Internet Addiction ‘Linked To Depression’

In today’s world, the Internet plays an irreversible role and often stands as a testament as to just how fast the world moves now. But, browsing has a dark side — it’s addiction can cause depression, says a new study.
Researchers in Britain have carried out the study and found a strong link between heavy Internet use and depression — in fact, the longer people spend surfing websites, the more unhappy they are. Internet

According to them, those worst affected are both depressed and addicted, possibly because they are substituting the net for normal social activities.

Lead researcher Catriona Morrison of Leeds University as quoted by leading British newspaper the ‘Daily Mail’ as saying, “The Internet now plays a huge part in modern life but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side.


“While many use the Internet to pay bills, shop and send e-mails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities.” The researchers have based their conclusions on 1,319 responses to an online questionnaire. They questioned the subjects aged from 16 to 51 to assess levels of Internet dependency and depression and found that the longer people spent online the more depressed they tended to be.

“There was a high correspondence between the amount of time spent on the Internet and levels of depression. If you look at how dependent people feel they are on the Internet, that is likely to correspond with how happy or sad they feel,” Morrison said. The researchers have identified 18 hard-core Internet users who spent many hours online each day and were classed as “Internet addicted”. Their average depression score was more than five times higher than that of non-addicted users, and they were more likely to be moderately or severely depressed.

The addicts spent more time browsing pornography sites, gaming sites and online communities. They also tended to be young, having an average age of 21.

Dr Morrison said: “Our research indicates that excessive Internet use is associated with depression, but what we don’t know is which comes first — are depressed people drawn to the Internet or does the Internet cause depression?” The findings have been published in the latest issue of the ‘Psychopathology’ journal.