Digital overuse and Mental Health: Cause or consequence?
Remember that popular sequence in ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoons where Jerry is being chased by Tom and after a turn of events, Spike, the dog, starts chasing Tom. As the three of them circle around each other, Tom is the one who is chasing as well as being chased. In our story, Jerry is a ‘good mental health state, Tom is a digital device or internet and Spike is a ‘bad’ mental health state. As they circle around each other, let's meet each of them. Spike, the pre-existing ‘bad’ mental health Although not as simplified as it is termed here, certain complex mental states predispose us to digital overuse. These predisposing factors may lie in our genetics, run in family or may be associated with the way our parenting took place. Scientists have studied how negative life events in early childhood, like trauma, emotional or physical abuse, are linked to poor patterns of human relations; this, in turn, relates to internet addictions. Our lives through our childhood and adolescence, ...