'Facebook addiction causes anxiety, depression in youngsters'

Parth Shastri,TNN,Jan 24, 2011, 12.07am IST

AHMEDABAD: It is becoming more and more evident that social networking over the web is the new opium for today's youngsters. Apparently, social networking is everything for many of them as they spend a considerable time developing a favourable profile, complete with favourites and likes, updates and playing online games.
Meera Neelkanthan, a student of psychology from Coimbatore, presented a paper titled 'Relatedness Between Facebook Addiction and Self-Regulation' at the ongoing national meet of Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists (IACP). In her study, she observed that the greater time users spend on the site, the higher the chances that they will lose control over their urge to log in.

Practicing psychologists in the city say that studies have shown that teenagers, who are heavy users of social networking websites, are prone to depression, along with missed sleep, school and meals. Some psychologists, now ask about the online profile of the patients before a full assessment.

On why Facebook? Neelkanthan said, "Arguably, it is the most popular networking site today with the Indian youngsters, due to various applications, games and several features such as poke and like available here. Facebook syndrome can be defined with several parameters - as soon as you wake up you log in, even when offline, you think about the networking and even when you can talk face to face with the person you prefer to send across a message or comment on a post."