Week 9: "I feel better already/": New Media, Health & Well-Being

“The Internet is making me ill”
By Shaun Buzza

Health and well-being is determined on a number of levels, physical, metal and emotional. New media has the ability to influence these areas of our personal health and can play a slight contribution a number of negative effects.
Using technology is the beginning factor. Employees and students are excessively exposed to working with computers. Physical issues relating to posture, vision and RSI are common amongst computer users. Bad posture can lead to aches and pains in the back or neck, blurry vision or headaches can be caused by over-exposure to computer monitors, and excessive typing can cause us to have sore wrists. Though only minor issues, most of us have experienced these and can add to the stress of everyday life.

Utilizing new media features of the web can be addictive. Social Networking sites are commonly populated, so are the likes of gaming servers as well as video and music sites. Accessing all of these has become a past-time, hobby or in some cases even daily routine. It is easy to use up hours of time on Facebook, talking to friends and playing games or looking up videos, and this can lead to a number of issues in regards to mental and emotion health. Tiredness and sleep deprivation are drastic examples of over-consumption of New Media, so are social side-effects surrounding emotional well-being including cyber-bullying/stalking. Again seemingly small when compared to the burdens of everyday life, though a small number of these cases can result in quite serious problems.

While these issues do not directly relate to online diagnosis of illnesses or drug prescription, it is definitely interesting to take note of the other side of the coin, where we not only use new media in regards to our health, but where it can be the cause of health issues, as minuscule as they may seem. Maybe staying up into the early hours of the morning on Facebook or gaming isn’t such a good idea when you have work or school later that day?