The Effects Of Internet Chatting On Your Emotional Well-Being
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Could internet chatting be bad for you? While some may feel that concerns about online safety are overblown, there are reasons to think that some kinds of online interactions could be detrimental to your mental health. In certain cases, they may even pose a physical safety risk.
Many of the problems with internet chat platforms come from deliberately malicious and hurtful users. Learning to disengage from unhealthy interactions can be a major help. It’s also often a good idea to limit your usage and make sure you’re emotionally anchored in the offline world. See below for some insights into the risks of communicating online and how to mitigate them.
Understanding the problems with internet chat
Talking online often feels very safe compared to face-to-face interactions. After all, you’re (usually) far away from the people with whom you’re chatting, often sitting in the comfort of your own home. Yet there’s some evidence that it can still pose a problem:
- An experiment on University of Pennsylvania undergraduates found that greater social media use led to increased feelings of isolation and depression.
- A 2018 survey of more than 29,000 adolescents found that higher internet usage was correlated with higher stress, sadness, and suicidal thinking, as well as worse self-reported health.
- Researchers in the United Kingdom reported that heavy users of social media had worse sleep patterns.
- A survey of European youth internet users found that close to half of them had been cyberbullied.
Though much of the research into online risks has focused on the dangers to children and adolescents, adults can experience negative effects too. A 2021 literature review concluded that many adult victims of online harassment or stalking suffered negative mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and thoughts of suicide.
Why the online environment can be detrimental
A big part of the reason that chatting online can pose risks is that people often feel free to engage in worse behavior over the internet than they would in everyday life. Some may deliberately set out to spread misinformation or cause shock and distress, sometimes for no reason other than amusement. This is often labeled “trolling”, but that term may be misleading, conveying a sense of annoying but harmless online pranks. In reality, some internet “trolls” go much further, engaging in behavior that crosses the line into harassment or abuse.
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Psychological research has identified a phenomenon known as the “online disinhibition effect” which makes people less inclined to hold back on negative behavior when they’re interacting through the web. According to the linked research paper, there are six factors that make people feel fewer qualms about hurting others online:
Hidden identity
People on the internet may feel like their actions aren’t linked to their personal identities. The people they’re talking with don’t know who they are, creating a sense that nothing they do can be personally connected to them.
Invisibility
In online conversations, neither party can perceive facial expressions, body language, or tone of voice. Disruptive people can’t see the effects their words have on other people or pick up non-verbal cues about how others feel about them.
Asynchronicity
There’s often a delay between action and reaction on the internet, which may make it easier for people to ignore or downplay the impact of their hurtful comments on others.
Solipsistic introjection
People tend to have very limited information about their conversation partners online, which can lead them to project ideas and images from their own minds onto the other person. In a sense, they’re addressing their words to a partly imaginary character.
Dissociative imagination
The factors described above can cause people to feel like what happens on the internet isn’t part of “real life” — and therefore, the harmful things they do and say don’t matter.
Minimization of authority
The decentralized, unregulated nature of the internet can cause people to feel like no one is “in charge”, removing or reducing the fear of disapproval.
Predatory behavior online
Thoughtless or cruel words can be harmful to your mental health, but they aren’t the only dangers to be aware of when chatting online. Some people may use the secrecy of the internet and the ability to contact strangers to enable criminal behavior.
For example, some sexual predators may contact minors through online chats, aiming to convince them to give nude images or meet in person. Others may use internet conversations as an opportunity to harass or blackmail others for sexual purposes.
Online chats can also be used to facilitate identity theft. Criminals may act friendly to gain a victim’s trust and trick them into telling compromising information. Other types of cybercrime may rely on getting people to download malware from people they meet in an internet chat room.
Some internet users may also develop unhealthy fixations on people they meet online. Sometimes, this can escalate into real-world stalking or violence. If a person you’re talking with over the internet is able to learn your real identity and location, it’s possible they could pose a threat to your physical safety.
How to reduce the dangers of online chat
Being aware of the potential negative effects of internet interactions can be an important part of avoiding them. Here are some specific strategies you can use to keep your mental health, digital safety, and personal well-being when using online chat services.
Limit daily usage
The internet can take a toll on your mental health by taking up huge portions of your time and attention. In addition to the direct impacts of overuse, such as staying up too late scrolling, excessive internet use may lead to feelings of isolation, stress, depression, and anxiety. Some researchers studying the negative impacts of social media have suggested that limiting usage to 30 minutes per day may be beneficial. It might be a good idea to expand this to an overall daily limit on internet communication — you could try restricting yourself to no more than an hour online every day.
Don’t feed the trolls
Some of the most hurtful messages online may come from people deliberately attempting to provoke negative reactions as a form of entertainment. While it may be tempting to criticize or reprimand someone for their negative remarks, the attention may only encourage them and prompt an even more antagonistic reply. This is the meaning behind the common online advice not to “feed the trolls” — when an online interaction is making you upset, sometimes the best approach is to disengage and stop responding.
Seek out supportive environments
Many people spend time on the internet out of a desire to connect with others, only to find that negative interactions only increase their loneliness. If that sounds familiar, you might want to look for reputable online support groups instead of unmoderated chat rooms and forums. One good place to look might be the Mental Health America website. This nonprofit group offers a place where those living with mental health challenges can offer each other advice and encouragement.
Avoid revealing personal details
Giving information about yourself online can be a major risk factor in being victimized. If someone whom you only know through the internet asks you for personal details that might identify you, it’s often best to think long and hard about why they need that information. Remember that some online criminals are willing to spend months developing a relationship in order to gain a victim’s trust.
Keep your images nonpublic
The forwarding of revealing or explicit images of victims is a common tactic among online harassers. It’s often a good idea to avoid sending intimate photos of yourself to anyone online. Even if you know and trust the other person, can you trust that their devices won’t be hacked by someone else?
Prioritize offline relationships
The ease of connecting with people online can make it easy to slip into a pattern of conducting most of your social interaction through the internet. Unfortunately, this may also make you more susceptible to the negative consequences of unhealthy online interactions. You may want to budget time for in-person interactions with friends and loved ones, maintaining a strong emotional support network that’s not tied to your online activity. That way, you’ll still have people to talk with during the times when you have to step away from the computer.
Therapy can help with the mental health effects of online chats
If you’re concerned about the effect of your internet use on your well-being, it may be a good idea to get help from a trained therapist. Nowadays, it’s possible to participate in therapy through the internet, which may be helpful for those who find offline interactions difficult. Web-based therapy may also be easier to attend if you’re in a remote location or have transportation challenges. And online platforms can often provide a wider selection of potential therapists than local health services.
Online therapy has success rates similar to traditional, in-person psychiatric services. Studies comparing both methods have found that counseling conducted through the Internet can significantly improve mental health outcomes for clients. A substantial majority of those receiving online therapy reported that they were satisfied with the experience and felt comfortable telling information to their mental health care providers.
Takeaway
What are the limitations of online chat?
Online chat allows people to stay connected across great distances, but it does have some limitations. Unlike other forms of communication, like video chat, most online chats are text-based. It may not convey the same level of information or mimic a real-life conversation as well as other methods.
Different generations might approach chat differently. Younger people might include more emojis or acronyms in their communication than their older counterparts. Other users might consider common shorthand or slang rude; text-based chat sacrifices nonverbal cues and other nuances that might make it easier to avoid misunderstandings.
Verifying someone’s identity through chat is also harder, and it may be possible for a malicious person to fake their identity or misrepresent themselves to other chat users. Many chat rooms and websites facilitating social connections have basic rules that can help mitigate some of these limitations. However, it is still important to be aware of chat etiquette and the potential risks of online chatting.
How does Internet chat work?
Internet chat connects users through real-time text-based messaging. Early versions of text-based Internet communication, such as IRC networks, existed before the World Wide Web and were among the first ways to send messages online. The rise of America Online (AOL) in the 1990s spurred a new type of online chat, instant messaging, which further standardized and popularized Internet chat. AOL’s chat client, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), was the most popular standalone chat client for over a decade.
AIM, IRC, and other real-time text-based messaging systems helped contribute to modern social media and still inform how users interact today. Many social media sites have chat clients built into their websites, and businesses everywhere are turning to real-time Internet chat to serve customers better. Internet chat has the advantage of requiring few resources to complete successfully. In the early days of the internet, a real-time chat service was restricted to text simply because it took too long to send and receive anything more.
Small pieces of information, called “packets,” are sent from a user’s computer to a central server, relaying the packet to the target user’s computer. Sending large files or high-density information, like a picture or video, requires many packets, but a relatively large amount of text can fit into only one. This made text-based communication simple and meant expensive equipment was not required to send and receive messages, facilitating a social connection for many users.
What are the benefits of web chat?
Web chat allows people to quickly and easily connect online. Although other methods like video chatting or emailing have their own advantages, it is likely that web chat’s relative simplicity is its most significant benefit. Users can connect quickly, with low overhead and no need for advanced equipment like a webcam. Web chat also requires very little computing power, making chat available on both old and new devices.
Web chat is often preferred because people do not need to correct their appearance or engage in a conversation like they would during video or in-person communication. Chat eschews nonverbal cues and relies entirely on written text. While that can sometimes cause misunderstandings, it is often a much easier form of communication to engage in.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Internet chatting?
Some advantages of Internet chatting include a simple communication process, low technological overhead, and the ability to communicate more easily than in-person. Chat protocols are some of the oldest online communication methods, making it easily available on most devices. Similarly, chat requires no special equipment (like a webcam) and does not require a computer powerful enough to render video or webpages. Online chat also does away with nonverbal cues and other parts of interpersonal communication that are necessary when chatting in person.
Some disadvantages might include an increased chance of misunderstanding due to the text-only nature of online chat and the increased risk of scams, identity theft, and other inappropriate behavior. Communicating over chat removes tone of voice, body language, and other nonverbal cues, making communication easier in many cases but potentially leading to misunderstandings if a message is misinterpreted.
Online chat, especially group chat rooms, often afford a large degree of secrecy. Being unknown may be helpful in some cases, such as discussing sensitive topics, but being unknown may also increase the likelihood of malicious behavior. One of the best ways to avoid the adverse effects of malicious chat users is to avoid giving out any personal details that can be used to determine your identity or location. Keeping your information safe likely mitigates most of the risks associated with chatting over the internet.
Can we chat without the Internet?
Online chats require the Internet to complete. The closest thing to internet chatting that takes place offline is likely texting. Like online chats, texts sent over the cell network are real-time text-based communications. Online options can be a group or one-on-one chat, like texts sent through cell phones. Texting became popular over a decade after chatting online, and early chat features likely informed modern approaches to texting to enhance familiarity within the community.
What are the harmful effects of online chatting?
The greatest harmful effect of chatting online is likely the increased risk of cyberbullying and online harassment. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that 41% of adults in the United States had experienced some form of online harassment. Online harassment might include physical threats, stalking, offensive name-calling, purposeful embarrassment, and sexual harassment. Chatting online, especially in chat rooms where users tend to be unknown, can substantially increase a person's exposure to malicious actors or people willing to engage in harassment.
Cyberbullying is also a concern in chat rooms or organizational chat systems, like those used in many schools. Nearly 40% of adolescents report being victimized by cyberbullying at least once. Cyberbullying happens most often over social media, but it often includes the use of built-in chat functions that may not contain the appropriate resources to protect a vulnerable user.
Is Internet chat an example of real-time communication?
Internet chat is an example of real-time, text-based communication. Real-time means messages are sent and received with minimal delay, often less than a second. Text-based means that chats are typically restricted to text and emojis, although modern chat software often contains the ability to send photos, GIFs, or videos using normal internet protocols. It is also usually possible to save and search old chats.
How do you talk to people in an online chat?
Talking to others in an online chat is typically done in much the same way as in-person conversation. However, it is important to remember that the text-based nature of an online chat may make it easier to misinterpret communication from another person. The rise of emojis, slang, and conventions for communicating through chat have likely made it easier for users to understand one another, but misunderstandings still occur.
It is also important to speak to others respectfully and kindly, even if they don’t know who you are. Moderated chat rooms often have strict rules regarding how users can speak to one another and rarely hesitate to ban users who are malicious or disrespectful. Maintaining good etiquette when chatting online and reporting people who violate the rules of moderated chat sites is important.
Finally, when talking to people in an online chat, it is likely wise to never reveal any personal details that can be used to determine your identity or location. The secrecy of some online chats gives malicious actors a way to disguise their identity, making it more likely they will attempt to use your information against you. However, the risks of chatting online can likely be mitigated by simply refusing to provide any personal details to a chat room or chat partner.
Is it okay to chat with strangers?
It’s likely okay to chat with strangers as long as you maintain constant vigilance and stick to a few basic guidelines for safety. Be sure to consider the information you are communicating. Never give anything that can be used to determine your identity or location, such as your real name, address, or phone number. Similarly, neve give information that could be used to steal your identity, like your SSN or credit card numbers.
You should also deny any request to meet in person with a stranger until you have positively verified their identity. Those under the age of 18 should never arrange to meet with anyone they don’t know personally and should report requests to meet to the chat service provider.
How does online chatting affect reading skills?
Some evidence suggests that as the prevalence of online chats increases, reading skills and comprehension decrease. Researchers found a clear correlation between high utilization of internet chatting and a significant reduction in literacy. Evidence also suggests that internet chatting also lowers awareness about different reading strategies. However, the study's authors are careful to point out that their information looked at country-wide literacy rates and online chat usage, which may not directly apply at the individual level.
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