At a time when information is available at the click of a mouse, and webcams that allow us to speak with relatives halfway across the world, the internet is often praised for making our lives easier. Social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and the BBc’s mycBBc become wildly more popular over the past few years, generally to great avail. Facebook, however, has recently come under fire from psychologists, health experts, and even biologists, who claim that spending so much time talking to people online is having a negative impact on our health.
Experts are now presenting new research that reveals that the amount of time we interact with people face-to-face has drastically decreased, making us more and more isolated from the outside world. In a recent issue of Biologist, the journal of the Institute of Biology, Dr Aric Sigman warns that we are producing less of the oxytocin chemical (also known as the “˜cuddle chemical”) ““ which is a chemical our body produces when we form a connection with someone ““ as a result of our devotion to the internet. He argues that this decline occurs when people are not in close contact with one another, which can have major consequences.
Sigman warns that a serious addiction to the virtual world can increase the risk of both physical and mental health problems such as strokes, heart disease, dementia, depression, strokes, and cancer ““ not exactly something that crosses our mind when we are watching YouTube. Spending too much time online has also been known to change the ways in which our immune system and hormone levels are regulated. But it basically all comes down to our lifestyle ““ with more and more people choosing to work from the isolation of their homes rather than at the busy office, the lack of regular meaningful human contact comes to have a negative impact on our body.
Psychologists also warn us about the this problem’s implications for the family unit. Research shows that children as young as five years old use the internet on a regular basis. Experts say that this undermines a child’s ability to learn to interpret body language and acquire important social skills. In many cases not even the parents are not very helpful, either. Dr. Signman was quoted as saying “Parents spend less time with their children than they did only a decade ago. Britain has the lowest proportion of children in all of Europe who eat with their parents at the table.”
While most of these allegations (about physical health, in particular) have not been back up by detailed scientific research, there is an element of truth to each of the warnings. common sense dictates that spending much time behind a computer screen is not good for your health, especially if you don”t have exercise and physical social interaction.
Social networking sites therefore have pros and cons, like everything else in life. They can be seen as a negative influence makes us more anti-social and isolated. Or they can simply be seen as a great tool to reconnect with old friends and classmates. The bottom line: do everything in moderation. As long as we maintain a social life beyond the blogosphere, there is no reason for us to log-off.
The content of this page is informed by feedback from practices in Middlesex and also osteopaths in the Birmingham area. Further input was received from clinics in Sheffield and osteopathic practitioners in Cardiff. Finally a contribution was made by a practitioner in Nottingham.