Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Bad News: Technology Is Physically Addictive, Study Finds

by Amar Toor on January 4, 2011 at 05:45 PM

sad farmville cow Do you open your laptop as soon as you wake up? Do you sneak out of the office to tweet from your smartphone? Do you get the shakes if you go several hours without visiting Switched? If so, you're not alone, because, according to a new study, we're all physically addicted to the meth of new media.

The study, titled 'Unplugged,' was undertaken by the University of Maryland's International Center for Media and the Public Agenda and the Salzburg Academy. Researchers asked students from 12 universities to go without computers, TVs, or cell phones for 24 hours, and documented their reactions. Students involved in the study reported feeling both psychological and physical effects from the withdrawal. Some said they felt as if they were trying to quit smoking, while others compared the experience to going on a diet.

"The majority struggled at first, experiencing these [withdrawal] symptoms, before they developed coping mechanisms that helped to distract them," Dr. Roman Gerodimos told the Telegraph. The symptoms even prompted researchers to coin a new condition, Information Deprivation Disorder, which, we're guessing, afflicts just about everyone we know. If you think you may be suffering from IDD, you'd better start looking for "coping mechanisms" to curb your cravings. But good luck finding anything as dopamine-laced as the Internet.

Tags: addiction, cellphone, college, computer, health, information, InformationDeprivationDisorder, internetaddiction, media, psychology, research, study, teens, top, tv, Web

Comments

1

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular