I.A.D. – Internet Addiction Disorder
Blowing Up Our Minds In Cyberspace
John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true Mighty One, and Yeshua HaMashiach whom You have sent.”
Daniel 12:4, “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end (uh, that’s today, folks); many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
The other day, I texted my children to grab a copy of the July 16, 2012, Newsweek magazine, showing as its cover story, iCrazy Panic. Depression. Psychosis. How Connection Addiction is Rewiring our Brains. It is a must read for those of us living in the 21st century digital age. Personally, I don’t like soulish stuff, like psychology, psychiatry, etc. and I know a few psychologists and psychiatrists who will burn in hell for what they are doing to people today. BUT, many studies have been conducted about humans and their connections and interactions through machines, with other cyber folk. The results of these studies are as mind blowing as the addictions they describe. You really want to read the Newsweek cover story, by Tony Dokoupil, available here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/08/is-the-internet-making-us-crazy-what-the-new-research-says.html
His lead in story is about a real man by the name of Jason Russell, whose youtube video clocked 70 million views in less than a week. Do you think you could handle kudos or ridicule from 70 million viewers in less than a week? Jason ended up stripping naked and running to a busy intersection and slamming his hands on the concrete screaming at the devil. That was earlier this year. He was diagnosed with “reactive psychosis”. I guess he’s out of rehab now.
The article says that the average person sends or receives about 400 text messages a month, and the average teenager processes over 3,700 text messages per month!! Are you icrazy? Do you spend over 38 hours per week connected online, with one or more digital devices? Are you icrazy or what? If you multitask with more than one digital device, you have to double or triple or … those number of hours connected!! Are you icrazy?
Young couples are neglecting their real life children, even to death, while nurturing virtual babies online! Are you icrazy? Your avatars, your profiles, ARE NOT YOU!! Are you connected 24 hours per day? Are you inuts!?! Some studies include brain scans, showing actual gray matter shrinkage of 10-20 percent! And this shrinkage never stops, the more time online, the more shrinkage the brain experiences! We’re not just going psychotic, we’re actually losing our ability to think. Facebook depression. OCD, ADHD, I.A.D., Impulse Control Disorder!?! FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out. Suicidal thoughts. This obsession with being connected “encourages―and even promotes insanity.” Like we need any more help going icrazy!! People are dying from blood clots, because they are sitting too long while online!! Are you icrazy? Some are going so far as alter egos, split personalities, or D.I.D. Dissociative Identity Disorder. You don’t have to go that far, nor do you want to be dragged that far through an internet addiction.
Don’t allow your genuine self to evaporate in cyberspace. Unplug for a while and run to Yeshua. Talk to Him, walk with Him, jog with Him. He’ll listen. Ask Him and He’ll let you know what else you can do besides waste your life online! You might hear Him say something like Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (uh, that’s today, folks).” Amen.”
John 7:37b-38, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.””
Your soul and mine, your mind and mine, your psyche and mine, need REST!! Yeshua promises to give us that rest. Empty blather online will not. We cannot afford to lose our minds. Yeshua can and will keep your mind sane. But if you do lose your mind, use His, 1 Corinthians 2:16, “For “who has known the mind of Yahweh that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Messiah (Yeshua, Christ, Jesus).” Yeshua is the only truly sane person in the whole universe, we want and need His mind in us.
I’ve read the paper (really, I lie not) version of Tony’s article twice now. I still fight depression when reading it. I will never buy a smartphone. I hate my cell phone, why would I want a smartphone? I use the internet to try to reach a few disciples. I hope this helps you poor miserable addicted cyber people.
I’m going to unplug now and go for a walk out my back door, into the Colorado wilderness.
Be blessed in Yeshua,
Gene Benjamin II
July 13, 2012 CE
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