has technology become a new addiction essay writing

Technology: The New Addiction

The New Drug in Town 

It is estimated that by the 1950s, 45 percent of adult Americans smoked tobacco. The percentage of smokers was much higher within the Sea Services, particularly during and immediately after World War II. Cancer was identified as one of the risks of smoking cigarettes by the 1960s, a public health campaign informed Americans of the risk, and today the number of adults who smoke is roughly 22 percent of men and 18 percent of women. With the available research, it is hard to fathom that smokers overlooked the consequences of tobacco use for so long—and continue to do so. 2 

Similarly, just as research has been conducted on the effects of tobacco usage, studies currently are being done on the power of addiction (to include internet addiction) and its ways of working throughout the human body. For addictive or intense personalities, some of the most  seemingly innocuous pastimes may become detrimental. 

Ownership of a smartphone is considered a necessity today. But the various associated gaming platforms and social media interfaces create a distraction that can lead to significant problems for users. Social media usage is growing in parallel with smartphone ownership in the United States, and it has become extremely prevalent, particularly with younger generations. The problem is not a single app, device, or game, but the amount of time users spend (or feel the need to spend) online. 

A recent study suggested that 78 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 use the social media app Snapchat, with a sizable majority of users (71 percent) using the platform multiple times a day. 3 While social media platforms are popular among sailors, other personal technology platforms such as YouTube, video games, and online pornography have similar statistics and are just as time consuming. While the experiences may seem harmless to the user, there are consequences. 

In the book The Teenage Brain , Dr. Francis Jensen writes ,

Technology is another opportunity for novelty-seeking, and because the brain of a teenager is so easy to stimulate, all it takes is the latest digital toy to tease it into distraction. The cascade of neuroprocesses that kicks off the brain’s reward circuitry and the rush of  the pleasure chemical dopamine can be triggered just as easily by the release of the latest iPhone as by alcohol, sex, or a fast car. In some ways, technology is a drug. 4

Should We Be Concerned? 

Personal technology usage (PTU) has hit Americans fast and hard. In a recent article on the effects of PTU on children and youth, Dr. David Greenfield says the PTU experience: 

can be thought of as a virtual hypodermic mechanism that delivers its digital-drug content in a highly efficacious manner. Use of internet entertainment, particularly via the smartphone, seems to hamper our ability to manage and balance time, energy, attention, leading to lifestyle changes and behavioral deficits. Internet and video game addiction . . . impacts motivation, reward, memory, and various aspects of psychological functioning. 5

Social media use also is “linked to an increase in mental health problems, including anxiety, depression and suicidality.” 6

If technology is a drug and sailors are using that drug, we should ask some questions. 

While identifying cause and effect can be challenging, many different trends and phenomena in our society, some very significant, seem to be correlated to, and perhaps caused by, the growth in PTU. For all measurements, around 2008 to the present is the key period in which to closely assess PTU-related trend development. Social media giant Facebook started in earnest in 2005, and the i-Phone was introduced to the market in 2007. It stands to reason that PTU was materially increasing by 2008. Since that time:

• Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data reveals that for all Americans under the age of 75, the suicide rate started going up fastest for those between the ages of 15 and 34. 7
• A May 2018 study by Blue Cross Blue Shield stated that diagnoses of anxiety and depression have risen by 33 percent since 2013, with the rate rising even faster among millennials (up 47 percent). 8
• The fertility rate in the United States has been in decline since 2008, while cases of (previously unheard of) young adult erectile dysfunction as a result of excessive online pornography viewing are on the rise. 9
• Recent studies suggest that only 56 percent of high-school seniors in 2015 went out on dates; for Boomers and Gen Xers, the number was roughly 85 percent. This is lower than the percentage of eighth-grade students who went out socially in 2009. This decline mimics the well-documented declines in sexual activity, leaving of parents’ homes, and obtainment of drivers’ licenses. 10
• A 2018 survey of 20,000 people by health insurance company Cigna found that “Generation Z (adults ages 18–22) is the loneliest generation and claims to be in worse health than older generations.” 11

Somehow, the youngest and most connected generation is in the worst condition. If younger generations are indeed becoming materially affected by or even addicted to personal technology, these are the exact outcomes one would expect. In a PTU-driven scenario, there would be less desire for independence; less risk taking; boys more preoccupied with video games and girls more interested in social media than the opposite sex; more depression and anxiety associated with loneliness; digital isolation; neglect of friends and family; nonstop comparison with other’s digital lives; and unusual physical side effects.

These trends should be alarming for the U.S. Navy, where active component suicide rates have trended upward since 2008. 12 The majority of current and future Navy personnel fall squarely in the generations most engaged in PTU and appear to be showing the most degradation. 

What Are the Navy-Specific Effects?  

The Navy is not immune to these trends, but abandoning personal technology within the service is impossible; the Navy has become reliant on personal technology. However, it is well-documented that the blue light of a smartphone screen can disrupt the sleep cycle. A study published in Experience Life notes, “Hyperstimulation is just one effect of smartphones that harms our sleep quality. . . . This blue light disrupts our circadian rhythms, tricking our bodies into thinking it’s daytime, which leads to sleep disturbances.” 13 This sleep disruption is taking place despite the fact that the Navy is working hard to develop shipboard watch bills to preserve sailors’ circadian rhythms and sleep cycle. 

Within the Marine Corps, there has been an 80 percent increase in aviation accidents since 2012, and the trend line seems to parallel the growth in PTU. 14 Some of the accidents in the Navy have involved the most basic military operations, to include driving ships at sea, as was the case with the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) and Fitzgerald (DDG-62). Could personal technology usage by military members be a contributory factor in some of these tragic events?  

It is imperative that we assess the impact on sailors’ ability to function the next day after PTU before bed. What happens if sailors begin using personal technology, such as video games, every day after watch, for several hours at a time? For personnel who are shore based and in a less-controlled environment, as compared to on board ships, what is their daily readiness for work if they are working a 40+-hour work week and playing upward of 30 to 60 hours of video games during that same week? A 2015 medical journal article documented that Marines who were doing just that required medical care and were showing signs of “sleep disturbance and symptoms of blunted affect, low mood, poor concentration, inability to focus, and irritability.” 15

Beyond sleep, what other potential effects have been observed from personal technology usage? There may be serious effects on military families. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2016, “In the last five years, the rate of child abuse and neglect in the military has gone up sharply.” 16 Unfortunately, some of these cases included fatalities. “It’s death by digital distraction,” says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, author of Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids—and How to Break the Trance. 17

If PTU-affected military members are neglectful of their own children, how focused will they be on maintaining and operating ships and aircraft? 

Where Do We Go From Here?

The impact of PTU may not reveal itself all at once. To a chief or division officer observing a sailor’s declining performance, the small, incremental changes associated with increasing levels of PTU may not at first be easily discernible. What should leaders do? 

First, understand sailors and what may be affecting them. That is our responsibility. A PTU “harm footprint” should be developed in the Navy and across the Department of Defense (DoD) to better understand what we are dealing with. 18 Other options for addressing this challenge could include: 

• Study mishaps of all categories, including suicides and suicide attempts, to understand the correlation with the growth in PTU within DoD over the past 15 years.
• Assess levels of PTU for any military member in the failure or event chain of safety-related incidents (to include mishaps and suicides/suicide attempts) or unusual personnel issues (such as the sailor who hid for six days on a U.S. Navy cruiser in 2017). Follow-on inquiries should be made to catalog daily patterns of sleeping, eating, friendships, hygiene, behavioral changes, and performance over time since the high level of technology usage began. This type of data should be collected throughout all of DoD and retained for analysis. If technology usage is determined to cause poor decision making/dysfunction, military policy and training should be developed and implemented promptly. 
• Determine which DoD personnel are captive to technology usage at the unit level. Those who are too heavily consumed by PTU should be closely monitored by their chiefs or department heads, and training or counseling should be offered.
• Identify recruits genetically predisposed to addiction during recruiting based on family history. They could be regularly assessed for addiction problems and helped before the problem is overwhelming.
• Factor PTU into the Navy sleep/watchbill research and training being done by the Naval Postgraduate School. In addition, the Navy should study differences in the response times and quality of sleep between those who use personal technology heavily and those not using personal technology.
• Develop tests for reaction time, visual acuity, and/or thinking decay associated with excess technology consumption to determine whether a military member is fit for duty, much like a Breathalyzer is used to test for alcohol inebriation. 
• Research the various types of personal technology available to sailors and attempt to understand if the impact of PTU is uniform or varies by type. The possibility of incremental mental decay over time for various types of PTU needs to be considered, as well. 
• Conduct an underway exercise in which the entire battle group shuts down all internet, social media, video games, and personal hand-held devices for a period to document observations and capture lessons learned. This will help uncover the physiological and human performance effects of PTU while helping the Navy prepare for full operational security environments.

These suggestions have far-reaching ramifications.  “Big Technology” likely will attempt to undercut such inquiry (in part, by funding opposition research), because if it is determined PTU causes harm, corporate profitability will be at stake. The consequences of inaction, however, are troubling. 

The April 2010 study “Too Fat to Fight” found that 75 percent of American youth were unfit for military service because of poor health. 19 Since that time, significant new technologically based pressures have been brought to bear on the nation’s youth. How many more will be rendered unfit for duty as a result of PTU? What does it mean for the country when so many youth are increasingly unhealthy? Who will be left to serve?   

The Navy needs to take action now to understand the PTU environment its sailors are in and help them navigate accordingly. Sailors lives may depend on it.

1. Jean M. Twenge, “ Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? ” The Atlantic , September 2017; Mo Perry, “Tech Fix.” Experience Life , April 2018, 53.

2. Population Reference Bureau, “ Not All Americans Are Smoking Less ,” 1 February 2011.

3. Aaron Smith and Monica Anderson, “ Social Media Use in 2018 ,” Pew Research Center, March 2018.

4. Frances E. Jensen and Amy Ellis Nutt, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults (New York: HarperCollins, 2016), 206.

5. David Greenfield, “ Treatment Considerations in Internet and Video Game Addiction: A Qualitative Discussion ,” Child and Adolescent Clinics of North America Reviews, Youth Internet Habits and Mental Health , April 2018,.

6. Harold Koplewicz, “ Children’s Mental Health Report ,” The Child Mind Institute (2017), 4. 

7. “WISQARS Fatal Injury Reports.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19 Feb. 2017, webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html.

8. “2018 The Health of America, Major Depression: The Impact on Overall Health,” Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, 2018. 

9. Sabrina Tavernise, “ U.S. Fertility Rate Fell to a Record Low, for a Second Straight Year ,” New York Times , 16 May 2018; Brian Park et al., “Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports,” Behavioral Sciences 6, no 3 (September 2016), doi:10.3390/bs6030017.

10. Twenge, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” 

11. Ellie Polack, “ New Cigna Study Reveals Loneliness at Epidemic Levels in America ,” 1 May 2018. 

12. Statistics , U.S. Navy. 

13. Perry, “Tech Fix,” 55.

14. T. Copp, “ Marine Corps Aviation Mishaps on the Rise, Up 80 Percent ,” Military Times , 8 April 2018.

15. Erin Eickhoff et al., “Excessive Video Game Use, Sleep Deprivation, and Poor Work Performance among U.S. Marines Treated in a Military Mental Health Clinic: A Case Series.” Military Medicine 180, no. 7 (July 2015), doi:10.7205/milmed-d-14-00597, e839.

16. David S. Cloud, “ Child Abuse in the Military: Failing Those Most in Need ,” Los Angeles Times , 29 December 2016.

17. Nicholas Kardaras, phone conversation with the author, 4 April 2018.

18.“Harm footprint” is a term used by the Center for Humane Technology, which is in the process of collecting and documenting the negative effects of PTU. 

19. William Christeson et al., “ Too Fat to Fight, Retired Military Leaders Want Junk Food Out of America’s Schools ,” Mission Readiness , 2010.

Listen to a  Proceedings Podcast interview with this author about this article here .

Captain Peter “UGH” Ryan, U.S. Navy (Retired)

Captain Ryan served as an E-2C naval flight officer and spent 15+ years in the Pentagon serving primarily as a Navy financial manager. Currently, he works for Cowan and Associates in the Pentagon supporting OPNAV.

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Digital addiction: how technology keeps us hooked

Associate Professor in Computing and Informatics, Bournemouth University

Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Bournemouth University

Principal Academic in Psychology, Bournemouth University

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The World Health Organisation is to include “gaming disorder” , the inability to stop gaming, into the International Classification of Diseases. By doing so, the WHO is recognising the serious and growing problem of digital addiction. The problem has also been acknowledged by Google, which recently announced that it will begin focusing on “Digital Well-being” .

Although there is a growing recognition of the problem, users are still not aware of exactly how digital technology is designed to facilitate addiction. We’re part of a research team that focuses on digital addiction and here are some of the techniques and mechanisms that digital media use to keep you hooked.

Compulsive checking

Digital technologies, such as social networks, online shopping, and games, use a set of persuasive and motivational techniques to keep users returning. These include “scarcity” (a snap or status is only temporarily available, encouraging you to get online quickly); “social proof” (20,000 users retweeted an article so you should go online and read it); “personalisation” (your news feed is designed to filter and display news based on your interest); and “reciprocity” (invite more friends to get extra points, and once your friends are part of the network it becomes much more difficult for you or them to leave).

Technology is designed to utilise the basic human need to feel a sense of belonging and connection with others. So, a fear of missing out, commonly known as FoMO, is at the heart of many features of social media design.

Groups and forums in social media promote active participation. Notifications and “presence features” keep people notified of each others’ availability and activities in real-time so that some start to become compulsive checkers. This includes “two ticks” on instant messaging tools, such as Whatsapp. Users can see whether their message has been delivered and read. This creates pressure on each person to respond quickly to the other.

The concepts of reward and infotainment, material which is both entertaining and informative, are also crucial for “addictive” designs. In social networks, it is said that “no news is not good news”. So, their design strives always to provide content and prevent disappointment. The seconds of anticipation for the “pull to refresh” mechanism on smartphone apps, such as Twitter, is similar to pulling the lever of a slot machine and waiting for the win.

Most of the features mentioned above have roots in our non-tech world. Social networking sites have not created any new or fundamentally different styles of interaction between humans. Instead they have vastly amplified the speed and ease with which these interactions can occur, taking them to a higher speed, and scale.

Addiction and awareness

People using digital media do exhibit symptoms of behavioural addiction . These include salience, conflict, and mood modification when they check their online profiles regularly. Often people feel the need to engage with digital devices even if it is inappropriate or dangerous for them to do so. If disconnected or unable to interact as desired, they become preoccupied with missing opportunities to engage with their online social networks.

According to the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom, 15m UK internet users (around 34% of all internet users) have tried a “digital detox” . After being offline, 33% of participants reported feeling an increase in productivity, 27% felt a sense of liberation, and 25% enjoyed life more. But the report also highlighted that 16% of participants experienced the fear of missing out, 15% felt lost and 14% “cut-off”. These figures suggest that people want to spend less time online, but they may need help to do so.

At the moment, tools that enable people to be in control of their online experience, presence and online interaction remain very primitive. There seem to be unwritten expectations for users to adhere to social norms of cyberspace once they accept participation.

But unlike other mediums for addiction, such as alcohol, technology can play a role in making its usage more informed and conscious. It is possible to detect whether someone is using a phone or social network in an anxious, uncontrolled manner. Similar to online gambling, users should have available help if they wish. This could be a self-exclusion and lock-out scheme. Users can allow software to alert them when their usage pattern indicates risk.

The borderline between software which is legitimately immersive and software which can be seen as “exploitation-ware” remains an open question. Transparency of digital persuasion design and education about critical digital literacy could be potential solutions.

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Essay about technology addiction

Previously in my dissertation I have discussed the prevalence of technology addiction and have pointed out reasons why it may exist as a phenomenon. I have also examined the reasons why and how a person may become addicted to technology. In this section of my dissertation, I discuss addiction on its own merits and why people may be drawn to addiction when there is no chemical stimulation.

Many people are aware of chemical dependency, and it is often referred to as an addiction. People become addicted to chemicals that release endorphins in the brain. This may through legal methods such a with prescription drugs, with nicotine, caffeine and alcohol, and may also be through illegal methods such as with illegal drug use. These are more widely understood because they involve a chemical addiction. What is harder to understand is addiction when there is no chemical stimulation.

Things such as gambling and technology addiction are still addictions. Some lump sex addiction in with these too however, there is a form of chemical addiction that may be present during sex.

There are forms of addiction such as gambling and technology addiction that are still addictions even though there is no chemical stimulation. There are even recorded cases of people having addictions to TV shows such as Star Trek, where they physically encounter uncomfortable and life-threatening withdrawal symptoms.

The reasons behind addictions that lack chemical input may be associated with feelings of helplessness. People are able to switch from non-chemical based addictions to chemical-based addictions and back again without any problems, and in almost all cases it is due to a feeling of helplessness within the individual.

These types of person may, rightly or wrongly, be labeled as people with an addictive personality. Yet, in almost all cases, their addictions are based on misdirected feelings of helplessness. A person that usually feels helpless may react to it in a healthy way even if that reaction is to ignore the problem. People with addictions are often determined to do something about their feelings of helplessness, but in their mind, they resort to addiction because they think it makes them feel better.

This also explains why people with addiction may suddenly give up for no reason, such as the many people that returned from the Vietnam war back to America after being very addicted to heroin in Vietnam. They were able to return home and re-take control of their lives, which is why they could quit heroin very easily. People that re-take control of their lives are often able to break from addiction, but sadly there are many addictions that make a person’s life worse, which makes it all the harder for them to regain control of their lives.

People with technology addictions may be reacting to feelings of helplessness, but instead of dealing with these feelings in the correct way, they instead immerse themselves in their technology. It is a distraction from their real life and so provides temporary relief from their feelings of helplessness. This means that some people that have a technology addiction may be cured with therapy. This therapy may help them overcome their feelings of helplessness, or may help them deal with their feelings of helplessness without resorting to technological stimulation.

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Essay on Technology Addiction

Albert Einstein once said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Unfortunately the fear of this great soul has become a reality in today’s times. The use of technology has become a priority for majority of people. They have become addicted to it. Their relationships, work and health have taken a back seat.

Long and Short Essay on Technology Addiction in English

Here are long and short essay on Technology Addiction to help you with the topic in your exam.

These Technology Addiction essay are written in simple English to make it easily memorable and presentable when needed.

After going through these essays you will understand what technology addiction is, what its harmful consequences are, its impacts on health and relationships, types of technology addictions and how to overcome them, etc.

Hurry up, read all the essays given below and choose the best one for you:

Short Essay on Technology Addiction – Essay 1 (200 Words)

Technology addiction is an umbrella term for different kinds of addictions including internet addiction, mobile addiction, social media addiction, TV addiction, computer addiction, gaming addiction and web series addiction to name a few. This is the newest kind of addiction that has gripped people around the world.

Just like drug and alcohol addiction, technology addiction also changes the brain activity. It provides momentary pleasure and releases stress temporarily. However, the impact it has on the human brain in the long run is irreparable. Continuous use of mobile, internet, television or any other technology creates new neuropath ways in our brain. These neuropath ways replace the healthier ones and also bar the development of healthy neuropath ways.

Technology addiction stimulates all the senses and it is thus hard to get over. It gives addicts a high just like drugs. Addicts return to technology again and again to experience this feeling. They feel sad and depressed when they are away from technology. This is the reason why they remain hooked to it for most part of the day. They start ignoring their work and other important tasks. They also start neglecting their loved ones. They associate happiness with their addiction. They only feel happy when they indulge in their addiction and display aggressive behaviour when advised to leave it.

Technology addiction impacts a person’s health, ruins his relationships and hampers work. One must make effort to overcome it in order to lead a healthier life.

Essay on Harmful Consequences of Technology Addiction – Essay 2 (300 Words)

Introduction

Technology addiction is often taken lightly but research reveals that it is as bad as drug addiction. Many of the harmful effects caused by this new age addiction are as adverse as drug addiction. It impacts a person’s personal, professional and social life. Here is a brief look at its harmful consequences.

Impact of Technology on Health

Technology addiction of any kind has a negative impact on a person’s health. People addicted to technology such as mobile, computer, internet and the likes have a high risk of incurring many health issues. Dry and itchy eyes, backache, frequent headache and excessive weight gain are among the common health problems faced by technology addicts. Many of them go on to develop serious illnesses such as heart problem, hypertension and depression.

Impact of Technology on Work/ Studies

Technology addiction has a huge impact on a person’s brain. A person addicted to technology is unable to focus on work. He feels dizzy and lethargic most of the time and this hinders his work. He is unable to think creatively and rationally. Besides, he is so addicted to technology that he is unable to leave it. He often neglects his work and misses deadlines and meetings. This hampers his professional growth.

Students addicted to technology also face similar issues. Their academic performance dips as they are hooked to technology for most part of the day. Besides, they are least interested in sports and extra-curricular activities that are essential for their all round development.

Impact of Technology on Relationships

Technology addicts prefer technology over everything. Even as they sit with their family and friends, they are often engrossed in their mobile phones. They are either updating their social media accounts or playing video games or chatting with friends online. They do not like interacting with people in real life. They avoid going out with friends and ignore their loved ones. This creates problems in relationships.

Technology addiction is ruining the life of people. Technology must be put to good use. One must limit its usage to avoid getting addicted to it. If we don’t stand against technology addiction, the day isn’t far when it will prove lethal to our existence.

Essay on Technology Addiction: A Curse for the Society – Essay 3 (400 Words)

Technology addiction is a curse for the modern society. Several people these days turn to technology to kill boredom or to distract themselves from their routine problems. Many among them start using it excessively and soon become addicted to it. It is important to identify the warning signs of technology addiction and get over it to take control of your life.

Signs of Technology Addiction

People addicted to technology often feel guilty for using technology excessively and ignoring their work and loved ones because of their addiction. Even as they want to work and spend time with their family members and friends, they aren’t able to do so as they feel drawn towards internet, mobile, video games and other technology-driven things. They are unable to leave these things.

Many of them lie and defend their act and express anger when someone guides them otherwise. Technology addicts experience a feeling of euphoria while using technology. They lose sense of time. They are unable to maintain a good schedule. They become socially isolated and experience problems such as anxiety and depression. They avoid actual tasks such as office work, homework assignments and household chores. They do not pay heed to their health and it often begins to deteriorate.

Ways to Overcome Technology Addiction

In order to overcome technology addiction it is important to distract your mind and channelize your energy in the right direction. It is thus a good idea to join a course that adds value to your profession. You may also try something that interests you such as pottery, dance, painting or some sports. Indulging in something you love will keep your spirits high and take your mind off technology.

It is also important to build a social circle as you try to get over technology addiction. Real life interactions are much more refreshing and fulfilling compared to meeting and chatting with people online. Getting back with your old friends and making new friends in school, office or in your neighbourhood is a good way to cut ties with the technology addiction. Seeking support from family members will also help in this direction.

You can take professional help to get rid of technology addiction if nothing else seems to work.

Technology addiction is hampering people’s overall growth and development. It is a curse to the society. There should be special sessions in schools and colleges to guide students to stay away from this addiction. Those addicted to it must be counselled to overcome it.

Long Essay on Technology Addiction – Essay 4 (500 Words)

It is rightly said, “Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master”. This is to say that technology can be a wonderful thing if you put it to good use. However, it can be dangerous if you allow it to overpower you. Technology addiction is destroying the life of numerous people around the world.

Technology Addiction Promotes Drug Abuse

Technology addiction of any kind be it mobile addiction, internet addiction, social media addiction or gaming addiction is as bad as drug abuse. Drug addicts become vulnerable and delusional. All they want in life is a dose of their favourite drug. It gives them a high and releases all their tensions temporarily. They crave for this momentary pleasure and get addicted to drugs.

Technology renders the same soothing effect and quite similar to drugs its impact is also temporary. Technology serves as an escape from our daily problems. It relaxes our mind for some time and releases stress. However, it is as damaging for our mind, body and soul as drug addiction.

Researchers have observed a connection between these addictions. It has been seen that those addicted to technology are more likely to develop drug addiction. Most people turn to technology to release stress and they are able to achieve the desired result initially.

However, as they grow addicted to it they begin to feel stressed and depressed. In order to cope up with the situation, technology addicts look for something that can render a stronger affect and help them achieve that euphoric state. They often turn towards alcohol and drugs and become addicted to them.

Technology Addiction: Damaging Young Minds

While technology addiction is seen among people of all age groups, it is more common among the youngsters living in different parts of the world. The young generation is full of energy and new ideas. Their energy and ideas must be channelized in the right direction in order to help them grow better and achieve more in life.

However, this does not happen in most of the cases. Children and youngsters gain access to different kinds of technological devices these days and spend most of their time and energy on them. Many of them have grown addicted to technology and this is damaging their mind. All they think about is getting back to the internet, computer, social media or whichever technology they are hooked to. They lose interest in other activities.

They are unable to focus on work as they feel a constant urge to get back to the technology they are addicted to. They feel guilty about using technology excessively and giving priority to it over their relationships and work. However, they still can’t get over it. This causes a lot of stress. Many of them face anxiety issues and even get into depression.

Technology addicts are unable to think rationally. They lose sense of time, become defensive when asked to restrict the use of technology and even start lying about its use. Their performance dips and they often develop behavioural issues.

Technology addiction should be taken seriously. People must keep a check on the use of technology. If they see any signs of technology addiction, they must take measures to overcome the same.

Long Essay on Technology Addiction: Types of Technology Addiction – Essay 6 (600 Words)

Drug and alcohol addiction have affected the lives of millions of people around the world. However, these are not the only kinds of addictions that grip people in today’s times. The advancement in technology and its growing use have given rise to a new type of addiction termed as technology addiction. There are different types of technology addictions. Here is a look at these:

• Mobile Addiction

Mobile addiction is one of the most common types of technology addictions in today’s times. Our mobile phones are a powerhouse of entertainment. They have so much to offer. Engrossing games, informative content, interesting videos, easy means to content with our loved ones and make new friends and what not – a mobile phone with a high speed internet connection has so much to offer. It is hard not to get hooked to it.

Numerous mobile users are addicted to their phones. They do not care if they are sitting in a social gathering, at the dinner table or in an important business meeting. They are always on their mobile. They find it more interesting than anything happening around them.

• Computer Addiction

Computer addicts are always seen on their computer systems. They are involved in useless activities on their computer. They keep wasting their time and ignore all the important tasks at hand. They mostly confine themselves to their chair and incur various physical ailments as a result. They also become socially isolated as they skip outdoor activities and social events. This hampers their mental as well as physical growth.

• Internet Addiction

Internet has so much to offer to us. We need to see to it that it impacts our life in a positive manner and makes it better. Limited and correct use of internet can enhance our life. It can be used to learn something new that adds value to our personal and professional life. However, if we get addicted to the internet, we are on our way to ruin our life.

• Gaming Addiction

Gaming is a great way to de-stress and rejuvenate. However, most of the video games are highly addictive. They are designed to keep a person hooked for hours. Gamers crave to make new high scores and crack the next level. They get addicted to different games.

All they think about is beating their friends and build better score. They spend several hours of the day playing video games. The time that can be used to do something productive is wasted in gaming. Gaming addiction also messes with the mind and leads to aggressive and anxious behaviour.

• Social Media Addiction

Social media has become a craze among people of different age groups. It helps them connect with their near and dear ones living in different parts of the world. Healthy use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is good. However, it becomes a problem when people become obsessed with it.

Many people around the world have become social media addicts. They update their social media status frequently, upload pictures of everything they encounter, check for new notifications every few seconds and keep thinking about different ways to enhance their social media profile. They disconnect with people in the real world and prefer connecting with them over social media platforms.

Technology addiction is growing with the increasing use of new technology devices. This is affecting proper growth and development of people. They are glued to technology and as a result are ignoring various important aspects of their life. It needs to be understood that technology has been designed to enhance our life and not to degrade it. We must use it wisely and not grow addicted to it.

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• Innovation & Tech

Has technology become a new addiction?

After recent advancement in technology, it has changed our perspective to see the world. It has made our life so easy and convenient that we don’t need to go anywhere to search for every information that is easily available on the internet. We don’t need bull carts or horses to travel from one place to another car have made our life so easy. We don’t need to post letters to communicate with each other.

We can easily connect through mobile phones in seconds with the medium of networks on call or video call. We don’t need to wait for newspapers to read  the latest news . Every kind of  latest technology news ,  latest politics news in India  or around the world, easily available on our smartphones we can see news and updates in seconds with the help of the internet. Despite all the advantages, it has become our addiction.

Since the rise of the web and cell phones, research shows an increment in the number of individuals battling with a dependence on innovation. It’s normal for both youth and grown-ups to want to continually be “connected” to online media and the web, yet this regularly prompts a dread of passing up a major opportunity and dread of being forgotten about in youngsters. Combined with the neurological changes in the mind while being on the web, innovation fixation can be added to the rundown of conduct addictions.

What is technology addiction?

Researchers have defined technology addiction as the personal inability to control, regulate or limit the behavior from increasing technology and connectivity use. Be that as it may, a few teenagers and youthful grown-ups cross from typical use into a domain wherein their innovation use is contrarily affecting school, work, family, and public activity. Innovation enslavement incorporates a dependence on computer games, interpersonal interaction, and riding the web, in addition to other things.

 Technology addiction to youth

It is hard to decide the number of teenagers and youthful grown-ups who experience the ill effects of innovation enslavement. Yet, a recent report found that 4.4% of European young people had what specialists named “obsessive web use,” and roughly 14% showed what they called “maladaptive web use.” 

Different investigations have discovered that around 10% of individuals’ web use meddles with their work, family, or public activity. To muddle things further, the engineers of innovation like computer games and web-based media are effectively attempting to make items that tap into our addictive propensities, speaking straightforwardly about making an “impulse circle.”

Bad effects of technology addiction on the brain of the young generation

On a neurological level, technology addiction works the same as a chemical addiction. That assumption followed by remuneration drives the mind to deliver dopamine and other feel-great synthetic substances. This prize may be winning a computer game level or getting “likes” on an image. Over the long haul, an individual starts to ache for this dopamine discharge and frequently requires expanding improvement to get a similar impact. 

While synthetic addictions frequently have a bad impact by hindering the re-take-up of these vibe great synthetic compounds, so they stay in mind longer and all the more capably, researchers are finding that the conflicting prizes regularly connected with conduct addictions like betting and computer games additionally increment the surge of dopamine.

Innovation can give understudies a misguided feeling of social security as they speak with inconspicuous people worldwide. The speed with which innovation moves makes everything a youngster may be searching for accessible practically no time, which energizes an unfortunate craving for moment delight. A sluggish web association or “unplugging” can advance touchiness and uneasiness for an adolescent in any case used to the consistent association through innovation. 

Rest problems can create as youngsters stay up practically the entire night to play with innovation. Subsequently, scholarly, athletic, and social execution can endure. Weight acquire and different difficulties of a terrible eating routine and stationary lifestyle, like cardiovascular sickness, may result. In-person friendly abilities may crumble. 

Indeed, even as solid adolescents are tested by expanding life obligations, hormonal changes, and the pressure of new friendly and scholarly universes like dating and applying to school, these life advances become significantly harder for those entirely ingested in innovation. 

Inside an innovation-dependent individual, the psyche becomes progressively incapable of recognizing the lived and the other real factors that produce moment incitement, joy, and award. Thusly, the outrageous utilization of innovation can disturb typical examples of mind-set and socialization in adolescents. Reliance upon online media, gaming, or different stages to capacity can turn into the new and unfortunate “typical.”

How to prevent technology addiction in the young generation?

Prevention is better than cure:, give a ton of strong highs, some of them detached:.

How young people use innovation truly matters. Are young generations playing computer games among other sporting exercises? Would they say they are as aroused up for supper with companions as they are tied in with “step up”? Or then again, would they say they are turning on the Xbox, so they don’t need to confront a daily existence that they’re despising? 

Offset action and efficiency with healthy stress management:

All in life requires energy. Regularly, youngsters feel like they have too little energy to spend on an excessive number of requests. If there are not guided by grown-ups to find sound approaches to recharge their energy stores, they may default by abusing simple fixes for diversion or stress alleviation that advance innovation dependence. 

Sustain supportive of social character advancement in reality:

 Grown-ups should be proactive, innovative, and energized as they assist kids with finding who they truly are! When youngsters discover something they are acceptable at and need to do, they will normally incline toward it. It is simpler to make an Internet façade, yet undeniably more remunerating for teenagers to develop genuine purposes and veritable characters inside their families, schools, and networks. 

Consider treatment when there’s an issue :

 Inpatient treatment for innovation compulsion begins by eliminating a teen from both the Internet and the environmental factors that permitted an innovation dependence on happening in any case. It is a type of serious treatment. Different medicines can incorporate approaches to help innovation addicts see the disconnected world as more pleasurable without eliminating the online component from their lives.

Technology can indeed satisfy many human needs, but its abuse comes with risk. Being addicted to technology is somehow or another similar addiction to alcohol and other drugs, with many of the same effects on the developing brain.

We must do all we can to prevent any sort of addiction from happening in our children’s lives. Technology can be a defensive factor if used properly. Healthy youngsters can play a role in student technology addiction prevention by showing youngsters the benefits of a healthy, balanced approach to technology use.

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Technology Addiction Among Youth and Its Impact

• Categories: Drug Addiction

About this sample

Words: 1677 |

Published: Jul 17, 2018

Words: 1677 | Pages: 4 | 9 min read

Table of contents

Technology addiction essay outline, technology addiction essay example, introduction.

• Overview of the positive and negative impacts of tech-gadgets and services
• Mention of the impact on youth's technical skills and real-life practical skills

Negative Impacts on Youth

• The shift towards an imaginary world
• Decreased outdoor activities and social interaction

Psychological Effects

• Addiction to social media and its consequences
• Internet gaming and shopping leading to depressive symptoms

Mental Health Impact

• Relationship between Internet addiction and psychiatric disorders
• Damage to brain systems and physical consequences of technology addiction

Causes of Technology Addiction

Preventing and addressing technology addiction.

• Balancing technology use with stress management
• Encouraging real-world socialization and identity development
• Treatment options for technology addiction, including inpatient treatment

Works Cited

• Walsh, S. (2012). The Impact of Technology on Youth in the Digital Age. In K. Hermann-Wilmarth & L. Ryan (Eds.), Teaching the iGeneration: Five Easy Ways to Introduce Essential Skills With Web 2.0 Tools (pp. 1-14). National Council of Teachers of English.
• Erickson, E. (2012). The Negative Impacts of Technology on Youth. Journal of Adolescent Research, 27(2), 155-169.
• Cabral, J. (2011). The Psychological Effects of Social Media Addiction on Youth. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, 1(4), 31-39.
• Cotton, S. (2001). Internet Addiction and Its Association with Depressive Symptoms among College Students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 28(4), 225-229.
• Young, K. S. (1998). Internet Addiction: The Emergence of a New Clinical Disorder. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 1(3), 237-244.
• Griffiths, M. D. (2000). Internet Addiction—Time to be Taken Seriously? Addiction Research, 8(5), 413-418.
• Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
• Block, J. J. (2008). Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(3), 306-307.
• Weinstein, A., & Lejoyeux, M. (2010). Internet Addiction or Excessive Internet Use. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 36(5), 277-283.
• Cheng, C., Li, A. Y., & Wu, Y. S. (2018). Internet Addiction Prevalence and Quality of (Real) Life: A Meta-Analysis of 31 Nations across Seven World Regions. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 21(9), 540-550.

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Technology Addiction Essay Examples

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Technology , Addiction , Family , Health , Children , Media , Students , Life

Words: 1800

Published: 12/21/2021

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ATTENTION GAINER: As I speak, there will be people amongst us who would be checking their phones and if not checking they would be thinking of the one email that needs to be sent or that one application you heard about. Today’s generation is more dependent on technology than any of the generations that existed or have existed before us. We can hardly imagine life without the gadgets around us. Let me prove my point with the following example. SIGNIFICANCE (SOURCE): A Phoenix-based CEO of The J Brand Group, Jenn Hoffman, while giving an interview over breakfast to a WebMD writer, Jennifer Soong, was interrupted by her Blackberry Pearl several times to send out emails. She does not keep her phone out of sight even for a moment to the extent that even in the bathroom she carries her phone with her. THESIS: We have lost empathy and respect for the person speaking to us because of the technology disruptions around us. People physically around us have little value to us, and those connected with technology are given precedence over anything else. This goes to show that we as individuals are addicted to technology and similar to any other addiction this could have detrimental effects in the long run. PREVIEW: Today, I will bring to notice how we are addicted to technology and the effect it is having upon us as individuals and hampering our personal lives and what two institutes have the greatest role in creating technology addiction. Moreover, I would not leave you hanging mid-air. Consequently, I will also present ways to avoid being overly-dependent upon technology and prioritize the time we have.

We often overlook technology addiction because it is more about convenience than anything else. Little do we realize that this technology addiction can have serious health problems for those who have been victimized by their gadgets. Undoubtedly, technology has brought with it numerous benefits for us as a society and individuals. Business today is flourishing because of the advancements in technology and various opportunities have opened up for technology progress. But on the other hand, it is not all good news; the effects on our health are not given importance mainly because they cannot be seen in the short-term. Some years from now these health problems will come into notice, and it will be too late by then to reverse the effects. In a 2015 BBC News article, writer Zoe Kleinman discusses what one doctor of a technology addiction team of Nightingale Hospital has to say on the subject. People complain of feeling tired when they go to bed and waking up with the same feeling. When a person’s brain is unable to sleep at night, it is then that there should be a concern because it points towards technology addiction. People are in front of screens most part of the day while they are awake. The height of dependency on technology is such that our mobile phone or any other screen is the first thing we look at when we wake up and the last thing before we finally fall asleep. It is then no surprise to feel fatigued and tired even after sleeping for a good eight hours a night. Even after we feel such uneasiness and anxiety why do we continue using technology? The answer is simple; we are stuck in a vicious cycle. Without a smartphone, laptop, or tablet we will be disconnected from the world. There is a vast amount of information available on a simple click, and cutting ourselves from this will be considered an unwise move by society today. Any confusion can be cleared within a matter of seconds and who would be willing to let go of such comfort and convenience. This takes us to another point of information overload that can be another cause of anxiety and tiredness and out of the scope of this paper. Apart from the mental impact that technology has on us, it also becomes a cause of physical health problems. Children today prefer playing games in front of screens rather than outdoors and in parks where they are meant to be played. Parents find it easier to hand their children an iPad or a game controller rather than chauffeur them to a park down the road. Parents have become busy with their lives that handing their child with some sort of technology has become the easy way out. In an article for Daily Mail UK in 2013, Victoria Woollaston, highlights what a clinical psychologist Dr. Jay Watts has to say about children being in front of screens for a time more than required. Children become distressed when parents taken away their technology and gadgets, and this should concern parents. It goes to show that their child has become addicted to this sort of a lifestyle, and it is time for parents to change behavior and lifestyle. Playgrounds have become virtual, and this will greatly hamper the physical development of children. Physical exercise is essential for children in their growth years as it helps build muscle and strength. If this is taken away from the children, then various health problems will arise later in life. One of the most common problems that have come to notice due to a lack of physical activity is obesity amongst children which eventually leads to diabetes.

TRANSITION:

The aforementioned examples prove that technology addiction can cause serious health issues, and it is mostly lack of awareness that leads to this addiction creating a direct impact on our health. But the lack of awareness can be attributed to two of the most prominent institutions of society; 1) schools and 2) media.

According to Andrew Hough of the Telegraph in 2011, researcher’s found four in five students had panic attacks and severe withdrawal when they were asked to disconnect from their technology. Schools must not allow cell phones in class and condition students to survive without technology if the need arises. Moreover, research should be more focused on books from the library rather than one click of the internet. Some students during the research confessed to technology cravings as being of the same intensity as cravings for cocaine. By allowing cellphones in schools, the students are being taught the technology is part of life rather than just viewing it as a luxury it has been over-used and become a cause for concern today. The media incorporates all modes of communication be it through mobile applications or television channels. It has contributed significantly to causing technology addiction. There are game applications today that require complete dedication from the player; thus, causing technology addiction. According to Mara Tyler, in an article if a person feels isolated, forgets to eat or drink, and faces poor performance at school or work due to their gaming habit these are signs he may be addicted to technology. These games mentally involve a person so much that they disconnect from the wider world. The worst part is that these games are often advertised as being the “in-thing”, and those who are not familiar may be the crowd that is sidelined.

Now that we are aware of what technology addiction is and how it is being caused we can more closely examine how this can be cured and overcome. Technology addiction has more drawbacks than benefits; therefore, there is a need to find a sustainable solution to help minimize or eliminate this problem.

The best way to help get rid of this addiction is to start at your home. Children should have only a limited amount of time in front of the screen and parents should make a conscious effort to indulge their younger ones in physical activities. Moreover, children learn from what they see; therefore, minimal use of technology such as laptops and cell phones in front of children will help train the children to learn how to survive without technology as well. Parents need to turn off their notifications from social media for instance so that they are not tempted to check their phones constantly as suggested by an article published in The Guardian written by Emma Sexton. It may not be easy to disconnect from all the technology around us all of a sudden. Therefore, this needs to be done in phases. On weekends or on vacations one could disconnect from technology that is not vital for their survival over the weekend or on the vacation. Whenever one feels the urge to check their phone, they could distract by doing something more productive and healthy such as taking a walk outside. Barry Moltz from the Shafron Moltz Group has identified the above as possible ways to cure technology addiction one step at a time.

REVIEW: Today you have learned how technology addiction is affecting our physical health and personal lives and what have been the contributing factors towards this addiction. And possible cures to overcome this addiction have also been highlighted. RESTATE THESIS: Technology addiction has disconnected us from people around us and is simultaneously affecting our health in a negative manner. People have less personal interaction, and this is changing individualistic behavior in society. THE BACK TO ATTENTION GAINER: We may be present amongst a crowd and still not know the purpose of our presence in that crowd. People need to make the most of the time they have, and that can definitely not be through a generation that is overly concerned about what goes on in the virtual world.

Andrew Hough. "Student 'addiction' to Technology 'similar to Drug Cravings,' Study Finds." The Telegraph. 8 Apr. 2011. Web. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8436831/Student-addiction-to-technology-similar-to-drug-cravings-study-finds.html>. Barry Moltz. "Technology Is Making You Sick. Here's the Cure." OPEN Forum. 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2016. <https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/technology-is-making-you-sick-heres-the-cure/>. Emma Sexton. "How to Cure Your Technology Addiction Yet Hold onto Your " Web. 30 Jan. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2015/jan/28/the-phone-hack-how-to-cure-your-technology-addiction-yet-stay-in-touch>. Jennifer SoongWebMD. "When Technology Addiction Takes Over Your Life." WebMD. WebMD. Web. 30 Jan. 2016. <http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/features/when-technology-addiction-takes-over-your-life>. Mara Tyler. "Video Game & Technology Addiction." Healthline. 14 July 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2016. <http://www.healthline.com/health/addiction/gaming-and-technology#Symptoms2>. Victoria Woollaston. "The Five Signs Your Child Is Addicted to Their IPad - and How to Give Them a 'digital Detox' Read More: Http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2479109/The-signs-child-addicted-iPad--digital-detox.html#ixzz3ykcko0gd Follow Us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook." Daily Mail UK. 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2016. Zoe Kleinman. "Are We Addicted to Technology? - BBC News." BBC News. 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2016. <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33976695>.

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Essay on Internet Addiction | Internet Addiction Essay for Students and Children in English

February 14, 2024 by Prasanna

Essay on Internet Addiction: The origins of the Internet can be traced back to the 1960s. Over the last 60 years, technology has improved in such strides that it seems virtually unrecognizable today to what it was when it started. No other invention has evolved at a pace as fast as this. The Internet gives us access to the entire world for anything and everything. If one has access to the Internet and enough money, there can be no need for any individual to step out of the house whatsoever. As much as it has connected us to the world, it has also isolated us.

What’s worse is that now there exists a phenomenon of ‘internet addiction.’ Which is an unhealthy addition to a world already struggling with addictions as it is. And just like any other addiction, it has its fair share of negative consequences and problems that can affect a person physically and mentally.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Internet Addiction for Students and Kids in English

As of recently, internet addiction has become a global problem among people of all ages. Not just the youth but also children. They sit in front of the screen on social media, chatting, or video games. Using the Internet in excess can be destructive for the person and even fatal.

While the Internet is a great tool and can be used to make life easier, it is essential to check how much time we spend. It is harmful when individuals make their whole lives revolve around the Internet.

The Internet is also filled with dangerous people, and it can therefore cause people to get isolated from their family and friends and influence individuals to make wrong decisions. It is crucial to regulate internet usage, and parents and guardians must be careful and aware of their children so that they don’t develop an over-dependence on the Internet.

Short Essay on Internet Addiction 350 Words in English

Short Essay on Internet Addiction is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Internet addiction has become a new age addiction that has gripped people around the world. People belonging to different age groups suffer from this addiction, though it’s more prevalent among the youth. People access the Internet to kill boredom, find a way out of loneliness, or simply to have some fun in their lives. However, before they know it, they are hooked to it.

The Internet is a massive entertainment and engagement source, and it’s hard to resist the addictive things it offers. However, it’s essential to regulate internet use to ensure that it has not become an addiction. Like any other addiction, this one too has grave consequences. It can have a severe impact on a person’s neurological functioning. People can lose their sense of time and bearing and neglect their family, friends, and even their work and responsibilities.

Many internet addicts develop anxiety issues and depression. This hampers their personal and professional growth. Their physical health also deteriorates. They can incur health problems like obesity, heart condition, and hypertension. To live a balanced life, it is essential to be careful of one’s internet usage and to have the self-control not to let it take over your life.

Introduction

The number of internet users worldwide is increasing drastically, and with every passing day, the number of internet addicts is also rising. The Internet can be a very alluring place. Video games, chat rooms, social media platforms, entertainment videos, engrossing web series, and interesting blogs can keep an individual hooked for hours. People begin to use the Internet to beat loneliness and tedium and end up attached to it within no time.

Smart Phones and Internet Addiction

Around a decade ago, when the Internet could only be accessed on the desktop or a laptop, web usage was limited. Many were still excessively using it, but it was not as bad as it is now. The introduction of smartphones has given the rates of internet addiction a boost. People are seen glued to their screens wherever they go. This becomes worse as work is done on screen as well. And in these times, you need this technology for getting an education as well.

Internet addicts forget to eat, complete essential tasks, and ignore their loved ones. All they need is a high-speed internet connection and a tool to access it. This is more than enough to consume all their attention throughout the day.

Internet addiction is a severe disorder that affects a person’s ability to think rationally. Even though internet addicts often know the harmful consequences of this addiction, they do not make much effort to beat it. This often results in severe problems like depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders.

Read More: Social Media Essay 250 Words

Internet Addiction Essay 400 Words in English

The Internet is one of the world’s most important sources of data that is used worldwide. People from across the globe communicate with one another through the Internet. Whether it’s watching a movie or catching up with an old friend, the Internet has made everything easier. It has also made us more productive and has made life so much easier.

It is hard to pinpoint precisely what causes internet addiction. But it is known that it can be easily compared to other types of addictions with the sort of dependency it causes. Internet addiction is a more recent phenomenon, and the causes can vary with gender, age, and personality.

Causes of internet addiction

Social circles play a critical role in causing behavioral issues like addiction. Internet addiction is no exception, as constant internet surfing has become commonplace among the youth. There is even an encouragement to seek friends online while playing online games, chat rooms, or just on social media.

The Internet can also become a coping-mechanism for self-soothing and as an escape for those who are suffering from mental health issues and such. The same way that people who suffer from depression or anxiety use alcohol and drugs to self-medicate, the Internet can be a distraction. Be it by playing video games, watching shows, or merely surfing forums.

An addition to the last point is that emotions and thought patterns have a huge role to play when it comes to addictions being developed. Those that desire an evasion from real life or a distraction from problems go to the Internet for emotional support. When an individual finds this sort of support only on the Internet and not in real life, it becomes an addiction. Introverts or are shy and do not have social skills can also develop an internet addiction. They find that it is easier to interact with people online than in person. It is also that easy for people to fabricate their identities and scam people like those who are naïve.

People get addicted due to the dopamine high that internet surfing can give. A person who receives this only from the Internet and nowhere else can very quickly be addicted. All of us need to be careful with our internet usage and dependency. Regulation or completely cutting it off can sometimes be the answer.

Long Essay on Internet Addiction 800 Words in English

Long Essay on Internet Addiction is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

People around the world are now having the issue of compulsive internet usage. They spend hours and hours on end on the Internet knowing that it does not benefit and is simply a waste of time. They make no effort to change this even though they know that it is harmful and can become an addiction. This lack of self-control can be hazardous, just as any other addiction is. People who are addicted to the internet face mental and physical issues, which can end up being fatal and end a person’s life prematurely.

Internet Addiction and the Youth

Internet addiction is more prevalent among youngsters. They end up scrolling on social media or forums or other websites, watching videos, shows, chatting, or shopping online. Time on the Internet may have begun as very minimal but ends up taking hours and hours of a person’s day as the usage increases. As they grow addicted, other responsibilities at home or studying are neglected. This can affect a person’s education and even inhibit their social growth.

When social skills are not allowed to be built, they do not know how to function in society anymore. They are unable to interact with people in real life normally due to this. They can also develop social anxiety. They prefer friends online who can very easily be dangerous individuals scamming them and negatively influencing them. They can be groomed inappropriately or end up stealing and losing money. When their education is affected, it hampers their future, and they spend no time developing skills that can build their careers. Spending all the time online can cause health issues if they do not exercise or go out.

It is also regrettable that parents hand their children iPads to distract them. From a young age, the children begin to develop a dependency on the Internet. Even while eating, the children gravitate towards the screen to watch something. Another sad development is the fact that now smartphones and laptops are essential for education. Notes, lectures, and all resources can be found online. If all a student’s time studying and relaxing is spent online, there is no time to be present in real life.

In the same manner, many young working professionals also fall prey to the same problem. Their time is wasted on the Internet when they should concentrate on furthering their careers and networking. Internet addiction has an adverse effect on young people today and presents a genuine danger for their future.

Consequences 

Internet addiction can have extremely harmful consequences. It can deteriorate one’s ability to function normally in society and affect them physically and mentally. It can cause various types of disorders and problems. Here are some examples of the same.

Mental Health

Constant use of the Internet reduces the brain’s capacity to grasp and understand new things. It drastically affects one’s attention span. The addicts have a continual desire to get back on the screen and surf regardless of what work is pending. It affects productivity and can cause behavioral issues.

It can also induce mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. An excellent example of this is anxiety caused by doomscrolling. It can also cause paranoia.

Social well-being

As mentioned before, individuals spend more time online than offline, which hampers social skills growth. Individuals no longer know how to interact and function normally in society. And the lack of such skills results in more avoidance, which furthers the problem and does nothing to solve it. It can lead to a feeling of isolation and even depression.

Physical Health

When all of a person’s time is spent on the Internet, and no time is spent walking around and going out, they develop an unhealthy sedentary lifestyle. This can cause obesity and cardiac issues. They can even become overweight, putting them at risk for stroke, diabetes, and such illnesses.

Withdrawal Symptoms

An obvious indication that spending time on the Internet is becoming an addiction is withdrawal symptoms. Individuals begin to feel restless, angry, and irritated when offline. The Internet becomes a crutch that they cannot live without. This causes stress and anxiety, and the emotional outburst caused by not accessing the Internet can be disturbing. It can be harmful to people around as there have been incidents where people had murdered family members when the internet connection was cut off.

Internet Addiction Essay Conclusion

People must be careful not to let internet usage get this bad and get help if it does develop into an addiction. It should not be taken lightly, and we must be careful so that we can lead healthy lives.

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Technology and addiction: What drugs can teach us about digital media

Ido hartogsohn.

1 Program in Science, Technology and Society, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

2 Film and Media Studies Department, Amsterdam University, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Comparisons between digital media and narcotic drugs have become increasingly common in the vigorous discussion on smartphone addiction and technology addiction. Commentators have used evocative terms such as “digital heroin,” “electronic cocaine,” and “virtual drugs” when discussing users’ growing dependence on their devices. This article looks at the spreading discourse comparing digital media with drugs from a set of interdisciplinary perspectives including media studies, political economy, critical theory, science and technology studies, and addiction studies. It engages several key questions: To what extent can heavy smartphone use be considered an addiction, and how is it similar or different from drug addiction? How do the analogies between media and drugs fit within prevalent imaginaries of information technologies, and within the greater cultural themes and preoccupations of late capitalism? And finally, what can drugs teach us about the possible escape routes from our society's current predicament?

If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side effects? (Charlie Brooker, creator of Black Mirror TV series)

Over the past decade smartphone use has become an issue of increasing social concern. Countless media articles have been dedicated to the subject of this growing social malady ( Carr, 2017 ; Lewis, 2017 ; Twenge, 2017b ). Several observers have produced grim accounts lamenting the habit-inducing nature of today's digital gadgets, while others turned their efforts to writing practical manuals on “how to build habit-forming products” ( Alter, 2017 ; Clement & Miles, 2017 ; Eyal, 2014 ; Kardaras, 2017 ; Twenge, 2017a ). Meanwhile, thousands of scientific papers have been published in an attempt to clarify this new form of dependence, often openly referred to as an addiction: What are its symptoms? How should it be diagnosed? And which are its most deleterious effects? 1

The literature on the addictive nature of smartphone technology makes several key claims. First, it claims to identify a neurochemical similarity between the brain mechanisms involved in so-called smartphone addictions and those involved in other types of addiction such as gambling or sex. Popular and scholarly accounts implicate the brain's reward system in smartphone dependency. Repeatedly checking one's phone for incoming messages and “likes,” or constantly refreshing one's newsfeed leads to the cerebral release of “feelgood neurotransmitter” dopamine, laying the grounds for the development of addiction. Second, the constant and unpredictable nature of digital stimulations makes digital appliances exceedingly addictive ( Alter, 2017 ; Carr, 2010 ; Lucking, 2015 ; Veissière & Stendel, 2018 ). The superior conditioning power of variable, unpredictable rewards over consistent forms of reward has been observed in B. F. Skinner's classic mid-twentieth-century behavioral psychology research on conditioning ( Skinner, 1953 , 1990 ). Thus, addiction to smartphones is compounded by the fact that the nature of rewards (e.g., the number and content of notifications received) are variable and unknown ( Veissière & Stendel, 2018 ). Third, such recurring media-induced behaviors, repeated dozens or hundreds of times a day, are claimed to cause alterations to brain function including abnormal cue reactivity signatures similar to those of other addictive disorders, among other findings of aberrant neural action in diverse parts of the brain, which correlate with heavy smartphone use ( Hadar et al., 2015 ; Horvath et al., 2020 ; Schmitgen et al., 2020 ). Finally, screen addiction is correlated by researchers with rising levels of depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and other psychopathological conditions ( Demirci et al., 2015 ; Elhai et al., 2016 , 2017 ; Hadar et al., 2017 ; Roberts et al., 2015 ; Twenge, 2017a ).

With such disturbing claims and incriminating evidence, it is hardly surprising that an increasingly alarmist discussion has developed around the topic of smartphone use ( Becker, 2016 ; Gonzalez, 2018 ). One recurring feature of this conversation is a repeated analogy between smartphone addiction and drug addiction. In recent years, smartphones and digital media have repeatedly been referred to as “electronic heroin” ( Phillips, 2017 ; Williams, 2014 ), “electronic cocaine” ( Harsh, 2017 ), “digital cocaine” ( Huddleston, 2016 ), “virtual drug” ( Kardaras, 2017 ), “digital pharmakeia,”( Kardaras, 2017 ), and a host of other pharmacologically derived names ( Harsh, 2017 ; Huddleston, 2016 ; Kardaras, 2017 ; Phillips, 2017 ; Williams, 2014 ).

At this point, it is important to note that the use of the term addiction to refer to smartphone dependencies raises several inherent problems. First, the concept of addiction can be questioned and interrogated. What and who, one might inquire, is an addict? Who defines an addict? What makes a substance addictive? And could certain socially accepted behaviors be considered addiction? These valid questions have been discussed elsewhere, and are beyond the scope of this article (for discussions of addiction as a concept, see Alexander & Schweighofer, 1988 ; Goodman, 1990 ; Sussman & Sussman, 2011 ).

This article draws on the diagnostic criteria presented in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM- 5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ) section on addictive disorders and substance use. Addiction in this model is defined as taking a substance for a longer period or larger quantities than intended, unsuccessful attempts to decrease use, and significant time spent using. The DSM framework also describes recurrent use that obstructs obligations at work, school or home; recurrent use in situations in which it is physically hazardous; and continual use despite knowledge of a psychological problem induced or exacerbated by the addiction ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ).

Another critical question targets the object of addiction that could be framed as either the smartphone itself, specific apps used on the smartphone, or the attention mobilized through the device. In effect, one might speak of three aspects involved in addictive smartphone use: a gadget addiction, an app addiction, and an attention addiction, which do not preclude one another, but rather reflect and reinforce each other at differing ratios. Smartphones therefore serve as rather ambiguously delimited objects of addiction. On this view, uncritically embracing hyperbolic expressions that compare media with drugs is likely inaccurate and naïve. Digital media are in many ways distinct from pharmacological substances.

And yet, the growing use of pharmacologically inspired metaphors to describe contemporary digital life does merit our attention. This article investigates the applicability of the term addiction to cases of heavy and compulsive smartphone use, as well as the use of drug analogies to discuss smartphone effects. We approach the subject by engaging with diverse types of literature and theories that are not commonly brought in conjunction, including media theory, addiction studies, science and technology studies, neuroscience, and psychedelic therapy. A comprehensive investigation of the comparisons and links drawn between media and drugs can only be achieved by mutually considering existing knowledge on both. The current paper thus aligns itself with past attempts to explore the interactions of—rather than similarities between—media and drugs ( MacDougall, 2012a ).

This article explores a series of questions inherent to the smartphone-drug discussion. 2 First, to what extent can heavy smartphone use be considered an addiction, and in what ways is it similar or different from drug addiction? Second, how does the smartphone addiction analogy fit within prevalent imaginaries of information and communication technologies? Third, how does the addiction analogy fit within the larger cultural themes and preoccupations of late capitalism including enhanced forms of individualism, atomism, consumerism, and commodification arising within the context of increased reliance on information and communication technologies, and digital forms of labor and consumption? ( Kumar, 2009 ). Finally, based on social science perspectives on addiction and on insights gleaned from the field of psychedelic therapy, our paper explores possible escape routes from this current societal predicament.

The digital addiction metaphor

Over the past years, popular and scholarly discourse around the topic of “smartphone addiction” (more generally referred to as “tech addiction”) has boomed. Over 10,000 scientific papers using the phrase “smartphone addiction” have been published since 2017. 3 This growing interest has so far not been translated into any medically recognized diagnosis. While the DSM-5, the latest edition of the psychiatric community's authoritative diagnostic manual, includes a new potential diagnosis dedicated to “Internet gaming disorder,” the editors were reluctant to add an “Internet addiction” diagnosis ( Petry & O’Brien, 2013 ; Pies, 2009 ). This decision runs counter to a growing number of voices who argue the existence of underlying biopsychosocial processes common to both behavioral addictions and Substance Use Disorders (SUD; Karim & Chaudhri, 2012 ; Leeman & Potenza, 2013 ; Orford, 2001 ). Behavioral addictions are defined as nonsubstance-related behaviors, that include short-term rewards causing persistent behaviors despite knowledge of adverse consequences ( Grant et al., 2010 ). Commonly discussed behavioral addictions include addiction to gambling, shopping, exercise, food, and porn. A growing number of studies find that behavioral addictions involve the same neurotransmitter pathways as SUDs (for comprehensive reviews of such articles, see Karim & Chaudhri, 2012 ; Leeman & Potenza, 2013 ). Additionally, nonsubstance addictions share the same types of behavioral patterns with SUDs, including “craving, impaired control over behavior, tolerance, withdrawal and high rates of relapse” ( Karim & Chaudhri, 2012 , p. 14). Both nonsubstance addictions and SUDs share the same genetic prognosticators ( Leeman & Potenza, 2013 ), and are helped by the same types of therapy and medication ( Karim & Chaudhri, 2012 ).

Indeed, any brief examination of the DSM-5's diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders indicates strong similarities between the markers of substance abuse as currently defined by the DSM, and behaviors common to heavy smartphone users. DSM-5 defines substance addiction as a condition recognizable by the prevalence of two or more characteristics including: “craving or strong desire to use the substance,” “the substance is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended,” “persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control use of substance,” “recurrent use of the substance resulting in a failure to fulfill major obligations at work, school or home,” “recurrent use of the substance in situations in which it is physically hazardous” ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ; quotes are based on the DSM's template descriptions of SUDs including alcohol, cannabis, phencyclidine, inhalants, and others; see pp. 490–491, 509–510, 520, 533–534). Such characteristics correspond closely with smartphone-user reports of strong urges to use smartphones and difficulties cutting down on use ( Alter, 2017 ; Mod, 2018 ), that users often find themselves spending longer periods than intended on their devices, that heavy use correlates with lower school and work performance ( Hawi & Samaha, 2016 ). Finally, the reference to physically hazardous situations caused by addictions might correspond to reports of 56% of parents admitting to texting while driving according to a survey on parent–teen dynamics around smartphone use ( Common Sense Media, 2016 ). Indeed, most surveys show over half the American population consider themselves addicted to their phones ( Common Sense Media, 2016 ; Roberts et al., 2014 ; Sellgren, 2016 ; Wheelwright, 2021 ).

These rates of smartphone addiction raise further concerns, as evidenced in a growing number of studies establishing links between heavy smartphone use and a host of mental-health conditions including depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, as well as reduced quality of sleep and impulse control ( Demirci et al., 2015 ; see, for instance, Elhai et al., 2017 ; Hormes et al., 2014 ; Przybylski & Weinstein, 2013 ; Ward et al., 2017 ). Despite the growing prevalence of the concept “smartphone addiction,” some observers have argued that discussions about smartphone addiction tend towards alarmism, hysteria, and even moral panic. Much of the new research on tech-addiction, it is argued, suffers from lack of systematization and is fraught with weak statistical correlations. Tech-addiction science, critics say, is much like nutritional science: due to its highly complex and multi-variant dependent nature, it can offer little certainty ( Becker, 2016 ; Gonzalez, 2018 ).

Others have argued that the very term “addiction” is misleading ( MacDougal, 2012b ). “Talking about addiction subverts our best thinking because it suggests that if there are problems, there is only one solution,” argues MIT professor Sherry Turkle (2011 ). “To combat addiction, you have to discard the addicting substance. But we are not going to ‘get rid’ of the Internet … The idea of addiction, with its one solution that we know we won't take, makes us feel hopeless” (pp. 293–294). Rather than using the term “addiction” with its substance abuse connotations, Turkle prefers to think of media consumption in terms of diet. It is impossible to completely stop consuming media in the same way that it would be impossible to stop consuming food, and yet one might work towards a healthier, more nutritional diet.

Turkle's argument might be challenged on several counts. First, addiction is not necessarily limited to avoidable substances. Rather, the definition might include routine activities that cannot easily be eliminated such as shopping, work, sex, and physical exercise. Most prominently, food addiction is itself a recognized pathology (see, for instance, Ifland et al., 2009 ). Addiction to an essential, unavoidable activity or object is thus arguably still an addiction. Furthermore, Turkle's assertion that the addiction concept leaves only one option—that of complete renunciation—might also be disputed by the literature on addiction, which finds many different shades of addiction in the realms of compulsive behaviors ( Alexander, 2010 ).

A second pertinent objection to the notion of tech-addiction is raised in an article by Veissière and Stendel (2018 ), which links smartphone addiction with archaic evolutionary mechanisms such as the need to monitor and be monitored by others. Smartphone use, the authors argue, is motivated by the natural need to connect and is therefore social rather than anti-social. On these authors’ views, there is nothing inherently addictive about smartphones. Rather, smartphones provide a “potentially unhealthy platform for another healthy impulse” (p. 2).

This is an important observation. Indeed, it sometimes appears impossible to distinguish between the crave for tech and the crave for connection. Our main objection here is, first, that human relationships too can become addictive, so that the social nature of smartphone use does not negate its addictive potential. Second, the facilitation of immediate, 24/7 communication channels changes the addictive potential of social relationships. Third, a variety of carefully arranged addiction-enhancing mechanisms (e.g., scrolling, bottomless newsfeeds and notifications) are part of the smartphone complex and further enhance its addictive potential.

While the human need to engage in sociality is itself mostly healthy, heavy smartphone use, by contrast, has been linked with growing psychological dispositions towards insecurity and an insatiable craving for attention and validation ( Twenge, 2017a ). To summarize, while the smartphone services a natural human need for sociality, it also magnifies that need and creates new and intense manufactured needs . If we compare sociality to coca leaves—a natural stimulant safely integrated into the life texture of countless cultures—then smartphone sociality can be likened to cocaine—a more concentrated synthesized version with a remarkably higher potential for addiction. Similarly, while consuming food is a necessary and natural part of human existence, current research suggests that processed food containing refined sweeteners, carbohydrates, fat, and salt can be considered addictive substances ( Ifland et al., 2009 ).

Jaron Lanier points to the financial incentive system behind social media as the most likely culprit for addiction. In Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now , Lanier (2018 ) argues that users are falling under the “stealthy control” (p. 2) of nefarious corporations and their clients. Lanier's first argument, “you are losing your free will,” discusses the collapse of the boundary between healthy socialization and unhealthy dependency on social media. Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, is cited, arguing that

we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. … It's a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. (cited in Lanier, 2018 , p. 8)

According to Lanier, these purposefully addictive installments merge with our social lives to create “zombie” users that are gradually devoid of free will, as users get driven from one manipulative cue to the next.

Describing our tech dependencies in terms of addiction might feel uncomfortable, but rather than denying the addictive potential of smartphones wholesale, a more productive approach might lend an ear to the cultural resonances and theoretical implications of such a perspective. If we think of addiction in broader terms, as a spectrum of excessive appetites lurking in the background of human existence ( Orford, 2001 ), we might find that rather than rejecting the doctor's diagnosis, embracing it can lead to new and productive theoretical avenues.

Pharmakomediatic imaginaries

In Turkle’s (2011 ) argument, one of the defining characteristics of smartphone addiction is that unlike drug abusers, gamblers, or porn addicts (who are theoretically able to cede their habit), it is, in most cases, not practical for digital media users to relinquish it and return to a pristine pre-digital state. Renouncing smartphone use is rendered virtually impossible by a mixture of social and professional obligations in a digital world where workers are expected to regularly check their inboxes and social communication is largely conducted through social media. Classic models of recovery and rehabilitation call for complete abnegation of one's habit in the spirit of 12-step programs. For smartphone abusers, this is not a sensible option. While recreational drug use is an “opt-in” technology, smartphone use is an “opt-out” technology because it is inescapable and ubiquitous.

Smartphones act as flexible and versatile substitutes for countless other nearly-defunct devices likes cameras, music players, maps, calendars and watches. Users are thus repeatedly impelled to return to their device, and upon their return, they habitually lose themselves in its plethoric abundance of stimulations and possibilities. As a centripetal hub of psychosocial activity, the smartphone functions as a hyper-networked extension of the human mind, to which one habitually and instinctually turns ( McLuhan, 2003 ). Tellingly, addiction to smartphones often manifests as an inadvertent, evasive, yet ineluctable psychosomatic habit of periodically reaching for one's phone, even without any obvious reason.

Our culture's growing fascination with the notion of tech-addiction indicates a seismic shift in our understanding of technology. It is at this point that we wish to propose that our postindustrial culture's reception and adaptation of digital technologies has, since the mid-20th century, been informed by two major types of media-related imaginaries: the narcotic imaginary of media which regards it as insidious and addictive, and the cyberdelic imaginary of media which regards it as liberating and empowering (for discussions of imaginaries and their role in sociotechnical development, see B. Anderson, 1983/2006 ; Jasanoff & Kim, 2015 ). By turning to narcotic metaphors (“electronic cocaine,” “digital heroin”) early 21st century culture has, in fact, gone full circle and returned to earlier views concerning the psychoactive nature of information technology.

McLuhan’s (1964) “Notes on Burroughs” essay provides an early example for a position which views electronic technology as inherently narcotic. “When the full consequences of each new technology are manifested in new psychic and social forms, then the anti-Utopias appear,” writes McLuhan (1964, p. 517) . Drawing on Burroughs’ accounts of apomorphine addiction in Naked Lunch (1959/2013), McLuhan’s, (1964 , 518) ninth note suggests that one possible escape route from technology's arresting power is to regard “our entire gadgetry as Junk […] applying the same formula that works for junk ‘ apomorphine ,’ extended to all technology.”

McLuhan's argument is that our human bodies and minds are incapable of keeping up or handling the new intensities of electronic technologies. The only alternative therefore is a media detox (here McLuhan quotes Burroughs): “Shut the whole thing right off —Silence—When you answer the machine you provide it with more recordings to be played back to your ‘enemies’ […] Don't answer the machine—Shut it off” ( Burroughs, 1959/2013 , quoted in McLuhan, 1964 , p. 518).

McLuhan's sober assessment of the narcotic nature of electronic gadgetry was forsaken in the next 40 years, as digital media increasingly came to be understood not as a narcotic, but rather as a mind-expanding psychedelic. Fred Turner’s (2006 ) From Counterculture to Cyberculture documents the shift that occurred from the late 1960s to the late 1990s as computers, once regarded as centralized agents of nefarious control and manipulation, increasingly came to be seen as forces of decentralization, personal empowerment, and even liberation. Ironically, it was McLuhan again who challenged the new governing metaphor when he argued, as early as 1968, “the computer is the LSD of the business world” ( McLuhan et al., 1968 , p. 83). By 1972, Stewart Brand, countercultural entrepreneur and co-organizer of famed 1960s Acid Tests , was calling attention to the mind-expanding potential of digital computers. In a prominent Rolling Stone story, Brand (1972 ) called computers the best news “since psychedelics.” A culture celebrating the psychedelic potential of cyber technologies emerged under the banner “cyberdelia,” and would reach a growing popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, often through such outlets as the psychedelically minded cyberculture magazine Mondo 2000 ( Dery, 1996 ). As this culture grew, the conflation of digital virtual realities and psychopharmacological ones became increasingly common. By the 1990s, even ex-1960s LSD-evangelist Timothy Leary was arguing that “the PC is the LSD of the 1990s,” and was calling upon the public to “turn on, boot up, jack in” (a paraphrase of his earlier 1960s slogan “turn on, tune in, drop out”; Leary, 2014 ). 4

The early 2000s collapse of the Internet sector NASDAQ index (dot com bubble) ( Wheale & Amin, 2003 ) and the growing domination of the web by a small number of multinational corporations dealt a fatal blow to the utopian cyberdelic vision. Searching for new sources of revenue, Internet companies were forced to rethink their business models. They turned their eyes towards massive online surveillance schemes that sought to maximize user engagement and effectively manipulate user attention and actions ( Zuboff, 2019 ). It took several more years, the invention of social media, and the emergence of Internet-connected touchscreen-enabled phones, to revive the narcotic imaginary in full.

Interestingly, the revived idea of electronic media as narcotics fits within the greater sociocultural themes of late capitalism. Historian David Courtwright (2019 ) calls ours “the age of addiction.” Like many others, Courtwright argues that addiction is a key component of consumerist capitalism, where consumers are encouraged to set their desires loose, and where dependence on regular consumption of products is the lifeline of so many economic sectors from fashion and lifestyle products to electronic gadgetry.

Unlike Max Weber's characterization of capitalism as based on an ascetic protestant work ethic sanctifying the accumulation of wealth ( Weber, 2001 ), contemporary theories of capitalism speak of a late capitalism in which attention is shifted from production to lavish consumption ( Baudrillard, 2016 ). As commented by cultural and financial theorist Ole Bjerg (2008 ), “Consumption and enjoyment are no longer vices but rather virtues, and we are constantly bombarded by demands for us to buy, consume and enjoy” (p. 6). Drug addiction, Bjerg claims, is actually “a radical way of fulfilling the imperatives of enjoyment constantly thrown at us by the contemporary ideology of consumption” (p. 1).

According to Burroughs (1959/2013 ), everyone is a junky of some sort in the capitalist system, which is permeated with the “algebra of need”: a consumer system where junk functions as “the mold of monopoly and possession” (p. 200). As Burroughs explains, opiate addicts exist at the bottom of “the pyramid of junk, one level eating the level below right up to the top or tops since there are many junk pyramids feeding on peoples of the world and all built on the basic principles of monopoly” (p. 200).

Alongside such literary and cultural theory perspectives about capitalism and addiction, social scientists have also explored the linkage between capitalism and addiction. Chief among these is psychologist and addiction expert Bruce Alexander. In his Globalization of Addiction , Alexander (2010 ) follows historical data and argues that addiction is strongly driven by dislocation—a sustained absence of psychosocial integration. Alexander defines psychosocial integration as a sense of meaning and identity, derived from stable social relationships and roles. While it is possible to endure the absence of psychosocial integration for some time, Alexander argues that “severe, prolonged dislocation eventually leads to unbearable despair, shame, emotional anguish, boredom and bewilderment” (p. 59). Historical data, Alexander argues, demonstrate that addiction can disappear almost completely from a society for extended periods but become endemic in times of crisis. One example is the case of the Indigenous communities of the Americas, who—dislocated from their land, language, and culture—became susceptible to alcoholism and other forms of addiction.

Psychosocial dislocation can happen to any individual in any society, but it is much more frequent in societies experiencing crisis. Importantly, argues Alexander (2010 ), free-market society is the first society in history in which dislocation is endemic even in times of ostensible prosperity. By subjecting its citizens to increasing pressures of individualism, competition and rapid change, free market society undermines traditional sources of psychosocial integration.

Balancing the medium and the setting

To what degree then, is smartphone addiction an outcome of the technological medium and to what degree is it dependent on social construction? Here Alexander presents us with a diametrically opposed perspective to that of Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan's famous aphorism “the medium is the message” points to the inherent addictive properties of smartphone technology. Certain technologies present a higher potential for addiction in the same way that some types of drugs and foods (e.g., foods rich in sugar or fat) are more addictive than others ( Volkow & Wise, 2005 ). This view is challenged by Alexander et al.'s (1980) description of addiction as a product of sociocultural conditioning, best exemplified by his famous Rat Park experiment, which serves to demonstrate that it is not only the medium but also the context that determines the message.

Alexander et al.'s (1980) classic Rat Park experiment overturned the findings of 1960s research that demonstrated the addictive properties of drugs by observing the behavior of laboratory animals that were left in small cages where they could self-administer morphine. Alexander argued that life in small, solitary conditions made drugs increasingly attractive. He therefore built an alternative experimental design where lab animals had regular access to social contact, mating opportunities, exercise toys, as well as dark and secluded nesting spots (“Rat Park”). Extraordinarily, in his design, rats did not develop addictions or experience drug overdoses. The study, which was later replicated using cocaine and methamphetamine ( Chauvet et al., 2012 ; Stairs et al., 2006 ; Whitaker et al., 2013 ), stands as a prime example for the crucial role of contextual factors in addiction. Brought outside of the lab, and into the field of drug sociology, it might give us hints on the prevalence of addiction in urban slums, ghettos and prisons, where humans are subjected to poor conditions of dislocation, arguably not unlike those experienced by animals in standard lab experiments.

Evidence of this type provides much needed nuance on McLuhan's insistence that the medium is the message. A simplistic view of drugs might consider them to be exemplary illustrations of the medium (i.e., the substance) being the message. Individuals under the influence of drugs arguably become a corporeal manifestation of a corresponding drug state. Their words and actions might be construed as only secondary products of a psychopharmacological medium that has interfaced with their brains to evoke specific thoughts and emotions (e.g., self-confidence with cocaine, concentration with Ritalin, affection with MDMA). Nevertheless, the Rat Park example, and other studies on the essential importance of context in psychopharmacology, point to the fact that drug effects are rarely as certain as one assumes.

One location where the idea regarding the crucial role of context in shaping drug effects has been developed to the fullest is in the field of psychedelic drug research. A key insight that recurs throughout the literature on psychedelics is that the effects of drugs are crucially dependent on what researchers call “set and setting”: psychological, social, and cultural variables such as intention, expectation, social, or physical environment. The same drug and dose might elicit a wide range of reactions, all depending on context ( Carhart-Harris et al., 2018 ; Hartogsohn, 2017 ). The concept of set and setting closely relates to the concept of harm reduction—the use of diverse strategies (offering medical/psychological support, providing safehouses, etc.) to reduce the harms of drug use (and other risky behaviors) rather than attempting to fully eradicate the behavior itself ( Collins et al., 2012 ; Lenton & Single, 1998 ).

We propose that introducing drug-related concepts such as set and setting and harm reduction, into our discussions of media, and media-related ideas (the medium is the message) into our thinking about drugs gives rise to fruitful perspectives on both subjects. Most fundamentally, it forces us to confront the chasm between those approaches which stress the formative power of new technologies (such as drugs) to change the ratio of our senses, and those that point to the context-dependent nature of technology's effects.

On the one hand, the material reality of digital technology—its features of constant availability, facile reproduction and multiple networked uses—seems to point to a very real addictive potential inherent to the technology, leading us back to McLuhan’s (1964 ) warning that “the power of the image to beget image, and of technology to reproduce itself via human intervention, is utterly in excess of our power to control the psychic and social consequences” (p. 518). Alexander's Rat Park, on the other hand, might lead us to study the ways in which smartphone addiction is not a function of medium but of environmental conditions.

Smartphones also point us back to the tensions between narcotic versus psychedelic imaginations of digital technologies, and their relevance for shaping new forms of engagement with technology. In recent years, literature in the field of Science, Technology and Society (STS) has extended Benedict Anderson’s (1983/2006 ) concept of imagined communities, later developed into the concept of social imaginaries ( Taylor, 2004 ), to include “sociotechnical imaginaries,” defined as “collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures, animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and supportive of, advances in science and technology” ( Jasanoff & Kim, 2015 , p. 4). According to STS scholar Sheila Jasanoff , such shared imaginaries of the desirable (or undesirable) meaning of technology serve to shape its development and acceptance into society.

Both the cyberdelic and narcotic-media imaginaries could be seen as a part of the sociocultural context that participated in the coproduction of digital technology and novel social norms (for an account of coproduction as an analytic concept, see Jasanoff, 2004 ). The cyberdelic imaginary of digital technology might be thought of as a product of a period characterized by lofty ideals of mind-expansion, individual empowerment, and virtual communities based on idealistic models of gift economy, inspired by former hippies such as Stewart Brand and Howard Rheingold ( Turner, 2006 ). The narcotic-media imaginary, on the other hand, fits well in a time when the web is controlled by a few powerful global corporations, and an attention economy designed to hook media consumers into binge watching and endless scrolling ( Hari, 2016 ). 5

Transcending digital narcoticism

So what, finally, is the take-away from this discussion? Recent years have seen the emergence of new genres of technology-related writing that include both the confessions of media addicts as well as recovery guides aimed to inspire and empower media addicts to change their lives ( Mod, 2018 ; Pellicane & Chapman, 2017 ; Price, 2018 ; Zahariades, 2016 ). A variety of digital detox and digital rehab programs have sprouted, which aim to help addicts regain control of their digital habits ( Colin, 2013 ; Koo et al., 2011 ; Madrigal, 2013 ). Additionally, a series of smartphone apps with such names as “Phoneaddict Free” and “Addiction Meter” have become available, intended to help users control and curb their use of digital media. Tellingly, even the resistance to digital media is often incorporated within the medium: digital applications meant to curb digital use; social media rants against social media; erudite papers excoriating digital culture and published on digital platforms. Historian of drug economy David Courtwright (2002 ) notes that drug rehabilitation is an integral part of the drug economy. Digital media detox culture, it seems, is no exception.

In this sense, we argue, the inability of users to escape the virtual parameters of their digitalized existence reflects a broader issue discussed by many critics of late capitalism: the impressive ability of capitalism to assimilate and absorb all types of criticisms, to the point it appears to be an all-encompassing system without any viable alternative in sight. As Fredric Jameson (1996 ) famously wrote: “It seems to be easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism” (p. xii). From Che Guevara images to punk music and no logo books—capitalism will turn anything into additional commodities to be sold, so it seems as if the capitalist framework cannot be escaped.

The rat park analogy is again instructive in this regard. As digital realities become the dominant and paramount environment for learning, socializing, work, and entertainment in the 21st century, users increasingly and naturally turn to their smartphones for help with their addictions. Digital technologies thus become not just the drug supplied in the rat park, but the rat park itself—the setting in which rehabilitation is attempted—symbolizing the inability of escaping the digital framework. Attempting to escape the throes of dislocation through digital remedies, users thus risk a return to the very source of that dislocation, potentially reinforcing and exacerbating its consequences.

Let us be clear: digital technology is not a drug in the common sense of the word, and the dependencies it creates should be distinguished from those created by narcotic drugs. Yet, despite these differences, certain striking similarities do stand out, and might offer valuable perspectives for a society in search of answers and solutions to its growing social-digital malaise.

Research on psychoactive drugs has shown their effects to be deeply dependent on cultural context ( Hartogsohn, 2017 ). Technology may be similar in this regard. When using polemic terms such as “digital heroin” and “electronic cocaine” it is perhaps worthy to note that both coca leaves (containing the active agent cocaine) and opium (containing the active agent morphine) have been used by traditional societies for centuries in socially accepted ways, producing little in terms of addictions and abuse, and sometimes assisting the performance of positive social roles ( Schultes et al., 1992 ; Weil, 1986 ). Today, ritual uses of certain psychedelics, such as those of peyote and ayahuasca religions, are invoked by scholars as examples for socially constructive ways of approaching psychoactive substances while minimizing risk and maximizing the potential for personal and social benefits ( Blainey, 2015 ; Labate et al., 2017 ).

A balance needs to be struck between McLuhan's insight of the medium being the message, and the insight that the effects of technology are highly context dependent, drawn from drug theory, and STS literature. On the one hand, digital media might indeed be inherently biased towards addiction. Many users, for instance, develop a dependent relationship with their email inbox, a technology developed in the early 1970s, without any intention of fostering addiction ( Turel & Serenko, 2010 ). This seems to imply that digital technology, through its affordances of ubiquity and immediacy naturally tends toward addiction. On the other hand, such affordances are modulated and enhanced by economic incentives as well as by a culture of connectivity that values productivity and constant availability.

The lessons of set and setting in drug use suggest that the effects of digital media might be more flexible than we habitually assume. Digital existence does not necessarily lead to narcotic pathologies. However, to enable a new modus operandi in our relationship with media, earlier more fruitful imaginaries of technology need to be reclaimed. To transcend the narcotic imaginary that dominates the current discourse about technology, we must reimagine technology and reinstate its mind-expanding potential. To this end, we might turn to a variety of sources and alternative visions of technology that are not based on commodified, repetitive, habit-forming activities, but on communal, creative, and empowering uses. Some prominent examples include online user communities, the blogosphere, the free software movement, collaborative production projects such as Wikipedia and decentralized user-owned social networks ( Newport, 2019 ). Other sources of inspiration might include speculative writing and fiction ranging the gamut from Feminist Sci-Fi to Afrofuturism. 1 (For scholarly analyses of feminist sci-fi and its political potential for imagining other futures see the work of Donna Haraway. In particular her recent Staying with the Trouble: Haraway, 2016 ) (For an analysis of afrofuturism and its visions of alternative social models see Barber et al., 2017 ) (For a comprehensive collection of essays which explore the social and political implications of speculative literature see O’Sullivan et al., 2017 )

A more conscious, mindful, and constructive relationship with technology can be cultivated on both the individual level and the collective level. Mindless habits of digital consumption can be challenged by developing a more mindful approach to technology: by changing one's mindset in the use of technology, and by recalibrating the parameters of our everyday digital existence (e.g., turning off one's notification updates, or placing one's phone outside the room). Though they might sound banal, user experiences and research data show such measures can be surprisingly effective ( Alter, 2017 , Chapters 10–12; Ward et al., 2017 ; Yoon et al., 2014 ).

Importantly, individual solutions will have limited value and efficacy if they continue to run counter to the collective cultural setting. And herein lies the rub. Can media be reimagined? Does a different type of digital media with distinct non-narcotic effects exist? The answer is: they might , but such relationships with media cannot be based on the perverse incentives and dispositions of surveillance capitalism with its emphasis on repetitive mindless consumption. The capitalist model of technology, based on maximal engagement and compulsive behavior aimed to generate capital gains for a thin layer of global corporations cannot but lead to mindless, disempowering, narcotic models of technology use. More poignantly still, technology's narcotic spell will continue to wreak havoc on human minds, as long as boredom, anxiety, and isolation continue to exist as the default mental states of the individuals in the free market society ( Weareplanc, 2014 ).

The cyberdelic, mind-expanding imaginary of the network has been prevalent since its early days, but it has repeatedly been thwarted and subverted to serve the causes of libertarianism and neoliberalism ( Barbrook & Cameron, 1996 ). Assuming we will remain bound to the capitalist framework in the foreseeable future, we are left with the fundamental question: Can we somehow combine the contrasting visions of Leary and Burroughs, and “turn on” while at the same time “shut off”? Can a mind-expanding vision of technology exist within capitalism and its purposely addictive gadgetry? And how might it be cultivated in an age where the dominion of capital seems to unprecedentedly expand itself across all walks of life?

The challenge is daunting and will become increasingly acute in the foreseeable future. Yet not all is lost—the shape of media to come is yet to be decided, and in an era when awareness of digital pathologies as well as of a crisis in the neoliberal order is growing, a new type of conversation can emerge alongside with new horizons for action. Digital media is not necessarily narcotic, nor is it necessarily psychedelic. It can be both, depending on set and on setting of use. It is, perhaps, time to revisit the cyberdelic imaginary of digital media, not in its naïve and antiquated form which simplemindedly perceived technologies as tools for liberation, but by invoking the concept of set and setting and its lessons for a more beneficial integration of digital technologies in society and everyday life.

Ido Hartogsohn , PhD, is an assistant professor at the Graduate Program in Science, Technology and Society Studies at Bar Ilan University. His research focuses on sociocultural contexts shaping responses to psychedelics and other psychoactive drugs, as well as on the ethical, cultural and philosophical dimensions of new media technologies. His book American Trip: Set, Setting and the Psychedelic Experience in the 20th Century (2020) was published by MIT Press.

Amir Vudka , PhD, is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Vudka teaches and researches film and new media, particularly media aesthetics, cultural analysis, genre cinema, film philosophy and media archaeology. His published works focus on popular film culture, philosophy and theology of technology, media pathologies, and spectral media. Additionally, he is a film curator at various institutions and cultural venues in the Netherlands and the artistic director of the Sounds of Silence festival for silent film and contemporary music.

1. An August 15, 2021, Google Scholar search of the term “smartphone addiction” yields 10,400 results since 2017.

2. The smartphone, it is important to note, should be considered here as a symptomatic, ephemeral, and perhaps secondary, yet more easily delineated, stand-in for a more general phenomenon that permeates digital existence and digital networks in their various forms, transcending the incidental, contemporary form of the smartphone itself.

3. An August 15, 2021, Google Scholar search of the term “smartphone addiction” yields 10,400 results since 2017.

4. Of course history is rarely as clear-cut as its descriptions and this historical account of cyberdelic movement should be qualified by the existence of other less hopeful varieties which existed on the fringes of the cyberdelic imagination, linking it to other more sinister cyberpunk visions. The writings of Phillip K. Dick and William Gibson come to mind.

5. As stated earlier, history is never as neat as the models used to describe it, and this model, too, only serves to offer general contours of the broad cultural trends. The cyberdelic imaginary continues to exist, even as the narcotic imagination currently reigns supreme.

6. For scholarly analyses of feminist sci-fi and its political potential for imagining other futures, see the work of Donna Haraway. In particular her recent Staying with the Trouble ( Haraway, 2016 ). For an analysis of Afrofuturism and its visions of alternative social models, see R. Anderson and Jones (2017 ). For a comprehensive collection of essays which explore the social and political implications of speculative literature, see O’Sullivan et al. (2017 ).

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

ORCID iD: Ido Hartogsohn https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7906-3682

Essay on Technology Addiction

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Essay on Technology Addiction in English : Albert Einstein once said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Unfortunately the fear of this great soul has become a reality in today’s times. The use of technology has become a priority for majority of people. They have become addicted to it. Their relationships, work and health have taken a back seat.

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Long and Short Essay on Technology Addiction in English

Here are long and short essay on Technology Addiction to help you with the topic in your exam.

These Technology Addiction essay are written in simple English to make it easily memorable and presentable when needed.

After going through these essays you will understand what technology addiction is, what its harmful consequences are, its impacts on health and relationships, types of technology addictions and how to overcome them, etc.

Technology addiction, also known as digital addiction, internet addiction, or internet use disorder, describes when someone becomes excessively attached to technology. This can involve activities like playing games, using social media, shopping online, watching videos, or anything related to technology

Hurry up, read all the essays given below and choose the best one for you:

Short Essay on Technology Addiction 200 Words

Technology addiction is an umbrella term for different kinds of addictions including internet addiction, mobile addiction, social media addiction, TV addiction, computer addiction, gaming addiction and web series addiction to name a few. This is the newest kind of addiction that has gripped people around the world.

Just like drug and alcohol addiction, technology addiction also changes the brain activity. It provides momentary pleasure and releases stress temporarily. However, the impact it has on the human brain in the long run is irreparable. Continuous use of mobile, internet, television or any other technology creates new neuropath ways in our brain. These neuropath ways replace the healthier ones and also bar the development of healthy neuropath ways.

Technology addiction stimulates all the senses and it is thus hard to get over. It gives addicts a high just like drugs. Addicts return to technology again and again to experience this feeling. They feel sad and depressed when they are away from technology. This is the reason why they remain hooked to it for most part of the day. They start ignoring their work and other important tasks. They also start neglecting their loved ones. Associate happiness with their addiction. They only feel happy when they indulge in their addiction and display aggressive behaviour when advised to leave it.

Technology addiction impacts a person’s health, ruins his relationships and hampers work. One must make effort to overcome it in order to lead a healthier life.

Essay on Harmful Consequences of Technology Addiction in English –300 Words

Technology addiction is often taken lightly but research reveals that it is as bad as drug addiction. Many of the harmful effects caused by this new age addiction are as adverse as drug addiction. It impacts a person’s personal, professional and social life. Here is a brief look at its harmful consequences.

Impact of Technology on Health

Technology addiction of any kind has a negative impact on a person’s health. People addicted to technology such as mobile, computer, internet and the likes have a high risk of incurring many health issues. Dry and itchy eyes, backache, frequent headache and excessive weight gain are among the common health problems faced by technology addicts. Many of them go on to develop serious illnesses such as heart problem, hypertension and depression.

Impact of Technology on Work/ Studies

Technology addiction has a huge impact on a person’s brain. A person addicted to technology is unable to focus on work. He feels dizzy and lethargic most of the time and this hinders his work. He is unable to think creatively and rationally. Besides, he is so addicted to technology that he is unable to leave it. He often neglects his work and misses deadlines and meetings. This hampers his professional growth.

Students addicted to technology also face similar issues. Their academic performance dips as they are hooked to technology for most part of the day. Besides, they are least interested in sports and extra-curricular activities that are essential for their all round development.

Impact of Technology on Relationships

Technology addicts prefer technology over everything. Even as they sit with their family and friends, they are often engrossed in their mobile phones. They are either updating their social media accounts or playing video games or chatting with friends online. Therefore they do not like interacting with people in real life. They avoid going out with friends and ignore their loved ones. This creates problems in relationships.

Technology addiction is ruining the life of people. Technology must be put to good use. One must limit its usage to avoid getting addicted to it. If we don’t stand against technology addiction, the day isn’t far when it will prove lethal to our existence.

Essay on Technology Addiction 400 words in English: A Curse for the Society

Technology addiction is a curse for the modern society. Several people these days turn to technology to kill boredom or to distract themselves from their routine problems. Many among them start using it excessively and soon become addicted to it. It is important to identify the warning signs of technology addiction and get over it to take control of your life.

Signs of Technology Addiction

People addicted to technology often feel guilty for using technology excessively and ignoring their work and loved ones because of their addiction. Even as they want to work and spend time with their family members and friends, they aren’t able to do so as they feel drawn towards internet, mobile, video games and other technology-driven things. They are unable to leave these things.

Many of them lie and defend their act and express anger when someone guides them otherwise. Technology addicts experience a feeling of euphoria while using technology. They lose sense of time. Therefore they are unable to maintain a good schedule. They become socially isolated and experience problems such as anxiety and depression. Avoid actual tasks such as office work, homework assignments and household chores. They do not pay heed to their health and it often begins to deteriorate.

Ways to Overcome Technology Addiction

In order to overcome technology addiction it is important to distract your mind and channelize your energy in the right direction. It is thus a good idea to join a course that adds value to your profession. You may also try something that interests you such as pottery, dance, painting or some sports. Indulging in something you love will keep your spirits high and take your mind off technology.

It is also important to build a social circle as you try to get over technology addiction. Real life interactions are much more refreshing and fulfilling compared to meeting and chatting with people online. Getting back with your old friends and making new friends in school, office or in your neighbourhood is a good way to cut ties with the technology addiction. Seeking support from family members will also help in this direction.

You can take professional help to get rid of technology addiction if nothing else seems to work.

Technology addiction is hampering people’s overall growth and development. It is a curse to the society. There should be special sessions in schools and colleges to guide students to stay away from this addiction. Those addicted to it must be counselled to overcome it.

Long Essay on Technology Addiction 500 words in English

It is rightly said, “Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master”. This is to say that technology can be a wonderful thing if you put it to good use. However, it can be dangerous if you allow it to overpower you. Addiction of technology is destroying the life of numerous people around the world.

Technology Addiction Promotes Drug Abuse

Addiction of any kind be it mobile addiction, internet addiction, social media addiction or gaming addiction is as bad as drug abuse. Drug addicts become vulnerable and delusional. All they want in life is a dose of their favourite drug. It gives them a high and releases all their tensions temporarily. They crave for this momentary pleasure and get addicted to drugs.

Technology renders the same soothing effect and quite similar to drugs its impact is also temporary. Technology serves as an escape from our daily problems. It relaxes our mind for some time and releases stress. However, it is as damaging for our mind, body and soul as drug addiction.

Researchers have observed a connection between these addictions. It has been seen that those addicted to technology are more likely to develop drug addiction. Most people turn to technology to release stress and they are able to achieve the desired result initially.

However, as they grow addicted to it they begin to feel stressed and depressed. In order to cope up with the situation, technology addicts look for something that can render a stronger affect and help them achieve that euphoric state. They often turn towards alcohol and drugs and become addicted to them.

Technology Addiction: Damaging Young Minds

While technology addiction is seen among people of all age groups, it is more common among the youngsters living in different parts of the world. The young generation is full of energy and new ideas. Their energy and ideas must be channelized in the right direction in order to help them grow better and achieve more in life.

However, this does not happen in most of the cases. Children and youngsters gain access to different kinds of technological devices these days and spend most of their time and energy on them. Many of them have grown addicted to technology and this is damaging their mind. All they think about is getting back to the internet, computer, social media or whichever technology they are hooked to. They lose interest in other activities.

Sometimes they are unable to focus on work as they feel a constant urge to get back to the technology they are addicted to. They feel guilty about using technology excessively and giving priority to it over their relationships and work. However, they still can’t get over it. This causes a lot of stress. Many of them face anxiety issues and even get into depression.

Technology addicts are unable to think rationally. They lose sense of time, become defensive when asked to restrict the use of technology and even start lying about its use. Their performance dips and they often develop behavioural issues.

Technology addiction should be taken seriously. People must keep a check on the use of technology. If they see any signs of technology addiction, they must take measures to overcome the same.

Long Essay on Technology Addiction in English: Types of Technology Addiction – 600 words

Drug and alcohol addiction have affected the lives of millions of people around the world. However, these are not the only kinds of addictions that grip people in today’s times. The advancement in technology and its growing use have given rise to a new type of addiction termed as technology addiction. There are different types of technology addictions. Here is a look at these:

• Mobile Addiction

Mobile addiction is one of the most common types of technology addictions in today’s times. Our mobile phones are a powerhouse of entertainment. They have so much to offer. Engrossing games, informative content, interesting videos, easy means to content with our loved ones and make new friends and what not – a mobile phone with a high speed internet connection has so much to offer. It is hard not to get hooked to it.

Numerous mobile users are addicted to their phones. They do not care if they are sitting in a social gathering, at the dinner table or in an important business meeting. However they are always on their mobile. They find it more interesting than anything happening around them.

• Computer Addiction

Computer addicts are always seen on their computer systems. They are involved in useless activities on their computer. They keep wasting their time and ignore all the important tasks at hand. Therefore they mostly confine themselves to their chair and incur various physical ailments as a result. They also become socially isolated as they skip outdoor activities and social events. This hampers their mental as well as physical growth.

• Internet Addiction

Internet has so much to offer to us. We need to see to it that it impacts our life in a positive manner and makes it better. Limited and correct use of internet can enhance our life. It can be used to learn something new that adds value to our personal and professional life. However, if we get addicted to the internet, we are on our way to ruin our life.

• Gaming Addiction

Gaming is a great way to de-stress and rejuvenate. However, most of the video games are highly addictive. They are designed to keep a person hooked for hours. Gamers crave to make new high scores and crack the next level. They get addicted to different games.

All they think about is beating their friends and build better score. They spend several hours of the day playing video games. The time that can be used to do something productive is wasted in gaming. Gaming addiction also messes with the mind and leads to aggressive and anxious behaviour.

• Social Media Addiction

Social media has become a craze among people of different age groups. It helps them connect with their near and dear ones living in different parts of the world. Healthy use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is good. However, it becomes a problem when people become obsessed with it.

Many people around the world have become social media addicts. They update their social media status frequently, upload pictures of everything they encounter, check for new notifications every few seconds and keep thinking about different ways to enhance their social media profile. They disconnect with people in the real world and prefer connecting with them over social media platforms.

Technology addiction is growing with the increasing use of new technology devices. This is affecting proper growth and development of people. They are glued to technology and as a result are ignoring various important aspects of their life. It needs to be understood that technology has been designed to enhance our life and not to degrade it. We must use it wisely and not grow addicted to it.

Essay on Technology Addiction FAQs

What is a short paragraph about technology addiction.

Technology addiction refers to the excessive use of digital devices like smartphones and computers, leading to negative impacts on one's life, including physical and mental health problems.

What is technology addiction?

Technology addiction is when people become overly reliant on gadgets and the internet, often to the detriment of their well-being and daily responsibilities.

What are the effects of technology addiction among youth?

Technology addiction in youth can result in social isolation, poor academic performance, disrupted sleep patterns, and diminished physical activity, affecting their overall development.

What is the concept of technology addiction?

The concept of technology addiction revolves around the idea that excessive screen time and online engagement can lead to addictive behaviors, similar to substance abuse.

What is the introduction of addiction?

Addiction, in general, is a condition where someone becomes dependent on a substance or behavior, often to the point where it has harmful consequences in their life. Technology addiction specifically involves dependency on digital devices and online activities.

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Technology Addiction Essay

A technology addiction essay is a must-read for people who have developed a dependency on technology. It should be an honest, heartfelt reflection about one’s dependence and personal loss of control over the way that they use technology.

Technology addiction leads to loss of job. The Effects of Technology Dependence on the Public Workplace. Case Study disability in the Public Workplace The effects of technology addiction are felt in the workplace by those who are affected by it. Depending on that definition, technology addiction is actually an addiction to a technology which is somehow wreaking havoc with one’s personal life.

The addiction to technology includes an inability to let go of the addiction and the fact that it has developed into such a dependency. One cannot stop using a particular technology. They cannot let go of the need for technology and what it can do for them.

The addiction to technology involves a person becoming addicted to it. It doesn’t matter whether the technology is used for a good or a bad purpose. The need for that technology is very high and the person is unable to let go of it. There are no longer any reasons for not getting their hands on the technology. In fact, they will do anything in their power to obtain the technology that they so desperately want.

The addiction to technology is a form of addiction. It is not just any addiction as the addiction can be a psychological or a physical form. This type of addiction can take many forms from physical dependency to emotional dependency.

The Effects of a Technology Addiction. The Effects of a Technology Addiction are experienced by individuals who use technology on a regular basis and find that the technology has affected their lives, their relationships, their career, and their finances.

The addiction to technology can cause the individual to feel isolated, depressed, anxious, restless, and even angry. They may feel that they are losing control over their lives, their relationships, their careers, their finances, and even their health. depending on the specific form of addiction.

The Effects of a Technology Addiction are experienced in different situations based on the type of addiction. For example, a physical addiction is one where an individual uses a technology because of a physical problem. An emotional addiction can be seen in a relationship where one partner uses the technology as a way to escape the pain, stress and frustration of their relationship.

The addiction to technology is an addiction to the present. Those who have an addiction to technology are constantly checking the latest gadget or program on their phone or computer. They become attached to the technology and cannot let go of it even if it makes their life less productive.

A technology addiction can be controlled through self-help, by learning to deal with the addiction and the addictive behavior. However, it is also possible to get treatment through medication, therapy, by attending support groups and other means that help the individual to learn how to better cope with the problem.

The addiction to technology is an addiction that can be overcome if the individual learns to make responsible choices. and learn to let go of the addiction.

Technology is a source of entertainment and this addiction can be overcome. The addict has to be willing to start taking responsibility for their life and learn how to make responsible choices.

Technology is not a new addiction. In the past technology was a tool that helped people survive and learn more about life. However, the Internet has made the Internet more than just a tool. People have become obsessed with technology and now there is a compulsion for technological items.

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