Question 2- POE Digital health and wellness

 

Question 2: Digital Health and Wellness

The four different psychological issues in the digital world:

 

Sleep Dysregulation: Sleep dysregulation also known as delayed sleep occurs when a person’s biological clock is irregular compared to those of other people (Harrison and Lucassen, 2019). This disorder affects sleep duration, peak activity, core body temperature, rhythm, hormones and other daily cycle (Harrison and Lucassen, 2019).

For example: Right before bedtime people usually want to quickly check their emails or messages on social media and  then sleep, but end up seeing something interesting that may make them stay up for more minutes or even hours looking through videos or trends.

Cyber-stalking:  Cyber-stalking can take many forms, but in broad sense, it is harassment that occurs through online channels such as social media, forums or emails (Tripwire, 2018). Cyber stalking often starts with harmless interactions or unpleasant messages which may even amuse you but as time goes by the messages received from the stalker become annoying, inappropriate or violent which instills fear  in the receiver of the messages (Tripwire, 2018).  For example, women who enters beauty pageants such as local beauty competition, Miss South Africa, Miss Wildcoast and Miss Universe receive a lot of messages from their fans on Social media, some fans send messages of admiration. Whereas others who are not really fans but wish to see the contestant leave the pageant may continuously send threats or discouraging messages, which may leave the contestant threatend , fearing for her safety and depressed. In most cases these stalkers use various accounts and  when the victim blocks the stalker’s account the stalker comes back with another account with the intention of carrying on from where they have left off.

Addition (Internet addiction): Internet addiction is when an internet user spends excessive time on the internet which results in changes in the behaviour of the user and the relationship the user has with people is now compromised (Shaw and Black, 2008). People addicted to the internet tend to almost not focus on their academics or careers, which are also negatively affected as time goes by (Shaw and Black, 2008). This person focuses for on what is happening online than what is happening in reality. For example, A teenager who is addicted to the internet spends more time online  looking for the latest trends and keeps checking for updates on public figures. And he does not interact with the people who are physically around him because he is constantly on his cellphone. He ignores his school work for social media and also uses his sleep time to browse social media. So his personal relationships are affected, his school work is affected and he doesn’t get enough sleep.

Online disinhabitation effect:  Online disinhabitation effect occurs when an individual who does not communicate in real life feels much safer or confident communicating on an online platform usually in anonymity (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). Online disinhabitation effect can be both positive and negative. For examples in universities students are usually given surveys and questionnaires to rate and give comments on their lecturers in anonymity because when asked one on one about the lecturer they may feel uncomfortable to raise issues in front of that lecturer or other students. In a case of it being negative it may lead to bullying. Bullies are able to hurt others in anonymity.