According to a recent study there is a link, although what it actually means is anyone’s guess.
The results of the research conducted by Leeds University in the UK revealed that 1.2 percent of the total of 1,319 people they surveyed were addicted to the Internet and that a high proportion of these were depressed.
The participants who ranged from 16 to 51 years of age were asked to complete an online questionnaire about their internet habits and they were all recruited online from social networking sites.
Some of these internet users were classed as “Internet Addicts” as they spent hours at a time on social networking sites and online chat rooms to the exclusion of real life contact.
No surprises there eh, if you go into a bar to survey drinking habits you’re bound to find some who are overdoing it.
Anyway, the point is, analysis of the responses revealed that some of these habitual users scored five times higher on the depression scale than those who controlled their internet use and this put them in the category of moderate to severe levels of depression.
Dr Catriona Morrison, one of the researchers in the study said “The internet now plays a huge part in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side.
“While many of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and send e-mails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities.”
The results have sparked questions like, does this mean that depressed people are more likely to become an internet addict or can excessive internet use contribute to depression? The researchers don’t know.
“Our research indicates that excessive internet use is associated with depression, but what we don’t know is which comes first – are depressed people drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression?” said Dr Morrison.
“Now we need to investigate the nature of that relationship and consider the issue of causation.”
Wait a minute is it just me or am I missing something here?
According to statistics on mental health around 8 to 10 percent of us are depressed so on that basis alone we would surely expect a much higher figure than the tiny proportion found here.
They may as well have concluded that social networking helps prevent depression.
Don’t you just hate statistics?
