'Facebook Generation' Faces Identity Crisis
July 4, 2008
A generation of Internet users who have never known a world where you can't surf
on-line may be growing up with a different and potentially dangerous view of the
world and their own identity, according to a warning delivered to the Annual
Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Dr Himanshu Tyagi, a psychiatrist at West London Mental Health Trust, said that
people born after 1990, who were just five-years-old or younger when the use of
Internet became mainstream in 1995, have grown up in a world dominated by online
social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.
"This is the age group involved with the Bridgend suicides and what many of
these young people had in common was their use of Internet to communicate. It's
a world where everything moves fast and changes all the time, where
relationships are quickly disposed at the click of a mouse, where you can delete
your profile if you don't like it and swap an unacceptable identity in the blink
of an eye for one that is more acceptable," said Dr Tyagi. "People
used to the quick pace of online social networking may soon find the real world
boring and unstimulating, potentially leading to more extreme behaviour to get
that sense.
"It may be possible that young people who have no experience of a world
without online societies put less value on their real world identities and can
therefore be at risk in their real lives, perhaps more vulnerable to impulsive
behaviour or even suicide. This is definitely a line of reasoning that warrants
more investigation and research."
Dr Tyagi became interested in factors shaping an online identity when he founded
an online professional network by the name of RxPG (Prescription for
Professional Growth) which is now subscribed by more than 60,000 medical
graduates and undergraduates worldwide. He warned the meeting that there was a
massive generation gap amongst current psychiatrists and young patients around
the Internet related issues. A survey of International psychiatrists conducted
by him at a recent psychiatric conference in US showed that the vast majority of
psychiatrists worldwide were unaware of the full magnitude of impact of online
world on the younger generation.
Chat room communication was also more likely to encourage disinhibition because
of anonymity, and involve reduced sensory experience: "If you can't see the
person's expression or body language or hear the subtle changes in their voice,
it shapes your perceptions of the interaction differently,' Dr Tyagi said.
A session in front of the computer was also likely to create "an altered
perception, a dream-like state, an unnatural blending of their mind with the
other person - something that rarely happens in real life. The new generation
raised alongside internet is attaching an entirely different meaning to
friendship and relations, something we are largely failing to notice".
Dr Tyagi said there were significant benefits for the online social networking.
It provides an equalised status where wealth race and gender were less
meaningful; a loss of geographical boundaries which meant that opportunities to
access unrestricted peer support are abundant, which can be important in
maintaining good psychological health for many. He said: "No one is a
pariah on net, it works great in flattening the hierarchies of the real
world."
But Dr Tyagi warned that while many people today cannot remember a world without
the Internet, it may be "quite different for teens and children who cannot
imagine a world where you can't go online to talk and apply the same principles
to real-world interpersonal communications, mostly to a dysfunctional outcome.
It's vital that we face up to what is happening. The Internet will not go away
so these issues, which would inevitably grow in magnitude with time, need to be
addressed soon."
Royal College
of Psychiatrists
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