And we connect in fractions of a second. But can we foresee our future? Can we see how our psychology is affected by watching Reels, sticking to the white screen, and always being eager to know what is new? The Internet has also improved our lives.

And these blessings are now becoming a cure for all humanity, especially the next generation. Let’s understand that today, the high usage of the Internet creates Anxiety and Depression.

Why is high internet usage responsible for Anxiety?

Before we dig into the concept of Internet use and its relationship with Anxiety, let’s self-assess first.

Rate the questions below on a scale of 0 to 5 and understand where you are.

1. How many times are you busy scrolling and postponing your important work or studies?
2. How many times have you been worried that you need to communicate in social gatherings?
3. How many times do you find yourself imagining Internet stuff when you’re offline?
4. How many times are you lying or hiding your internet usage from others?
5. How many times are you comfortable in communication with a virtual friend but afraid of a physical friend?
6. How many times are you distracted from your important job by watching something online?
7. Do you lose your sleep while you are online?
8. How many times are you unaware of your time while binge-watching on the Internet?
9. How many times do you avoid going out with your loved one because you want to use the Internet?
10. How many times have you been frightened by the thought of life without the Internet?

If you score between 40 and 50, you have high Internet usage. Less than 40 and above 30 moderate, and between 20 and 30 moderate to mild.  

Circle of Internet Usage and Anxiety

The cycle below is very useful to understand why High Internet usage increases our Anxiety and leads to Depression.

Productive Time with Internet Usage

The Internet is accessible to everyone, everywhere, with no restrictions on time or place. Exceptional to the rules made by some organisations and institutes. Internet usage during work or studies kills time but makes one less attentive to tasks. More engrossed in the completion of work, not the productivity of the work. Being more engaged in completion than in productivity leads to low-quality work. When someone chooses not to use the Internet at work, it feels like such a sacrifice, and they expect more results from the tasks they did. When shallow productivity expects deep results, people become more anxious as they overthink doing more than is required, even though the desired results are impossible. These distorting thoughts distance one from productivity, leading to excessive Internet use.

Lack of Attention Span

Productivity is achieved through persistent, consistent work. Doing the same tasks over and over, you become a master. But when attention is focused on completing tasks and achieving high results, attention to detail suffers. Because all focus is on results, not on actions. When actions are shallow, results are also shallow. When you do tasks as required, you can’t become an expert, as the basics aren’t clear. This leads to a lack of attention at work and a feeling of low confidence, Anxiety about fears and results, which results in overthinking.

Rush to meet the deadline.

Postponement is commonly researched among high Internet users. They are more into virtual connections and entertaining themselves, seeking new information, but which is of no use, and are anxious about what is next. These are thoughts commonly found among users as their impulsivity increases, leading them to seek pleasure and avoid productive tasks. Now, when someone wants to meet a deadline, it is the only task. They believe in meeting the date, not the qualitative work. Rushing to meet the deadline only feeds more Anxiety about missing it.

Self-Negative Reflection.

When one is unproductive and unable to perform as one should, one feels empty about oneself. They frequently meet failures, miss their promises, and regularly miss deadlines; they feel like failures. On top of that, more hitting points when family and mentors share negative feedback about non-productivity and lack of effort, added to self-negative reflections. Reflections are correct, but increase more overthinking and Anxiety. It is hard for someone who feels negative about themselves to maintain a routine. Such scenarios can make a person feel depressed or rebellious in their own actions.

Future Prediction

With the lack of routine, one can imagine his life as dark, like an all-or-nothing feeling. Slowly, you found that everything was meaningless and worthless. There is no hope for the future, and you cannot see any future. You predict that, no matter what you do, you won’t achieve the desired results. You will gradually become negative about your productivity, feeling like you’re losing your job or scoring low in your studies. When you reach to the saturation point and believe that the desired results will not be achieved, you choose not to act, which proves your belief is correct. (Negative Conceptual Cycle as per Cognitive Psychology)

Need Distraction

To get rid of negative overthinking and future prediction, you need some distractions. This distraction is nothing but the Internet again. You again chose to go online, watch a binge, and avoid and ignore your core thoughts. You avoid thinking about your actions and completing tasks until it gets worse. This cycle is unbroken and keeps you in this roller coaster, increasing your panic, Anxiety, worries and overthinking, which leads to Depression.

How Counselling help to overcome…

Psychoeducation sessions help to reduce Internet usage, and various other therapies help to navigate this maladaptive behaviour. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy helps correct dysfunctional beliefs and thoughts, and rectify behaviours. Interpersonal therapy helps identify what needs to be done and which aspects are dysfunctional. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy helps install new behaviours and achieve positive results.

We also blame tech companies and social media networking, but do we really work on ourselves? I think your answer is NO. So today it is important to understand how we can overcome the habit of scrolling and surfing.

Why do we love scrolling and internet surfing?

Before you understand a solution it is important to dig down the problem. We love surfing. We love to watch dancing cats and videos. We love to play. We love to know more and more about the world. And yes this is the main reason we all want all these and because of this to leave surfing is terrible. We know that we need to meet deadlines but we focus on various reels.

We know we have five minutes of break and we just stare at the mobile screen. Why? Out of many reasons, entertainment is the main reason that you scroll and stick to your white screen. Yes, we all want to enjoy and entertain most of the time. Our mind wants fun, laughter, enjoyment and which we all get from mobile phones easily. Earlier this was the case with television. Still, it is there but now dramatically shifted to mobile phones. A tiny screen gives us lots of information. All of a sudden our world is becoming a town. We get information in fractions of seconds. And we love this. So we do not have anything to do? Really?

Food of the Mind is Knowledge:

How does the mind work? This is a very curious question we always ask. Many psychologists and scientists researched and published their research. But frankly speaking, we all love knowledge. It is the nature of humans to learn new things daily. As we all love to move on. We all love to be updated. And hence we all love knowledge.

We all love to read because we try to understand what is going on on our mother earth. As we look for food when we are hungry same way when we are curious we need information. Which nowadays we get so easily. Earlier information was not that easy to get. And hence people used to follow their intuitions and apply their brains. But now in one click, we know everything.

We reach all information so fast and immediately that we love to stick to our white screen. Behind this, there is one truth. A man never wants to be alone. A man has a fear of loneliness and hence to be a part of the community we follow all information. We all have a fear of what if we left out and hence we try to be updated all the time. We stick to the news. We stick to the current affairs and whatnot. Because our mind gets food from information.

Entertainment…And Entertainment:

Many researches show their results that almost 85% of people do not love their work. But they are forced to do their work. Almost 75% to more people never attain their creativity. Because they are forced to earn more money, more status and whatnot. Which eventually causes a lot of stress and overthinking. We all work almost 60 hours a week.

Which almost we work almost half of our lives. But we work for those things which never give satisfaction and fulfilment. Many of you drained out after your work hours. You force yourself to do work which you do not like. But you do not have courage or you are waiting for an opportunity to come. This leads to overthinking, mental fatigue and ultimately you want entertainment.

A cheap and easiest way to get entertainment is your tiny screen. Which gives you instant pleasure. Scrolling gives you a lost feeling from your mental fatigue and frustration. You get distracted easily from your overthinking, stress and anxiety. Without putting much effort you get immediate relaxation which becomes a habit of scrolling all the time.

To fill that emptiness you love to stick to the phone. Surf various videos and try to mimic that. When you are more stressed out you need more entertainment. You want a sense of pleasure without doing any hard work. Which you get easily through internet surfing. So entertainment and entertainment. But once you learn you do not require entertainment.

If you learn to play a new instrument then you forget your entertainment. If you learn to be more conscious you do not need temporary fun. But this is only possible when you are away from internet surfing.

These are two main reasons I have tried to explain but there are many more reasons why we love internet surfing. Comparison, fear of being alone, stress, fear of being left out, and interested more in others’ lives, like to be flaunted etc.

All this information gives you quite a good idea but how does internet surfing cause depression and anxiety?

Perfection:

There are three types of perfections. The trap of perfection is so vicious that mankind does not know how we can escape. You might think that how surfing causes perfection. Various people surf because they want to become something. They want to become famous and rich. They surf so much content about motivation, inspiration, psychology, behaviours and many more.

Most of the content forces a person to be perfect. Because it gives information that you need to go the extra mile. You need to be perfect if you reach to highest level. Most of the self-help content forces a person to become perfect as they claim that if you become perfect you reach your goal of being famous. But is it true? Following rich and famous people out there who flaunt their lives gives them indirect advice to have more and more. It gives an indirect message that if you stop means you vanish. This indirect force of being a perfectionist leads to self-pressure.

A person who just surfs and gets information starts putting self-pressure knowingly or unknowingly. To reach to the level which has been just surfed become his life. The same is applicable while you watch advertisements. It hammers so badly that even if you do not want that thing you create a need to buy that product or service. As it hammers you and makes you feel your life is inadequate if you do not have this.

Feeling of Inadequacy:

As mentioned earlier perfection causes inadequacy. When you surf and see flaunting videos, attractive luxurious lives of others, and various home products and gadgets, you feel you do not have enough. You feel you are inadequate. When you see celebrities get ready and do photo shoots which you get on your tiny screens you feel body shaming.

When you see your friend get more likes based on her looks then you feel your look is nothing. when you see people posting about their happy happy moments you feel your life sucks you. And you are not enough. All this information eventually gives you a feeling of stress and a sad mood. You become depressed because you feel your life is nothing. You become anxious because you feel that I am unable to capture more attention. This feeling of inadequacy becomes your behaviour.

This one thought leads to an action of social isolation. You feel negative about yourself. You find yourself with all limitations and weaknesses. And you try to follow what you surf for. Which is again you drive by others, not yourself.

Fear of being Alone:

Loneliness is the biggest fear of a man. Because we live in society. We want validation from others. We want others to appreciate us and recognise us whatever we are. When you scroll your phone you feel like you are connected to the world. If you feel that you do what others do means you are being accepted. Hence you know that internet surfing causes you a lot but it is important to be on social media. As people judge you based on the posts you have uploaded.

Likes and comments give you validation and a gesture that you are not alone. Hence internet surfing sometimes becomes a compulsion. We need to like and comment on someone’s posts because we fear if don’t then others may not feel good. You can’t be true to yourself. Because it creates tension when you think something and do something.

Comparison:

Internet surfing causes anxiety because as we scroll more we start comparing our lives with others’ lives. We start slowly comparing someone’s happy moment with our one sad incident. But we forget that life has seasons. Our life comes with happy moments also and sad moments also.

Dramatically these happy faces show us only happiness is a life. But while surfing and grabbing all this we forget that life is like a roller coaster. sometimes you are up and sometimes down. And that is only an acceptance we do not give while we surf the internet causes depression.

Competition:

Healthy completion always creates fruitful results. However unhealthy and vague competition leads to anxiety. Internet surfing gives you terrible distraction from yourself. It is the job of a human to go deep within and become conscious about self. What do I think, how do I feel and what do I do?

These are three questions that make you grounded. While you surf you daydream. Most teenagers nowadays look for richness but they do not know the hard work is. They want all this in one click. So internet surfing is created for hassle in thoughts and creates more competition within and outside the world.

Fear of Acceptance:

When you surf and compare yourself with others then you lose a chance of acceptance. And once you do not accept you are unable to change. Many times in sessions I met such people who continuously watch reels and surf for negative news. Because they do not want to sit with their thoughts.

They have a fear of acceptance. They are unable to accept self and they want to distract themselves. For example, your job demands you to develop more skills but you feel it is not enough paid job. You are getting feedback about your actions but rather you acknowledge you surfed and you lost. Fear of acceptance never helps you to overcome your weaknesses. Rather you fall as you surf but do not introspect.

Social Isolation:

We see people wearing iPods and talking. Sometimes it seems a person is crazy because we have not noticed his iPods. Same way while you surf on mobile you become socially isolated. You surf in social gatherings and you do not interact. You doubt a lot because you follow such X person on the internet who is best. slowly you deteriorate your communication skills.

Your image has faded away. Because you stop behaving. You are not ready to counter people physically because you have anxiety about how other people perceive you. Slowly you cut all your physical connections and just exist with the hypothetical connections which are not real ones.

Stress:

Positive stress is really good. It creates a positive environment for improvement. But negative stress creates lots of problems. When you are stressed mostly you overthink. Now when you hear or find a notification with some negative news you wonder how would you survive if this happened to you. As you see the information you start to think about it, imagine it and live your present moment.

You start living in future and worries make you more vulnerable. Stress creates anxiety and makes you inactive immediately as you feel there is no hope in future. This is the biggest problem of internet surfing.

Vague goals and Expectations:

You wish big car but you are not happy with your cycle. It is good that you dream and dream big. But what about vague and fairly tale goals? When you are following big famous people you start making your dream that way. Which is not wrong. But you ever go in-depth and look for your skills and abilities.

You never polish your skills and develop them. But you straight make a big goal and eventually, you are disappointed. To reach to highest level you need to start with small steps. Internet surfing gives you only successful moments, happy faces and whatnot. But that is not only the truth.

The truth is who am I and what can i become is a journey, not a destiny. That we forget because we are lost in the gloomy world of the internet.

last but not least. It is not the problem with internet surfing but how much we have control over surfing is important. We can’t blame technology if we do not use it wisely. We all should not forget internet gives lots of opportunities as well. But it all sole our responsibilities how we use and how much we use it?