European University of Lefke (EUL) Computer Education and Instructional Technology Teaching Department Faculty Member Assist. Prof. Dr. Gökhan İskifoğlu provided briefings on ‘internet addiction’.

İskifoğlu: We can group technology addiction into social media addiction, game addiction and mobile phone addiction.

“Technology addiction, which is one of the important problems caused by the unconscious use of technology, is an important issue that needs to be addressed separately. However, when examining technology addiction, we can group it into social media addiction, game addiction and mobile phone addiction. Of course, we should know that the internet factor is included in each of these categories. ” İskifoğlu also stated that, for example, in social media addiction, the internet or technological device is the first option that comes to mind at leisure times.  İskifoğlu said, “In a person who is addicted to face-book, twitter, whats app, snap chat and similar applications and social media, these applications prevent real life, causing disruption of daily life and responsibilities, replacing real friendships with virtual friendships and followers. It causes uneasiness when it takes too much time but it cannot be reached. “If a person experiences these symptoms and feels uneasy that you cannot share anything through these applications, and if this unrest increases until they are reconnected, we can say that a person has developed a social media addiction.”

İskifoğlu; Types of addiction arise by using the internet in an uncontrolled, unlimited, aimless, long-term manner and disrupting responsibilities.

Saying that another type of technology addiction and one of the most common types is game addiction, İskifoğlu says that these symptoms are similar to social media addiction and if the person gradually increases his desire to spend more time at the beginning of the game, the person prefers to play rather than spend time with family or friends. , If the successes and advances in the games started to be more important than the real-life achievements, if there were discussions about distancing from the family and the time spent at the beginning of the game, if the academic success decreased, absenteeism problems, friendship relations deteriorated, and sleeplessness problems appeared. The game addiction can be mentioned.

Saying that the symptoms of mobile phone addiction are the same as the symptoms seen in social media and game addiction, İskifoğlu said, “It should be known that these types of addiction arise through the use of the internet in an uncontrolled, unlimited, aimless, long-term and disruptive responsibilities, and physical, social, psychological and mental in children and adolescents. This development gives negative impressive results. ” İskifoğlu stated that the most common problem in the negative consequences of the child is the disappearance of the child in the virtual world created by himself and breaking from social life, that such children are closed at home instead of interacting with their friends outside or at school, their aggression levels are increased, their deterioration in general health is observed (eye fatigue). pointed out that they show back and neck pain, insomnia, fatigue, immobility, etc.) and depressive symptoms. Stating that their negative effects are not limited to these, İskifoğlu stated that there is a significant decrease in children’s self-esteem and that the relationship with the environment is weakened and that there is a significant increase in social anxiety levels.

“I can feel that mothers and fathers are worried about their children in the face of all the explanations, but the important thing here is not to panic and focus on precautionary measures. The question to be asked here is how much time children should spend on technology. Scientific researches made some suggestions to support conscious use of technology related to the maximum time that children should spend at the beginning of technological devices on being tablet, television, internet and telephone. First of all, with your child, put rules on television, computer, tablet, etc. and their use and take care of the compliance of these rules and be a model that should be taken as an example. ” He pointed out that we, as adults, are responsible for what our children will watch, and that we need to control what our child watches and what programs to use. İskifoğlu “Families definitely need activities that they will spend with their children and are supported by physical activities other than television, computers, tablets and similar technological devices. These activities play a role in strengthening family ties and reversing all the negative effects mentioned above. To replace the game on the computer with sports, hobby and similar activities, to talk to them and choose the way of persuasion, to support their reduction gradually but decisively, not to leave your child on the screen for a long time and unsupervised, instead of giving them strict restrictions and penalties for spending time on the Internet, and “It is one of the precautions to take a time limit for the daily time on the screen”. Iskifoğlu, who says that it is possible to confront the child with the fact that life is full of more fun activities by showing that the child sees that social activity and how much they are engaged in that real social meeting, instead of inviting the child directly to a social activity, İskifoğlu said that the person to be careful about is natural and organized. He also believes in the effectiveness, on the other hand, we must protect our children and young people from the dangerous aspects of technology, so we must go to inform, raise awareness and explain.

İskifoğlu: The power of children, growing in the environment of love, tolerance, trust and face to face dialogue, significantly copes with the dangers of the century we live in.

Finally, İskifoğlu, especially telling people not to add people they do not know on social networks, to check who they are friends with at certain intervals, to talk to your child about their privacy settings on the internet and social networks, and to advise them not to share private information, phone numbers, identity numbers and private photos. We should choose to offer real-life experiences to our children who are at the stage of creating the first neurons and synaptic ties of adults, we should spend more time with them and love and trust should be exceeded, the face of children growing up in the environment of love, tolerance, trust and face-to-face dialogue. He added that the power to cope with the dangers of the year will increase significantly.