Psychiatry Specialist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, who said, "Such a friendship has emerged in the virtual world that we longed to shake hands," noted that technology used outside of its purpose disrupts people's daily life activities and reveals individuals who are not interested in their spouses and children.
Üsküdar University Rector, psychiatry specialist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan stated that "Fomo", also known as technology addiction, has become an increasing epidemic in the world and said the following:
VIRTUAL WORLD DISEASE FOMO!
"Fomo literally means "Fear of Missing Out", that is, fear of not being online, fear of losing. The person is afraid of not being connected to the internet. The Wi-Fi doesn't work where they go, they can't access the internet and they feel very uneasy. He feels like he is without shoes, or if he wears glasses, he feels like he is missing something. This is a fear. Fomo is a term used in popular psychology to describe this situation. There is such a concept in the world. People have a fear of not being online. Someone defined it in order to define what it is, and since it expresses the general problem, it was easily accepted and widespread. This has started to be seen especially in all people who have contact with the internet."
FOMO IS THE DANGER IN THE FAMILY!
Stating that Fomo is a result of the technology that developed with the globalization that emerged after the end of the cold war period in the early 1990s, Prof. Tarhan said, "Along with the political-sociological change brought about by globalization, there was also a technological change. When these two came together, the world became an electronic village. In other words, a Canadian can meet someone in Iraq and they can easily get married and they do it completely virtually. There has been an incredible ease of communication in the virtual environment. This ease has caused unpredictable changes in human life. Fomo is one of them and it comes between husband and wife, parents and children. Young people get together, everyone has a cell phone in their hand and they don't talk to each other. In the same living room, in the same house, everyone has a smartphone, everyone is in a different world. And when they forget it when they leave the house, they always go back and pick it up. I know people who return from Gebze on their way from here to Izmit and pick up their phones. It has become such a basic need."
ARE WE ALL FOMO?
Stating that fomo can be considered an addiction from the moment it starts to affect a person's life, Prof. Dr. Tarhan said, "If this behavior disrupts the person's daily life activity, if it becomes the only subject and center of his life, if he does not take care of his spouse, if he reflects it to his children, we can now talk about an addiction. For example, a person needs to plan their day, but the first thing they do is pick up their cell phone. He misses the work to be done, in other words, he changes the flow of his life. You look and an hour has passed. There are many jobs waiting for him outside. The person's daily life activities and routines are disrupted. This is the same as a person who drinks alcohol wakes up in the morning and starts looking for alcohol, this is addiction.
Pointing out that addiction also has criteria, Prof. Tarhan said, "If there are unsuccessful quit attempts, spending too much time, showing withdrawal when it is not there, irritability and anger, addiction has started. The person gets pleasure from this and the reward-punishment system in the brain is disrupted. This virtual addiction falls into the category of behavioral addiction."
CAN FOMO BE TREATED?
Stating that virtual addiction has three stages, Prof. Dr. Tarhan said, "In the first stage, the person knows that it is addictive, but it does not disrupt his daily life much. We all have this in general. We get up in the morning, check if there is a new development for 5-10 minutes and return to work. This is within acceptable limits, it helps people to develop. In the second stage, the person spends a long time without wanting to. After spending 1-2 hours, he says, "What kind of a person am I, why did I waste so much time?" and many of his work is disrupted, then he regrets it and feels sad, but he experiences such tides. Here, addiction has started, but it is in the first stage. After it progresses, he says, "This is a part of my life, it is a must," he decides to end his marriage, it causes him not to go to work, if it restricts his life to such an extent, it means that it has reached the point of clinical treatment. Some students don't go to school because of this, parents cannot convince them."
Pointing out that inpatient treatment is required in the third stage, Prof. Dr. Tarhan said, "In the treatment, social-emotional deprivation is left at first, completely isolated. First of all, we deprive the person, we treat them in this way, and after a while, they seem to have a crisis, but they look at it and say, "I can still enjoy myself without this, I can turn to new interests." So we create a perception of harm. After a while, we make the person use it hourly within the treatment. Like 1-2 hours a day. We can get positive results from the treatment. Internet addiction is a situation where we get results much easier and faster than substance addiction. But what makes it easier is that the person can realize it."
COMPUTER IS THE OPEN DOOR OF THE HOUSE!
Drawing attention to the dangers posed by the virtual world, especially for children, Prof. Dr. Tarhan stated that technology transforms people into people with social disabilities and gave the following warnings:
"Some parents think, 'Let him be interested in the internet in the safe environment of the house.' In fact, the computer is not the safe environment of the house, it is the open door of the house. The child walks around with a fake identity in a virtual world. The child accepts lying as natural. In other words, one of the biggest harms that the internet does to humanity is that it naturalizes lying. Since the person does not come face to face with people and does not make eye contact, he hides his identity, defines himself not as he is but as he imagines himself to be and establishes relationships in that way. When the person comes face to face, they feel the need to set a boundary for themselves. In the virtual world, boundary-setting behavior is broken.
SOCIALLY DISABLED PEOPLE ARE MULTIPLYING!
When there were no physical boundaries, sociological-psychological boundaries began to form in the imagination and it became easier to break boundaries. For example, fidelity in marriages has decreased and relationship boundaries have deteriorated. Relationships that do not touch each other or make eye contact with each other have emerged. In the virtual world, such a friendship has emerged that we long for a handshake. People who are very interested in computers are kind of autistic. People who sleep with the computer, whose work is with the computer, who spend their lives with the computer, who sit in front of the computer as soon as they come home, after a while you look at them and see that they are not autistic in appearance, but they are socially disabled. Just like the mentally or physically disabled, people with social disabilities have started to proliferate in this way. They don't know how to sit and chat. This has created a new type of disability. Maybe when it comes to the point where these will disrupt human relations and disrupt human productivity, it will be said that this person is socially disabled."
TECHNOLOGY SHOULD BE A TOOL, NOT A GOAL
Emphasizing that technology makes life easier if it is used for a purpose, Prof. Tarhan said, "However, if technology disrupts the daily life activities of the person, if it becomes the only subject of his/her life, if he/she is not interested in his/her spouse, if he/she reflects it to his/her children, then addiction is in question."