We are what we browse

In an internet-heavy environment, there is a thin line between depression browsing and casual browsing

July 10, 2012 06:11 pm | Updated October 18, 2016 12:46 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

Peering pressure: What you could be searching for or doing online might act like the crystal ball that could point to your psychology

Peering pressure: What you could be searching for or doing online might act like the crystal ball that could point to your psychology

Phones may not be ringing at dinner parties or get-together but you always can spot a bunch of smartphone enthusiasts waiting to show you something online. A youtube clip or a funny picture — it’s almost as if a conversation would miss its flavour without mentions of .coms. Check Google Insights for search, in the last seven days, the most searched items would be ‘facebook, ‘download’, ‘songs’ and ‘Youtube’. Reasearch by two Indians at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Sriram Chellapan and Raghavendra Kotikalapudi who conducted a small research on 216 students at MST by collecting data anonymously and unobtrusively falls in line with these insights. According to Sriram, students going through depression used file-sharing services, constantly checked their email, indulged in online chatting and used high-bandwidth applications like videos and games. An interesting point is that students used the internet in a random manner linking it to a lack of concentration or focus. As a requisite for the study, the researchers tested the participants for depression and they found that those exhibiting signs of depression used the internet in a different way than the others. Complementing this is a recent report on Stuff by psychologist Elly Taylor from New Zealand who says that internet ‘trolls’ have low self-esteem. Trolls are people on the internet who leave rude and offensive comments.

“Essentially, with people spending so much time online, it is natural that some of their behavioural patterns manifest online. Our research identifies some Internet usage features that associate with depressive symptoms. With appropriate processing of Internet data is likely that many more patterns of human behaviour can be studied with respect to Internet usage,” says Sriram.

Internet-dependent

Devender Sharma, 28-year-old bank employee even with his hectic schedule finds time to share videos online, reads blogs on his reader and checks his e-mail constantly. But he sits confident that perhaps his obsessive compulsive nature of checking e-mails cannot be linked to depression. “I can do without the internet, I am not solely dependent on it,” He however, tops it off with, “But I need it at least for an hour every day.” Swati Raidu, 26-year-old content writer does most of her work online. She admits however that she gets carried away and without realising clicks on several links and conducts multiple searches. “I sit to google one thing and before I know it, I have more than 20 tabs open, each about the different thing. I browse a lot of catalogues online, but I haven’t bought a thing,” says Swati. Psychology student, Aparna Rao, researching on de-individuation – a process defined by social psychologist Leon Mann in 1960 describing loosening of self-awareness in larger groups. An individual in larger crowds tends to do things he/she normally wouldn’t. Aparna says that the internet is like a large crowd and individuals naturally less focussed on their own identity and thus tend to behave differently. “With excessive use of the Internet, students and users often tend to replace real-life interactions with online socialising leading to increased isolation and anxiety in their actual physical environment,” she says.

Depression perhaps cannot be measured in full by observing browsing patterns, but it does indicate a rough picture.

Rohan Reddy, a student however rubbishes all the hoopla and says, “So is everybody on the internet depressed? Because my feeds are filled with funny cat videos and images, there should be something more to measure depression than just how much someone checks their e-mail!”

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