Chronically Online Disorder (COD): How the Internet Itself Causes Existential (& Political) Anxiety
We are a week and a few days out from Charlie Kirk’s untimely, brutal, and heinous killing. I hate it because I hate violence. I hate it because the political division it is deepening is already quite alarmingly deep.
And yet.
How pronounced is that divide, really? Frightening polls (created due to the funds generated by their frightening nature) are saying more folks are cool with political violence. Civil War 2.0 right? Or worse, WWIII.
Any moment, any time now. It’s bad here, worse in Ukraine, worst in Gaza (let alone other war zones I didn’t mention). The world is going to hell in a handbasket in live time.
Right. Right?
Crime is (or at least was trending) down. Extreme poverty ($1.90 or less of wages) was in the decline, though COVID disrupted that (yet’s it has healthily rebounded). Generally speaking with the advent of access to technology, people can more easily make a resume, go to find health care that’s up to date (still horrendously expensive), and stay connected with their families if they were to move and/or find new connections with much more ease.
All of these things above are not to disparage the legitimate and rife levels of suffering we see in our day to day world let alone on a global scale. However, I raise them simply to show you what you often don’t find online.
Eh, he’s connecting it to the title now.
Most of what I’m saying we all know but in reality choose not to believe. Said another way, we all instinctively feel that online usage is deeply tied to our intense anxiety; it’s also tied to rigorous entertainment and surplus distraction. In other words, the very author of this post, a therapist no less, understands the damage done by my addiction to screens… but I’m still fighting it. YouTube is calling me.
Regardless though, as a harrowing reminder:
Over 50% of U.S. teenagers report 4+ hours/day of screen time (non-school); those teens are about twice as likely to report depression or anxiety symptoms vs those with less screen time.
And another one:
Children aged 9-10 who have higher screen time show later more severe depression, anxiety, inattention, and aggression.
Welp, I’m repeating the “online makes you sad and scared” thing… which I’m warning against. Irony isn’t lost.
Among children & adolescents, daily screen time ≥4 hours was associated with 1.45× higher odds of anxiety, 1.65× higher odds of depression (even after accounting for sleep, bedtime routine, physical activity, etc.).
A perplexing phenomenon, all only with kids? Nope. But here’s a happier finding.
A randomized controlled trial among healthy young adults (mean age ~22) had one group reduce their smartphone screen time to ≤2 hours/day for 3 weeks. Compared to control, the reduction group reported improvements in stress, well-being, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality.
Correlation isn’t causation. Stats 01. But still… something is going on here.
We need to be on screens less. This is obvious. You probably knew this before reading this, and all this is likely just a reminder. To be honest, and, again, therapist speaking, I write this TO remind myself. Screens don’t make folks racist; they also don’t make folks kill political figures for being hateful. We do these things; we decide what to click on. And what not to click on. Who to shoot.
Yet perhaps a pitch for you (and me) to use screens less is to be less exposed to what seems to (but not conclusively) make us depressed and anxious. What about going for a drive? Walking your dog (my Cooper), again? Having a conversation with your spouse… to simply have a conversation with your spouse.
Literally get out there and smell the damn roses.
Chronically Online Disorder isn’t acknowledged by the DSM, nor am I advocating for it to be. But does it do me some good, do you some good, to act as if we have it and maybe follow through on a treatment plan to break the addiction? I think so.
So whether it’s books, hiking, shooting hoops, playing board games, creating board games (I’m getting closer and closer to finishing mine!), getting a coffee, dancing, etc. etc.
If you’re to get political, maybe Twitter isn’t it. Maybe protests SOMETIMES are it but other times, reading a book. Taking a class. Talking to someone who believes differently than you, taking the posture of being a good faith actor.
There’s so little we can control in our chaotic world; a big, huge thing we can is how much of the digital world we choose to consume. My call is simply to do less.
By all means, keep me honest. There’s a huge que of Overwatch videos I’m missing which is generally a PTSD episode… I’ll be right back.