A recent study has
revealed that spending too much time on the phone and the internet has negative
effects on the brain.
Many people have grown
increasingly dependent on phones for news, networking, calls and games among
others, and a large number these days, particularly the youth,cannot do
without their phones.
Some people can barely
sustain a conversation with colleagues, families or people around them without
interacting with their smart phones.
The study, which was
presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America
(RSNA), found an imbalance in the brain chemistry of young people addicted to
smartphones and the internet.
Professor of
Neuroradiology at Korea University in Seoul, South Korea, Hyung Suk Seo and
colleagues carried out the study on 19 young people diagnosed with internet or
smartphone addiction and 19 gender- and age-matched healthy controls.
Twelve of the
addicted youth received nine weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy, modified
from a cognitive therapy programme for gaming addiction, as part of the study.
The researchers used
magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), a type of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(MRI) that measures the brain’s chemical composition to gain unique insight
into the brains of smartphone-and internet-addicted teenagers.
They used standardised
internet and smartphone addiction tests to measure the severity of internet
addiction. The questions looked at the extent to which internet and smartphone
use affects daily routines, social life, productivity, sleeping patterns and
feelings.
Dr. Seo said that the
addicted teenagers had significantly higher scores in depression, anxiety,
insomnia severity and impulsivity.
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