First, the positive impact of computer networks on the mental health of student netizens
(A) expanding the circle of interpersonal communication helps to establish good interpersonal relationships.
Psychologists generally believe that good interpersonal relationship is one of the standards of mental health. Relevant empirical research also shows that interpersonal relationship is closely related to individual mental health and contributes to individual mental health. A person who lacks friends and can't live in harmony with others must be mentally unsound. Scholars of different schools attach great importance to the position and function of interpersonal relationship, whether in the discussion of the causes of mental illness or in the research of psychotherapy techniques. Sullivan believes that mental illness includes the whole field of inappropriate interpersonal relationships, mainly because the interpersonal relationships of patients in childhood are destroyed, which leads to serious anxiety and schizophrenia. Among humanistic psychologists, the relationship between interpersonal relationship and mental health is regarded as the central issue of mental health and treatment research. They believe that an important feature of a self-actualizer is the ability to establish good interpersonal relationships with others. Scholars with cognitive psychology tendency mainly discuss the relationship between interpersonal relationship and mental health from the perspective of interpersonal problem solving.
Interpersonal indifference is an increasingly serious social disease in modern social life. People are lonely in the reinforced concrete forest, and they urgently need fast, convenient and free communication methods. Network communication expands people's communication space, improves the timeliness, convenience and accuracy of interpersonal communication, is conducive to the establishment and development of good interpersonal relationships, and has a positive impact on the psychological health of student netizens. Under the traditional way of communication, personal communication in real life is often confined to a narrow circle of life. People in the network society can cross Qian Shan, break through the limitation of geographical space, turn the whole earth into a small village, and truly realize "friends all over the world". It can make people stay at home and feel that they are friends for many years in a few seconds. There is no politeness, no temptation, no vigilance, no emotional and moral responsibility. At the same time, due to the anonymity of online interpersonal communication, there is generally no direct face-to-face contact between students, which makes it easier for online interpersonal communication to break through the limitations of traditional interpersonal factors such as age, gender, status, identity, beauty and ugliness, and establish more harmonious, democratic and equal interpersonal relationships.
Computer network not only improves the general social convenience and expands the social circle, but also solves some social problems with special difficulties and obstacles. For example, this year's SARS epidemic in Beijing, primary and secondary school students use the Internet to study, communicate and talk at home. Another example is a patient with severe facial burns, which may make many people unwilling or afraid to approach because of facial deformation; A person with mobility difficulties may be stuck in a corner and unable to let himself enter other people's life circles; Soldiers at border checkpoints may be unable to communicate with the outside world because of inconvenient transportation and duty ... Computer networks provide these special people with a new world of interpersonal communication.
In addition, computer network can also be used as a primary training tool in the process of systematic desensitization treatment for some patients with social phobia. Let them have direct face-to-face contact and communication with others through the computer network, build confidence in interpersonal communication, and then carry out realistic interpersonal training.
(2) It provides a good way for individuals to vent their bad emotions.
Modern psychotherapy theory attaches great importance to the role of catharsis in maintaining and treating mental health. One of the important tasks of psychological counselors and therapists is to provide vent and release channels for repressed psychological crux. However, due to the influence of traditional ideas and behavior habits, many people in China often have no courage or are not used to seeing a psychologist when they encounter various troubles and psychological problems, and are unwilling to talk to familiar people. This phenomenon of avoiding "heart disease" and the general mentality of "washing one's dirty linen in public" are obviously not conducive to the timely solution of individual psychological problems and to individual mental health. The anonymity of computer network provides a new channel for the timely release of bad emotions of student netizens and emotional help and psychological support among netizens.
(3) Popularize mental health knowledge and provide professional psychological assistance.
At present, the mental health websites on the Internet mainly include websites or homepages sponsored by the Department of Psychology of universities, websites or homepages of online psychological hospitals, websites or homepages of professional psychology founded by individuals, websites or homepages of psychology magazines and psychological columns of other websites. Among them, websites or homepages sponsored by psychology departments of domestic universities, such as psychology department of Beijing Normal University (u.edu.cn), etc. Websites or homepages of online psychological hospitals in China, such as Institute of Mental Health of Beijing Medical University (Sixth Hospital of Beijing Medical University, /shanghai/health/ psyche/, home page of Dr. Shu), mental health express, Ayao psychological counseling network \ bosom sister (), etc.
Although these special psychological websites or homepages have different emphases, they all consciously shoulder the responsibility of popularizing mental health knowledge and providing professional psychological assistance. Its main contents involve mental health knowledge, self-test of mental health status, psychological consultation and counseling in network mode, introduction of psychological hospitals and psychologists, medical appointments, and mental health research trends. Although due to many factors such as experience, manpower and funds, the content of these websites or homepages is not sufficient and the quality is uneven, they are widely favored by netizens because of their convenience and confidentiality, and have indeed played a positive role in psychological health counseling of netizens to some extent.
(4) Improving the self-confidence of student netizens and stimulating their imagination and creativity is conducive to improving the level of individual mental health.
The level of individual mental health varies greatly. Low-level mental health refers to the absence of symptoms of mental illness, while high-level mental health refers to the full play or "self-realization" of human potential. Therefore, even normal people should constantly improve their mental health. A good level of mental health often means the harmonious development of individual psychological quality. Online life helps to improve netizens' self-confidence, stimulate their imagination, curiosity and creativity, and constantly improve their mental health. The personal homepage of online electronic websites provides a new world for student netizens to display their talents. For example, the special issue of class characteristics designed by foreign trade students in our school using computer network has been well received by experts. Many student netizens deeply appreciate the fun brought by network creation. This kind of network creation has stimulated the interest and creativity of student netizens, exercised their abilities, improved the self-confidence of many students, and produced some good works of art and ideological achievements.
Second, the negative impact of computer networks on the mental health of student netizens
Because the network is in the rising period of rapid development, there are many immature and imperfect places, coupled with the relative lag of network management and network culture development, as well as the differences of individual psychological quality factors of netizens, the network will inevitably bring a series of negative effects on the psychological health of netizens, which should attract enough attention from all walks of life, especially the psychological circle.
(A) various psychological barriers caused by computer networks
1, Internet addiction
Internet addiction is strikingly similar to addictive behaviors such as smoking, drinking and even taking drugs: when you get online, you will be extremely excited, and when you can't get online, you will become "Internet addiction". Its typical symptoms are: indulging in the internet all day, even not eating, drinking or sleeping all night, which leads to physical decline, disorder of biological clock, difficulty in concentration, depression, vague thinking, dizziness, shaking hands, fatigue, loss of appetite and other adverse physiological and psychological reactions, and even "possessed" in severe cases, leading to physical exhaustion or mental abnormality. They spend most of the day online, no longer have any control over themselves, and show psychological signs of escapism. They are more and more willing to stay online and have problems with their families. There is a student in our school who started surfing the Internet in 2000, just to kill his leisure time on weekends. With more and more online time, "hacking", "pornographic pictures" and "online chatting" have gradually fascinated them, so they chat with netizens day and night and download all kinds of attack software and "interesting pictures". Unable to extricate themselves, grades decline, physical failure. Online consultation with psychologists revealed that this is a "network syndrome patient". Similar phenomena have been reported in other areas. Mental health experts call on netizens to pay attention to online mental health, and also remind family members and teachers to control teenagers' online time to avoid similar situations.
2. Interpersonal communication barriers
The interpersonal obstacles caused by computer network are mainly manifested in onlineness, interpersonal trust crisis and various communication conflicts. Onlineness is very similar to Internet addiction disorder, except that the former shows more physical and cognitive obstacles, while the latter focuses on interpersonal communication obstacles. Internet addiction disorder is bound to be accompanied by interpersonal communication disorder in different degrees, while onlineness patients may not necessarily show obvious physical disorder. Onlineness mostly happens to introverts, and its typical symptoms are: indulging in the Internet, divorced from reality, reticent, depressed, narrow in social contact and indifferent in interpersonal relationship. Because individuals focus their attention and personal interests on the internet, it is not only bad for their own psychology, but also leads to a decline in academic performance and even affects graduation.
The interpersonal trust crisis that is prevalent in online interpersonal communication may also affect the realistic interpersonal attitude of student netizens and cause interpersonal communication obstacles. Online communication with anonymity or pseudonyms in virtual communities such as chat rooms can neither standardize the authenticity of people's speeches, nor openly admit or acquiesce in the false speeches of communicators. A man with five big and three thick can play an angel of love with a sweet and touching feminine nickname. As a teacher said, "Online communication can only be regarded as a game. The' pure girl' who loves you online may be a bald old man in real life. " This illusory feature of network interpersonal communication makes many students participate in network communication with a game-like mentality. Not only do they lie without changing color, but they also have no trust in other people's words and deeds. This online interpersonal trust crisis may migrate to his real interpersonal communication, leading to sincere doubts about others and his lack of sincerity in real interpersonal communication, thus affecting the establishment and development of good interpersonal relations with others.
3. Sick personality
Internet interpersonal communication may also induce various personality disorders, such as aggressive personality disorder, dual personality or multiple personality.
Internet interpersonal communication is anonymous. Because student netizens think they don't have to take any responsibility for their words and deeds, their words are often very direct and frank. When a person's behavior habits are formed, they may be transformed into personal personality traits. The aggressive words and deeds developed by students in the practice of online life may strengthen the aggressive factors in their personality traits and form an aggressive personality.
Double or multiple personality refers to two or more personalities embodied in a person, appearing alternately in different times and places. Because pseudonyms are widely used in virtual communities and chat rooms, student netizens often have their own virtual identities. Some students often play virtual roles that are quite different from their actual identities and personality characteristics in online communication, and some students also have multiple screen names representing different identities and personality characteristics. It is also common to pretend to be a woman or a woman. A male student aged 17 publicly admitted in a TV interview that he had lived in a virtual community for nearly three years as a girl aged 18 and made many friends. Finally, he said with regret that he could not use this screen name in the future. In this case, many students often face multiple role differences and role conflicts online and offline. When the conflicts between multiple roles reach a certain level or the roles change too frequently, there will be a psychological crisis, leading to double or multiple personality disorders.
(B) triggered a series of emotional entanglements, leading to various emotional problems.
Students' online love, lovelorn love and polygamous love are all emotional problems that are easy to appear in online life. The hottest topic on the Internet is online dating, and there are a lot of online dating stories in life. The computer network is busy performing thousands of love comedies all the time, and at the same time, it is painfully reciting countless lovelorn stories and sighs. More commonly, when one party's love fire is ignited, the igniter suddenly disappears from the network without a trace. In addition, "seeing the light die" is also the old ending of many online love stories. The network has greatly improved the chances and frequency of love, and also greatly improved the chances and frequency of lovelorn. Middle school students are in the bud of adolescence, and lovelorn is not an easy and happy thing for them. Just as online dating can make people taste the sweetness of real love, lovelorn after online dating is as sleepless as real lovelorn.
Security anxiety
Internet interpersonal communication often gives people a false sense of security. Students think it is safest to stay in the bedroom with the door closed and sit in front of their beloved computers. It is impossible to be found, peeped at or violated here. This self-righteous sense of security makes them give up their minimum vigilance and gives cyber crimes an opportunity. In fact, this seemingly safe place hides too many unsafe factors. Not only can e-mail be easily stolen at any time, but all the information on the computer can be browsed or destroyed. A recent Internet voyeurism case in the United States is a typical example. Amy, a 20-year-old American girl, has been peeping on the Internet for years. Criminals even set up a website in her name and posted a story about Amy's death on the website. But none of this aroused people's vigilance until finally the criminal ran into Amy's car and shot Amy several times in the head. Some people with ulterior motives also take advantage of the trust of good people, use online communication to find and approach targets, and then commit fraud and violent crimes in their lives. In addition, this false sense of security also makes cybercrime more rampant. Some cyber criminals or lawbreakers are crazy to carry out their criminal plans out of the luck of not being discovered.
With the increase of cybercrime cases, security anxiety has become a lingering shadow of netizens. People are always worried that their computers will be visited by cyber hackers, that their personal privacy will be peeped into, that the virus behind e-mail, and that "familiar strangers" will come to their doors from the Internet. An endless stream of network viruses, hackers and other crimes-CIH virus, happy virus, Melissa virus, macro virus, Y2K bug, love bug, mafia teenager and recent shock wave. , make people overwhelmed and exhausted, and bring huge economic losses and mental trauma to society, organizations and individuals. Many parents are worried about their children's safety and mental health. According to the China Youth Daily, Yuan Mou, a girl from Wuhan 4 1 Middle School, went out to meet netizens without telling her parents, and her whereabouts are still unknown. Mei Zi, a female middle school student in Wuhan, was tricked into her residence by netizens. Plum attempted suicide after being raped, and the criminal was arrested and brought to justice. Gao, a vocational high school student in Guangzhou, was forced to use counterfeit money to engage in criminal activities after being known by netizens. When he refused, he was beaten black and blue and abandoned in the wilderness. Fortunately, the police found that he had saved his life. According to the Beijing news of Zhongxin. com. Com, the latest survey shows that nearly 30% of middle school students in Singapore have visited pornographic websites, and 3% of them are "frequent visitors". They spend more time browsing such websites than adults, but many parents don't know anything about it. The domestic situation is also not optimistic. The computer network, which is widely relied on by people, seems to be as scary and at a loss as Pandora's box overnight.
The negative influence of computer network on the psychological health of student netizens inspires us that we should correctly understand and treat the network, develop the good habit of using the "brain" and surfing the Internet, learn to distinguish the boundary between the network (real and virtual coexistence) and real life, establish and improve the network norms, strengthen the network legislation, and pay special attention to the publicity and education of the network on the psychological health of student netizens.