con-stantly update their profiles andcomment on others as well.

Gaming and Internet surfing are ad-dictive activities and should be used ina disciplined manner. Parents mustmonitor the childs Internet time to en-sure that it is being used judiciously.Toomuch of the Internet can be harmful.

Pranav Shah,student

Uncontrollable usecauses depression

In a country like In-dia that has a low rateof Internet use andhigh incidence of un-treated mental prob-lems, we should notfocus on the link be-

tween excessive Internet use anddepression.It would instead be bet-ter if we spend our efforts in spread-ing awareness about regularclin-ical depression (with or without In-ternet as a cause).

According to conservative esti-mates, 20% people develop clinicaldepression at some point in theirlife and suffer needlessly becausemost of them do not get it treated.This is a bigger worry than the factthat pathological Internet usersare at a higher risk of developingdepression.

Another concern I have is that themedia and misinformed parents are go-ing to blow this out of proportion andcrack down heavily on all Internet useby youngsters.The link with depres-sion exists only in case of pathologicalor uncontrollableInterne t use.

Excessive use is not the same as un-controllable use.

Navin Kabra,creator, PuneTech.com

Reading, exerciseare being ignored

The Internet is a ma- jor utility of the 21stcentury. Sites likeGoogle have becomehousehold namesand are accessed onan every day basis.

The Web has become a valuable re-source for people from every pro-fession.It hosts all kinds of valu-able information and can satiateanyones needs. You can find any-thing right from cooking recipesto details of business deals,gadgetsto shopping.Online gaming,forumsand social networking have becomepopular leisure activities. Theyouth particularly has taken a spe-cial liking to these facilities andthey are a major source of commu-nication and information for them.

Excessive use in the teenage yearscan cause developmental problems andself-esteem issues. It could also lead tostunted growth in other areas like aca-demics and work.

Addiction to gaming is a majorproblem among teenagers who areunable to restrain themselves.Thishampers social relationships. Peo-ple tend to ignore the benefits of other fruitful activities like reading,exercise and meditation now.

Jay Bhalerao,student

Wrong to call themInternet addicts

Internet addicts aremore attuned to thesocial world than therest of us.They par-ticipate in multi-player games, talk topeople in chat rooms,

and take part in discussion forums.So, they are what I believe the rea-son why most of the web contentavailable to us exists. Yet, we tagthem as addicts.

However,I dont think this is verydifferent from being addicted toyour friends or interacting withpeople. Pull a person out of his so-cial circle, lock him in a room andsee if he gets depressed or not.So,why should we classify Internet ad-dicts as more susceptible to depres-sion? The only varying factor hereis the Internet.

In this globalised world, wheremany spend virtually every wakingmoment online, the most revolu-tionary technology ever invented isbeing subject to slander. It is be-cause people are biased towards re-ality rather than virtual reality.Maybe we should go back and rede-fine addiction and keep it limited toabusers of narcotics and alcohol.

Sahil Khan,chief lifestyle activist,thetossedsalad.com

Make childrenaware of perils

My children and Ishare a friendly re-lationship. I keeptabs on what theyare doing whenthey are online.It isnot possible to stop

them from using it as it has be-come a part of life.However,I con-trol the time they spend onlineand ensure that they do not losefocus from studies and socialisingwith friends and family. We alsotake care that our children do notshare personal information onthe Web.

The best way for parents todeal with the situation is takechildren into confidence andmake them aware of the disad-vantages of the Internet.

Computer games are a causefor worry as children get temptedto go to Internet cafes and friendsplaces, where we cannot keep acheck. The violence in thesegames can disturb young minds.With Internet overuse, childrenstart losing touch with the realworld.This is a serious problemand they should be made aware of its perils at the school level.

Manjusha Kshirsagar,teacher, Raja Dhanraj GirjiJunior College

EXPERT VIEW

InboxPMC must restore water supply or refund tax

This is with reference to Tanker water for 350 fringe areas (DNA,July 31).

I am a resident of a co-operative housing so-ciety on Vishrantwadi-Dhanori Road underthe jurisdiction of the Pune Municipal Cor-poration (PMC).Though the society haspipelines,not a single drop comes out of them. Since there was no supply of waterfrom the PMC, the society managementarranged for a tanker on payment from itsfunds for 15 minutes on alternative days.Thus,residents of the society are paying wa-ter tax along with the property tax at Rs1,000even when there is no water supply. ThePMC is gaining monetarily while the societyis losing its funds in the process.I want to suggest to managing committees of housing societies facing similar problems to re-quest the PMC to refund the water and propertytax to every citizen. It should also stop taxing ustill the water supply is ensured by it. I hope theauthorities do the needful in the matter.

P Madhavan Nair, Vishrantwadi

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