Catch da Flava Radio - Internet Addiction

For this edition of Health Talks Radio, host Diamond led us in a panel discussion on internet addiction and asking our youth panelists what they think about addiction, and what it is. They discussed the dark side of social media, and how people can get addicted in the worst ways more than just having an exorbitant amount time on the internet. Erika talked about the phenomenon of “catfishing” where someone pretends to be someone that they’re not and befriends someone online, creates an intimate emotional relationship with someone and the relationship is built upon false pretenses, such as a false image of the person, a false name etc. She goes on to talk about how people can be duped for years and the enormous amount of ​ emotional and psychological damage that can cause to victims, and even sometimes the “catfisher” because they may be in for more than they bargained for.

Another phenomenon Beverly brought up is the issue of trolling, and how that leads youth to feel unsafe and unwelcome online. Trolling is the anonymous bullying of others online for one’s amusement, and can involve several people, different accounts, and create an environment of mistrust for victims. Youth panelists discuss how it keeps people on guard and feeling the need to be constantly vigilant, which would cause them to be traumatized from even being online. Another issue when it comes to internet addiction without healthy boundaries, people often use the internet up until their bedtime which can cause disorder to the body. As previous sleep expert Judith Mendoza mentioned, the body can’t tell the difference between sunlight and the phone screen’s light, and may not be ready to fall asleep. So internet addiction can have very real physical consequences.

We would like to thank our guest panelists Beverly, Erika, Judy, and Travis for being on air to talk about the important topic and to yet again provide compelling conversation for our panel discussion.

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