Heavy online use can lead to ‘drug-like withdrawal’
FREQUENT users of the internet can suffer “withdrawal” symptoms similar to an addiction to drugs or alcohol, a new study has found.
Scientists and clinicians from Swansea University studied the heart rate and blood pressure of 144 people aged 18 to 33 years old who had just finished using the internet.
In people who had so-called “digital behaviour problems” there was an average 3%-4% increase in their heart rate and blood pressure immediately on termination of internet use. But in some cases the figure was double that.
These increases in heart rate and blood pressure were mirrored by increased feelings of anxiety.
However, the researchers said there were no such changes for participants who reported no internet usage problems.
The study, published in the international peer-reviewed journal Plos One, is the first controlled-experimental demonstration of physiological changes due to internet exposure.
The study lead, Professor Phil Reed, of Swansea University, said: “People who are over-dependent on digital devices report feelings of anxiety when they are stopped from using them. But now we can see that these effects are accompanied by actual physiological changes.”
Although this increase in heart rate and blood pressure was not enough to be life-threatening, such changes can be associated with feelings of anxiety, and with alterations to the hormonal system that can reduce immune responses.
The study also suggested that these physiological changes and accompanying increases in anxiety indicate a state like withdrawal seen for many “sedative” drugs, such as alcohol, cannabis, and heroin, and this state may be responsible for some people’s need to re-engage with their digital devices to reduce these unpleasant feelings.
Dr Lisa Osborne, a clinical researcher and co-author of the study, said: “A problem with experiencing physiological changes like increased heart rate is that they can be misinterpreted as something more physically threatening, especially by those with high levels of anxiety, which can lead to more anxiety, and more need to reduce it.”
The authors claim over-use can produce negative physiological and psychological changes that may drive people back onto the internet, even when they do not want to engage.
Prof Reed said: “The individuals in our study used the internet in a fairly typical way so we are confident that many people who over-use the internet could be affected in the same way. However, there are groups who use the internet in other ways, like gamers, perhaps to generate arousal, and the effects of stopping use on their physiology could be different – this is yet to be established.”