Internet woes triggering anger issues: Nimhans study

BENGALURU: A sudden drop in internet speed causes anger and

emotional distress

in some people, including remote workers and teenagers, experts at Nimhans have said, citing cases they see.


There are concerns over extreme addiction to technology, which can affect an individual’s psychological and social environment. Shortly after the lockdown last year, the parents of a 16-year-old girl took her to the Service for Healthy Use of

Technology

(SHUT) clinic at Nimhans and revealed that she was addicted to social media and slow internet triggered anger issues in her.

“This was a new case for us, and interactive sessions were held with the teenager. She used to be engaged on social media for six to seven hours without a break, and a drop in internet speed at home made her angry and irritated. She showed a severe outburst of rage and threatened to harm herself when her parents took her gadgets away to reduce her tech addition,” said Dr

Manoj Kumar Sharma

, a professor of clinical psychology and coordinator of SHUT clinic for treatment of technology addicts.

According to Dr

Sharma

, the lockdown and work from home have escalated the condition in which a person experiences distress over slow internet. It can be described as anger expression because of digital failure. There have been cases of people getting enraged with their spouses and other family members and feeling disturbed at home simply because of low internet speeds.

Spotty connections also affected a section of teens who played online games for long stretches at home. “We had a 17-year-old boy who became verbally and physically abusive towards his parents when the internet speed dropped. Initially, the parents tried changing the internet service provider, but nothing seemed to convince their son. They finally sought expert help,” Dr Sharma said.

Experts at SHUT clinic suspect that cases of rage and emotional distress have increased among adults and adolescents because of WFH and home tutoring during the pandemic, respectively. An internet addiction test is conducted at the clinic and affected individuals are advised de-addiction treatment.