An interesting new study was published earlier this week about “Internet addiction.” Unlike many previous studies on this hypothesized disorder, this one actually took measurements at two different points in time to try and tease out the possibility that “Internet addiction” can cause mental health problems, like depression or anxiety.
Can we show that simply using the Internet causes depression? Researchers set to find out on Chinese teens.
Psychologist Lawrence Lam and his colleague studied 1,041 Chinese teens, mostly ages 13 to 16, who had no signs of depression at the onset of the study. Some of the group, however, had moderate to severe pathological use of the Internet (64 of the subjects).
The researchers then assessed all 1,041 teens for depression, anxiety and “Internet addiction” nine months later. They found that those who were “excessively” using the Internet at baseline were twice as vulnerable to depression than more moderate Internet users.
That’s all good and fine. That’s pretty straightforward statistical analysis, if you believe in the reliability and validity of the assessment measure used, the Internet Addiction Test (I’ll come back to this point).
But the researchers say, “Results suggested that young people who are initially free of mental health problems but use the Internet pathologically could develop depression as a consequence.”
Perhaps. But it begs the question — how come none of these folks exhibited depression at baseline if they were already “addicted” to the Internet?
The researchers also did something a lot of researchers do when their sample size is simply too small to study — they combined two groups that are potentially very different. For analysis purposes, they combined “moderately” addicted Internet users with severely addicted Internet users. This could skew the results.
Getting back to the Internet Addiction Test, there’s surprisingly few psychometric validity studies conducted on this test. The journal actually let the researchers of this article reference the online version of the test as a justification for the cutoff scores used. You have to take the 20-question test (conveniently placed on 20 different pages!) to actually find the cutoff scores. The cutoff scores are critical, since those are what categorize an individual as to whether they are using the Internet in a “normal” manner, or a moderate to severely addicted manner.
But I’ve searched high and low for research validation of the cutoff scores beyond Young’s own research into the very initial development of the test. All I could find was a study that demonstrated that the Internet Addiction Test is actually a six-factor test — not a single factor test. This suggests that instead of using a single cutoff score (which may not be reliable to begin with), Internet addiction — as measured by the Internet addiction test anyway — is a multidimensional concept. (But the Ns on even this validation research are small — 92 — and not replicated elsewhere.) If the cutoff scores are unreliable — and we have very little research to suggest they are — then so is anything based off of them. Including the present study.
The last concern is the cross-cultural issue. Is an American test designed by an American for English-language use appropriate to be used on a Chinese population? Most psychologists would say, “No,” not without further population-specific validation. I couldn’t find any such validation for this test in the research literature, but I did find Chinese researchers who were creating their own versions of an Internet addiction questionnaire. Why the current researchers didn’t use one of these Chinese-specific tests is an open question.
But maybe it’s not the Internet that’s really causing all of these problems, at least according to one of the researchers of the current study:
The depression might be a result of lack of sleep and stress from competitive online games, [Lam] explained. “People who spend so much time on the Internet will lose sleep and it is a very well established fact that the less one sleeps, the higher the chances of depression,” Lam said.
So here we get an even more nuanced explanation — it’s not the Internet that’s causing the depression after all, it’s the lack of sleep and possible stress from gaming (which you would think might show up on the anxiety scale the researchers also used, but failed to find any significant results for).
Confused? Yeah, so’m I.
This kind of study, however, is the exact sort of research that is more powerful and has the potential to move our knowledge-base about “Internet addiction” forward. Future researchers would do well to replicate studies similar to this one to demonstrate the exact nature of the relationship between use of the Internet — or playing video games online, a very specific activity — and other mental health issues.
Which brings me to my last and perhaps most important point — researchers need to get far more detailed and refined when researching the Internet. “Use of the Internet” is such a broad concept, it is silly to try and measure related to other problems in a person’s life. Playing video games, using the Internet for gambling, viewing porn — researchers need to get detailed in their analysis, so we can stop blaming the general Internet boogeyman.
Read the full article: Excessive Use of Internet Predicts Later Depression
11 comments
It could also be that depression is often accompanied by a schizoid withdrawal, in this case conveniently provided by the internet. Use of the internet could be a more culturally-accepted way of justifying withdrawal from social interaction. Staying up late while using the internet could physically prevent a depressed person from joining social activities during the day.
I will give you some credit, you do post on these stories, albeit you then refute the findings with what I find to be picky challenges at times. As I always state to you in my responses, it has the appearance that your livelihood could be at stake if there is a disorder that can be called “Internet addiction”, that is really just a dependency problem iin general that involves internet use as the example. So, as far as I am concerned, until proven otherwise you are as biased and unobjective as some of your past criticisms aimed at the authors of these reports.
Overreliance on technology has its dark side. You have said that in some form in the past, but, you are quick to attack this topic. Perhaps, while you might be repeating yourself as possibly said at prior posts, you can remind readers how much this site supports your financial needs, or doesn’t. It would, to me at least, be a sign of good faith your are educating the public first, not just protecting your pocket first.
By the way, met another patient recently who said in so many words, “I am addicted to the internet, but how can I stop when so much of my needs are from it?” Hmmm, difficult position, eh?
i love studies, but nothing really here
any addiction or anything in excess is negative and has those consequences.
It also depends on how mentally mature the individual is.
i would like to add, that i’ve had every “online addiction” there is
from gaming for days without too much rest to blogs, social network procrastination, etc. It was not healthy, but i never got “suddenly” depressed because of it and from time to time i did moderate myself as much as possible. It was like trend/seasonal thing.
the only time i was depressed in my life, was when i was young and “people addicted”. I took their influences, opinions and pressures wayyyyyy too seriously. I didnt had character or a mind of my own.
But i was fed up with feeling miserable, so i got help… yep, online (previously i had many doctors just give me stupid pills and no advice or techniques…). So this “evil” internet was the one that helped me.
So many people point out how the internet can make you depressed, but they dont point out all the successful cases where the so “evil” internet was actually the medium to cure those depressions.
Psychcentral is great example of this. Helping thousands across the globe, even while you sleep.
“Men come and go, but good advice stays forever” 🙂
So in conclusion anything in excess is never good, but the internet is just a tool, one that can add so much to your life or one that takes from you by using it incorrectly.
I wonder if the stress that causes anxiety based on internet useage considers the social media that students become consumed with. The article mentions gaming as a major factor for stress and lack of sleep. I would think that social media would play a more important role in the students level of stress and anxiety.
Found this article very interesting. Never would have thought that internet would cause so many issues but in today’s world it is so very prominent and that all people seem to do in their spare time. “The researchers then assessed all 1,041 teens for depression, anxiety and “Internet addiction†nine months later. They found that those who were “excessively†using the Internet at baseline were twice as vulnerable to depression than more moderate Internet users.” This was very surprising to me to know that these people are more prone to depression just because of the addition to the internet and gaming.
While I thought that this article was interesting, I think that there actually might be more of a link between internet addicition and depression that one would think. There are other things to take into account of internet addiciton, like usage of social media, political websites, and streaming websites that can prolong lethargic behavior.
On the flip side, there’s the fact that a good percentage people can have depression without any cultural or situational factors; it’s just the chemical brain imbalance.
I thought it was interesting to read about the study though, even if there were some flaws with the validity and reliability.
I found this article really interesting. I think that internet addiction and depression or anxiety can be linked. In the article it related video games with the stress and sleep deprivation which could have led to depression. I think there could also be a link with other internet things like social media. When thinking about it a lot of people will compare themselves to others on social media. Someone on social media may have posted a picture from their beach vacation with their super slim and fit body. This could cause the person viewing that to feel down on their self because they can’t afford a vacation or their body does not look that good. In turn this person could become depressed that their life isn’t the way they want it to be.
I found this article really interesting. I believe that there is a link between internet addiction and depression and anxiety. In the article, it related video games to sleep deprivation and stress. I think that the relation can be found with social media. When thinking about it people compare themselves to others with social media. If one person posts a photo from their beach vacation showing off their slim and fit body then another person could compare themselves to that. The person comparing their self could see that they couldn’t afford a vacation like that or that their body does not look that way. This could result in that person constantly comparing them self to others and constantly being down. This could in turn result in depression.
I feel as if not only Chinese teens are developing depression due to the internet but also teens all around the world. Like you stated, the depression isn’t stemming directly from the internet, but from what’s on the internet. This generation spends lots of their free time online whether it’s on social media, on gaming networks, the list goes on. Social media can cause depression because these teens are constantly seeing people post their “perfect” lives and are wondering how come they can’t have a life like that. And as far as the gaming goes, many gamers tend to get lost in their game, lose track of time, and wind up barely getting any sleep. Also, some gamers play games on streaming websites like Youtube and use that as their source of income. When they’re not getting enough income or can’t think of what to play or do next they start to worry and stress and fall into depression. So, once again, I do agree that it isn’t the internet itself that is causing depression: it’s what’s on the internet.
I also believe that internet addiction a cause of depression. Not only in China but in various parts of the world. But, like you said, it isn’t the internet itself: it’s more of what’s on the internet. The gaming example was a perfect example. Many gamers spend so much time online that they lose track of actual time and as a result lose sleep. Not getting enough sleep can lead to depression. Another gaming example would be that a lot of gamers upload videos of themselves gaming to streaming websites like YouTube and make a living off of it. When they can’t think of anything to upload or aren’t getting enough views to put food on the table, that could also lead to depression. In my opinion, social media is one of the biggest causes of teen depression because teens are comparing themselves to people posting their “perfect†lives. This leaves teens wondering why can’t they live a life like the ones on social media eventually becoming depressed. The internet has a huge impact on teens’ lives nowadays.
Comments are closed.