COLIN O’GARA HAS been treating people with addiction for more than two decades.

The consultant psychiatrist began his career focused on alcohol and drug use, but he finds that a growing number of patients are now presenting with new problems. The common denominator in a lot of cases is the internet – a phone or laptop that serves as a gateway to compulsive gambling, shopping, exercise or porn watching.

O’Gara, who is head of addiction services at St John of God Hospital, says these online behaviours have only become a serious concern in very recent years. “The issue is normally to do with the hours being spent on a device. It tends to involve someone withdrawing from other activities,” he told The Journal. 

The internet often only facilitates other problems, but in some instances people are just incapable of staying offline. It’s a particular challenge for young people who have grown up around screens.  Smartphones have become “the modern-day hypodermic needle” for a wired generation, as Stanford professor Anna Lembke has written. One study has suggested that some even feel a closer sense of companionship with their phone than their flatmates or colleagues.

Experts disagree about whether internet use can be considered an addiction, but our digital habits do often border on the obsessive. Recent Irish research has shown that men look at their phones on average 49 times a day, and women 59 times a day. Deloitte Ireland’s 2021 Digital Consumer Trends report also found that more than a third of people – and over half of 18 to 24 year olds – check their phones within five minutes of waking.

Like most of us, Hilda Burke has felt the pull of online distractions. The London-based Irish psychotherapist started to set herself tech-free zones when she noticed how often she was reaching for her device throughout the day. It began with leaving her phone at home when she was going for a walk, and now she turns off her mobile data every Sunday.

As a couples therapist, Burke knows that smartphone dependency also affects more than just the individual. “It has a really negative impact on intimacy for a lot of people,” she says. “One partner would typically be frustrated that the other person doesn’t pay full attention, but you do also get couples admitting that they both spend way too much time on their phones.”

She points out that digital technologies are in fact designed to be addictive, with every like, share and comment providing a fresh hit of dopamine. “So much of the brain power in tech is focused on making apps stickier. There are people being paid massive salaries to come up with ways to steal our time and attention.”

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many feel the need to be always “on” – always available to answer an email or keep on top of developments. “It can be difficult to set boundaries as an employee, especially if you work with people in different time zones,” she says. “I had one client who would wake at 3am to check if her boss in New York had sent something on.”

A change

So at what point might change be needed? “It becomes problematic when it gets in the way of looking after yourself, whether that be taking enough exercise or getting enough fresh air, or just generally doing restorative things.”

Burke recognises that a total digital detox is generally not a realistic solution, but she says there are plenty of simple ways to resist compulsive phone checking. One tactic suggested in her book The Phone Addiction Workbook is “wait training”, which involves gradually increasing the amount of time spent away from digital devices. “I think the best approach is to start small and slowly build up that muscle. People coming from high usage won’t be able to immediately switch off their phones for a whole day.”

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Colman Noctor, a child and adolescent psychotherapist, has seen the internet wreaking havoc on many young people’s mental health. “Someone might present with depression or anxiety, but it’s only afterwards that you find a lot of the difficulties are coming from online communication. It might be through exclusion from a Snapchat or WhatsApp group, or even just seeing friends meeting up without you.”

Noctor says evidence on the cognitive effects of being online is not yet conclusive, but he does have concerns about the shifting trajectory of child development. “There are kids who can surf online and play Minecraft from start to finish, but who might not be able to ride a bike or tie their shoelaces.”

The internet provides a space for friendship and connection, but Noctor stresses that it’s no substitute for the lessons of real life interaction. “We can add things up on a calculator or use spell check, but there’s no shortcut to emotional development in terms of managing relationships, managing disappointments, managing failure. There’s no app for these things.”

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.