You can tell a lot about a person through observation. How they dress, how they behave in public, how they talk, how they move…and apparently, how they surf. Well, sort of. According to a study which will be published in an upcoming issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, one’s browsing habits on the web are largely indicative of one’s mental state- and can even be used to diagnose depression.
Apparently, depressive individuals browse differently than people who aren’t down in the dumps. At least, given what we know thus far. Participants in the study who displayed symptoms of depression compulsively checked emails and social networks(indicating higher anxiety, perhaps) and spent much more time sharing and consuming media. They spent more time talking and gaming, as well- essentially, more time distracting themselves than others might. They also rapidly switched between applications (signalling a breakdown in concentration fairly typical of depressed individuals) The more depressed the individual, the more time they spend doing all of the above.
The question that’s yet to be answered though, is how their internet usage correlates with their mood. Does the ‘net alleviate their symptoms? Does it worsen them?
We’re not quite sure, at this point. We simply don’t have enough information to reach a decisive conclusion, one way or the other. We know excessive Internet use, which signifies Internet addiction, most definitely both springs from and causes depressive symptoms. We know we’re a lot more easily distracted these days than we used to be, due to the engaging nature of modern consumer technology. We know that there’s a lot more social isolation than there used to be, as well- there are some people who go for months at a time without seeing another living, breathing human being.
The researchers who designed this study hope that their findings will assist in the development of an application designed to help users track their usage patterns and those of their children, alerting them if anything particularly alarming crops up. It’s a good first step- and perhaps one that can eventually help us better understand how our minds interact with the complex technological web we’ve constructed.
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