A generation of Internet users who have never
known a world where you can't surf on-line may be growing up with a
different and potentially dangerous view of the world and their own
identity, according to a warning delivered to the Annual Meeting of
the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Dr Himanshu Tyagi, a psychiatrist at West London Mental Health
Trust, said that people born after 1990, who were just
five-years-old or younger when the use of Internet became
mainstream in 1995, have grown up in a world dominated by online
social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.
”This is the age group involved with the Bridgend suicides and what
many of these young people had in common was their use of
Internet to communicate. It's a world where everything moves
fast and changes all the time, where relationships are quickly
disposed at the click of a mouse, where you can delete your profile
if you don't like it and swap an unacceptable identity in the
blink of an eye for one that is more acceptable,” said Dr Tyagi.
“People used to the quick pace of online social networking
may soon find the real world boring and unstimulating, potentially
leading to more extreme behaviour to get that sense.
”It may be possible that young people who have no experience of a
world without online societies put less value on their real world
identities and can therefore be at risk in their real lives,
perhaps more vulnerable to impulsive behaviour or even suicide.
This is definitely a line of reasoning that warrants more
investigation and
research.”
Dr Tyagi became interested in factors shaping an online identity
when he founded an online professional network by the name of RxPG
(Prescription for Professional Growth) which is now subscribed by
more than 60,000 medical graduates and undergraduates worldwide. He
warned the meeting that there was a massive generation gap amongst
current psychiatrists and young patients around the Internet
related issues. A survey of International psychiatrists conducted
by him at a recent psychiatric conference in US showed that the
vast majority of psychiatrists worldwide were unaware of the full
magnitude of impact of online world on the younger
generation.
Chat room communication was also more likely to encourage
disinhibition because of anonymity, and involve reduced sensory
experience: “If you can't see the person's expression or body
language or hear the subtle changes in their voice, it shapes your
perceptions of the interaction differently,' Dr Tyagi
said.
A session in front of the computer was also
likely to create “an altered perception, a
dream-like state, an unnatural blending of their mind with the
other person – something that rarely happens in real life. The new
generation raised alongside internet is attaching an entirely
different meaning to friendship and relations, something we are
largely failing to notice”.
Dr Tyagi said there were significant benefits for the online social
networking. It provides an equalised status where wealth race and
gender were less meaningful; a loss of geographical boundaries
which meant that opportunities to access unrestricted peer support
are abundant, which can be important in maintaining good
psychological health for many. He said: “No one is a pariah on net,
it works great in
flattening the hierarchies of the real world.”
But Dr Tyagi warned that while many people
today cannot remember a world without the Internet, it may be
“quite different for teens and children who cannot imagine a world
where you can't go online to talk and apply the same principles to
real-world interpersonal communications, mostly to a dysfunctional
outcome. It's vital that we
face up to what is happening. The Internet will not go away so
these issues, which would inevitably grow in magnitude with time,
need to be addressed soon.”
For further information, please contact Liz Fox or Deborah
Hart in the Communications Department.
Telephone: 020 7235 2351 Extensions. 6298 or 6127
References:
Royal College of Psychiatrists' Annnual Meeting, Imperial College, London, 1 - 4 July 2008