Technology, The Internet,

And its Effect on Mental

For:

Principles of Sociology

ONLINE
11/29/21

 Introduction
Cellphones, computers, the internet, and other such devices are all examples of

technology. Since the first computer was created in 1943, technology has progressed so far to the

point of which a modern cellphone has more processing power than the computers which guided

astronauts to the moon and back to earth safely. Technology is involved in nearly every part of

modern life such as the radio in your car, a motor in an electric toothbrush, automatic handicap

doors, alarm clocks, etc. It is essentially impossible to function in today’s society without using a

some form of technology. Gordon Moore is an American electrical engineer who founded Intel

Corporation, the company which most likely made many of the parts that are used in your

computer right now. Moore’s law is a term invented by Gordon Moore describing how the

amount of transistors in an integrated circuit (such as a cpu in a phone, computer, etc.) doubles

about every two years. The more transistors that are in a circuit, the more data can be transmitted

at a time which can be measured as cycles per second. Most modern computers are measured

using MegaHertz(MHz) or how many million cycles per second. Like was stated earlier, the

processing power in a cellphone (2490 MHz)is exponentially stronger than the computers that

were used to put astronauts on the moon (which ran at .043 MHz). For all we know, in a couple

years something the size of a penny could have the same processing power of a modern

cellphone.

Technology is constantly evolving at a faster rate, and it is becoming a larger part of

everybody’s lives. Technology like cellphones allowed people to talk to other people somewhat

artificially. Instead of meeting somebody in person and talking to them, paying attention to

physical cues, tonal cues, etc. a person can simply call someone over the phone without having

 to deal with any of the physical aspects of talking. This can be applied to many other aspects of

technology, for instance, social media. Essentially through technology we can simulate

socializing by means of social media and other online programs. More and more people are using

technology to communicate and gain knowledge, essentially creating a whole new platform for

socializing and a whole different type of social behavior. Whether we acknowledge it or not

technology is changing the ways human interact with each other, communicate with each other,

or in short: how humans socialize. And with elevated use of technology due to recent world

events, the way we interact with each other may be permanently altered than ever before.

H1: Individuals who use technology excessively are more likely to be mentally ill

than individuals who do not use technology excessively.

H2: Individuals who are lonely are less likely to become mentally ill with technology.

H3: Individuals who use technology more will behave different than individuals who do not

use technology.

H4: Individuals who don’t use technology are less likely to become mentally ill.

H5: Individuals who use technology excessively socialize different than individuals who

don’t use technology.

A contribution of this paper is to inform society and people who use technology to

become more aware of the influences it has and to be more conscious of how they can affect

other people through technology. It is crucial that society be aware of how technology is

changing ourselves and how we can prepare to handle the many differences that technology can

bring. This paper won’t only focus on the mental health aspects of technology’s influence but

also how it affects socialization among people and wishing societies.

 This research will be conducted through use of primary and secondary sources, however,

due to lack of time and resources, not all aspects of technology’s influence in daily life will be

addressed.

Literature review

Mental health has been a very obscure subject until recently. Many modern mental health

associations (such as the NAMI) didn’t exist until post world war two. In Britain, the evolution

of mental health movements can be divided into three overlapping phases. The first stage began

immediately after World War 2, and could be characterized mostly by the heavy amount of

campaigning from the National Association For Mental Health (NAMH) which was also

involved in a number of scandals regarding mental hospitals and early critiques of psychiatry and

mental health services. The second phase began in the early 1960’s which was characterized by

the rising opposition of psychiatry, mostly because the general public was becoming aware of the

poor treatment of mental health patients and other terrible actions being performed (lobotomies,

etc.) (Crossley 1998). Modern psychiatry is massively better than what it used to be, but the most

influential things discovered have only been discovered relatively recently, such as

antidepressant pills, meaning that we are only now discovering things that have been happening

since the beginning of psychiatry. There are also many new variables such as nature vs. nurture

along with genetic dispositions to mental illnesses. In 2020 21% of American adults have or had

experienced some sort of mental health issue in their lives, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but

when its put as 1/5 people experienced mental illness, it becomes much more intense. General

mental health has been on a decline, partially because we are developing new methods to

 diagnose mental illness, but also partially because mental health is worsening in general (Keyes,

et al. 2010)

With cellphones and computers, there are many new ways to communicate and socialize

with people. How many texts do you send a day? How many phone calls do you make? How

many emails do you send? Smartphones are loaded with sensors and are constantly tracking the

data being received and sent out by your phone.The sensors can record what you say or text, who

you are talking to or texting, where you are when you call or text them, and whatever platform

you use to communicate, whether it be Facebook or some other service. Phones also have the

ability to record the noise level of its environment, giving it information on if there are

conversations going on, or if it is in a crowd, or if it is just silent. Because of this, it is very easy

to get information on behavior patterns and how humans communicate using their phones, and it

provides researches a valid method to get data. (Harari, et. Al 2020). As a matter of fact, the

journal that I am using as a source got their data using this exact method. By using

telecommunication company server logs from a Norwegian telecommunication company, the

subscribers of the company exchanged on average 2.38 phone calls, and 3.95 text messages per

day. (Harari, et. Al 2020). Cellphones increasingly mediate other forms of social behavior,

through means like messaging apps, and social media. Nowadays, if you want to get someone’s

attention online, you should purposely ignore their texts(?) Or if you want other people to like

you, you need to record yourself doing something and then show it off online, so that everyone

who sees it knows you’re a good person.

Fundamentally, Technology and the internet simulate real life interactions, whether it be

talking to a cashier, or interacting with people with similar interests. This new variety of social

 networking that occurs creates its own social norms, just like how it’s respectful to maintain eye

contact, or keep personal space when talking to someone face to face.

How does technology affect different types of people? Let's divide every person into two

groups: Extraverts and Introverts. Extraverted people are naturally more talkative, they tend to

relax by spending time with other people, and they have many connections. Introverts are the

opposite, keeping to themselves and relaxing by spending solitary time alone. When it comes to

technology, as you’d expect, extraverts use social media to talk to more people and gain more

connections. (Harari, Et. Al 2020). Social media can be seen as extremely beneficial in this sense

since it allows extraverts to be themselves. But this raises the question how is this technology

platform used by introverted people, or anti-social people?

If you do not want to interact with anyone face to face, for whatever reason (maybe you

have social anxiety, having a bad hair day, etc.) you can just use a special program on your cell

phone to do essentially any task for you, maybe just for a slight extra cost, but usually at no

expense. Need groceries? You can have groceries delivered to your front door all through your

phone. Want to order food but don’t want to talk to the cashier? You can get it delivered, or order

your food online and pick it up without having to talk to anyone. This anti-social technology has

evolved so much that there is a multitude of options you can pick in order to avoid human

contact. In this sense an introverted person could also thrive, similar to an extravert, but by not

having to talk to anybody and being able to do most tasks alone. But the ability to have a recluse

lifestyle by any means can also be poor to a persons health. Just like having too much of a good

thing, a person could absolutely withdraw from society, never talking to anybody through the use

 of technology. Similarly an extravert can desensitize themselves to new people, since with online

technology one person can meets thousands of other people with the same interests all online. An

extravert may not take relationships, platonic or romantic, seriously because they always know

that there is someone else out there who could replace them, or they may be under the impression

that there is someone else who is perfect for them out there, somewhere in the world, that they

haven’t met yet.

There are very likely sensed social behaviors correlated with social media use, as in that

there are different social norms when it comes to social media (Harari, et. Al 2020). There are

even things called Virtual Cemeteries where you can visit the accounts of people who have died.

(Aguilera 2020). Even though the internet hasn’t been around for that long, there are already

many social norms and customs that are to be followed. Perhaps you have heard of drama

between teenagers texting each other before. “Leaving people on opened/read” , “ghosting”, and

“blocking” are all new terms in the field of online communication. If you really don’t want to

talk to someone you can just not respond to any online messages. What are they going to do? By

not communicating with someone online, you send a message that you don’t want to interact

with them. It can be way easier to just not respond to someone than to pluck up the courage and

physically say that you do not want to talk to them for whatever reason. This type of behavior

can lead to negative mental health in the individual being ghosted, due to the lack of information.

When you consider that the people being exposed to this treatment are kids, it shows how our

future generations will be affected by technology. Behavior like this might be one of the reasons

why modern anxiety rates are so high.

 Existing research shows a tie between mental illness and social network attrition over

time, which is a pattern attributed to dysfunctional psychosocial and interpersonal processes and

rejection. (Perry 2012). According to Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory, people are

intrinsically driven to compare their opinions and abilities with others for self-evaluation or self-

understanding. (Yang et. Al 2021) People are always comparing themselves to others, whether

they dress like the popular people, how does their car look compared to someone else, how does

their hair look compared to someone else, etc. Technology and the internet only provide another

means for comparison, mainly through social media. The only difference between real life and

social media, is that in social media and person can pick and choose what aspects of themselves

to “show off” to other onlookers. A person can use programs to change how they look, they can

only show good aspects of themselves, they can post only their most expensive items, or post

somebody else’s expensive items and claim it as their own. When it comes to comparison theory,

social media can be the most extreme examples of it. From a conflict theorists perspective, social

media is a huge power grab to see who can flex the most and get the most popularity before

anyone else can. Constant comparison of ability can have negative effects of mental health.

Comparison can lead to depression and anxiety along with other poor mental health effects.

(Yang et. Al 2021). With the constant stimulation of social media, there will always be constant

comparison happening leading to poor mental health.

Severe Mental Illness (SMI) is associated with impaired functioning in a multitude of

areas including social life, family, and work. It is believed that the behavior associated with SMI

results in “kin-centered” networks, essentially meaning that people with SMI push everyone else

away, going into a social withdrawal. (Perry 2012) No matter who you are, with technology you

 can find somebody else who has the same beliefs as you, no matter what your beliefs are. The

internet connects everyone globally, so even someone who never talks to anyone physically can

find people just like them online, other social hermits. But we can’t forget about the context with

social interactions. Personal Social Networks are constrained by the immediate environments and

activities in which a person is embedded; that is, their foci of activity (Perry 2012, Field 1981).

This means that even people with SMI can form their own social groups, though with entirely

different social norms. Technology and social media help people with similar interests discover

each other, creating more social networks and connection more people; connecting people online

that is. Internet social groups like these can actually help improve mental health, since people

with the same issues have other people to empathize with. Not all online groups conform with

societies views however. The internet connects EVERYBODY, meaning there are social

networks for positive things such as charities, or political parties, but also hate groups like

terrorists, Neo-Nazis, KKK members, etc.

Covid-19 and Socialization

By mid-2020 about 58% of the world population was estimated to be internet users, with

almost 90% in the European Union being internet users (Internet World Stats 2020, Hantrais, Et.

Al 2021). During the pandemic, there were major leaps in technology in Health Artificial

Intelligence. AI was used extensively to track the pandemic in real time, along with predict

where it may show up next. Chances are, you saw a COVID-19 graph made by an AI or made

with the help of AI. ( L. Hantrais Et Al. 2021)

But the pandemic also had negative effects on mental health, and on societies. Very

rapidly everything went online, school, work, etc. unveiling a whole new array of problems. Kids

 doing online school had to deal with fake news, groomers, scammers, and bullying all because of

the pandemic. All these new variables can cause information overload, fueling previous

anxieties. When kids are exposed to traumatic and stressful experiences young, they are more

likely to develop mental illnesses related to stress from past experiences later in life(Turner

2013). Not everybody had equal access to technology either, most families were unequally put

into situations facing the technological challenges of being locked down. (Hantrais Et. Al 2021)

This mass use of technology worsened people’s mental health. The pandemic caused everybody

to be isolated, and forced people to use technology to simulate real life interactions such as work,

school, socializing, causing people to feel the mental effects of prolonged technology use.

A major reason why technology can have negative effects is because of how technology

can easily isolate a person. Like what was stated earlier, technology can simulate most

interactions that involve person to person contact. If somebody never sees anyone, they are going

to become lonely which is a key contributor to degrading mental health and SMI. (Chen Et. Al,

2019) Most modern social media platforms have algorithms which is constantly trying to find the

right content to recommend to a specific user. This can be seen as beneficial in theory but in the

long run these algorithms can trap people into an echo chamber of constant opinion validation, or

constant content of the same things. Let's say an individual is going through a depressive

episode, perhaps they view nihilistic content online, and the algorithm keeps recommending

it.This creates situational mental health whenever an individual uses social media, and as this

cumulates, it causes general poor mental health (Cullati 2014).The individual is essentially

trapped in a media pit of constant nihilism, and it is hard for them to see outside of the pit and

 see into the real world since the algorithm is still recommending the same content and making

hard to change.

There were a handful of research issues, mainly being that mental health is generally a

psychology topic meaning there weren’t many sources on mental health, mental health over time,

and mental illness causes in the sociology index. I picked a relatively obscure topic and most

topics I found were very specific mental health issues involving one certain thing such as mental

health in prison, or immigrants, and not many generic mental health articles. There also was not

many articles about how things like texting and calling affected mental health. Most articles

involved social media and mental health, but again nothing general about mental health and

technology. Again, this is most likely because mental health is more related to psychology than

sociology but I speculate if I had broader source guidelines I would’ve been able to find more

information about this subject. I also speculate that this is a relatively new field of research. The

only subject I’ve seen on the news that was close to my topic was how mental health is affected

by social media. I haven’t openly seen any articles/resources about how people socialize with

technology and how technology affects human communication, but I predict in the future we will

see a lot more of this subject as technology continues to develop more and more.

Out of the articles I did find, they all essentially agreed on the same things, with multiple

referencing the same terms such as SMI. The sources that I chose had a wide variety, usually no

more than two sources were about the same subject, and this is because I needed to compare

some very abstract things with each other. Like what was stated earlier this is a pretty unique

subject, and with great psychology influence, it was hard to find an article on exactly what I was

 talking about. Aside from the difficulty finding articles, the ones I chose made the same points

supporting my hypothesis.

Conclusion

The information that I gathered regarding technology and its effect on mental health and

socialization gave me great insight on the social aspects of technology and how it affects mental

health. I learned that my initial assumptions about how increased technology use affects mental

health are correct, and that technology does affect mental health, whether it be positive or

negative. Technology can help people isolate themselves, and technology can also help people

gain new connections with other people around the globe. What the research concludes is that

mental health can be affected by technology, and that technology is indeed changing the way

humans communicate and socialize.

My hypothesis that individuals who use technology excessively are more likely to be

mentally ill is mostly correct except for the fact that technology use can also improve individuals

mental health. Mental Health is a tricky subject, we do not know the exact cause of mental

illness or what can worsen symptoms. This difficulty itself comes from the fact that all humans

are unique and have unique characteristics that can cause mental illness.

My hypothesis that lonely individuals are more likely to develop mental illness is

supported by research. This is mainly because loneliness is a symptoms of some other mental

illness so it makes sense that technology can worsen it. But technology can also benefit situations

like these because of the connections individuals can make through the internet and other such

technologies.

 My belief that individuals who use technology behave differently than individuals who

don’t use technology is partially accurate, though there was no research specifically meant to

prove this, we can assume that it is true based on how technology affects mental health, and

therefore would most likely affect other aspects of an individuals personality.

Likewise, there is trouble measuring mental health among people, since mental illness

has an array of symptoms and has many different ways it can affect an individual. Many of these

articles simply described how certain things were “bad for mental health” but none of the articles

really went into detail about the aspects of mental illness, such as certain things are more likely

to cause anxiety, while others are more likely to cause depression. This is probably due to mental

health being psychology related. The topic I chose was very obscure and like was stated earlier, it

was difficult to find articles relating to exactly what my topic was about, but I was able to get

enough sources that were close enough that I was able to successfully do this research. In

conclusion, humans are still evolving. With modern technology and being able to talk to people

on the internet, communicating with other people will be completely different than how people

would in the past.

When this research first began, my goal was to uncover and learn how technology subtly

affects human socialization. In the future, I believe that experiments with people and technology

would be extremely beneficial. I believe more and more people are becoming aware of this

effect, and as of writing this, there are new terms such as “pandemic brain” that describe how

individuals are changed through the covid-19 pandemic. In the future I hope to see more

awareness for this subject and more testing of hypothesis that explore technology’s effect, since

it affects everybody.

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