Digital Diseases

The book tackles the abovementioned diseases, which the ones who live the digital representation of the reality, but not the reality itself have got. They are including, but not limited to the following: “cybersickness” resulted from exposure to the VEs, “digital ecstasy” for the ones who have isolated themselves from the real life and lost themselves in cyber spaces and fantasies, “digital addiction” for the ones having crossed the thin line between connectedness and addiction, “digital game addiction” that is significantly dangerous especially for our children, “binge watching” that reminds us of the famous Turkish poet Tevrik Fikret’s well-known saying, which is “Eat, gentlemen eat; eat till you feel replete; eat till it makes you gag!” even though it was said for a different context; “ego surfing” which can be interpreted as the narcissism in the digital era, “digital cynicism” which makes us say that “Could some awkward people possibly be the modern representations of Diogenes?”, and the effects of frame rate change on the user experience in VR… In this wide spectrum, both literature reviews and original studies regarding the diseases of the digital era are included in this book.

Ayten Övür, in her chapter entitled “Digital Ecstasy as Escapist Fantasy Field in the Age of Technology”, illuminates the digital ecstasy experienced by the human communities that have lost their interest and perception for the outside world, that have isolated themselves from the real life like sleepwalkers, and as a result, have dived into virtual lives and fantasies. Digital ecstasy refers to the condition of being ecstatic and numbed under the effects of simulations and fantasies emerged by developed technologies. Even though the reasons of digital ecstasy might show similarities with the effects of alcohol, drunkenness caused by alcohol gives one a sort of relieving feeling that might make one forget some desires. However, in digital ecstasy, forgetting of those desires cannot be mentioned; on the contrary, materializing them even virtually and achieving satisfaction is important. Ayten Övür, from the perspective of uses and gratifications approach, examines our relationship with social media that was initially used as a leisure time activity and to erase our boredom, but has gradually turned into a sort of duty that requires us to study hard and to overexert for it.

Didem Ataman Yengin, in her chapter entitled “Digital Game Addiction”, notes digital game addiction as a danger threatening our future, i.e., our children. Parents who cannot take their children to open-air and lead them to play outside because of the insufficient playgrounds as a result of unplanned urbanization, and because of increasing security issues reluctantly and desperately let their children spend time and play games online. However, those games are not innocent. Most parents state that their children cheer up during playtime; feel sad and start to cry when they lose the game; experience cramps out of excitement and adrenalin in their bodies; adopt highly serious manners, and “pretend” isolating themselves from the world outside during playtime. The most significant sociological problem is that children do not go out, talk to anyone, and engage in any communication even with their relatives living in the same house because they get the illusion that they have already been socialized in cyberspaces; also it harms the notion of family which is the cornerstone of society. One of the most significant psychological problems is that children who stick themselves on computer monitors in a room gradually become isolated, alienated, and adopt an excessive ambition and violence tendency, and demonstrate emotional insufficiencies, as well as the sense of incapability in parallel with the loss of success in real life. In this study, Didem Ataman Yengin assesses digital game addiction in the light of the responses to the questions addressed to 350 students consisting of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades in some primary schools in Istanbul who play a game called ROBLOX and 245 family members.

Özge Topçu, in her chapter called “Online Narcissism”, tackles ego surfing. As known, one of the terms that have become popular together with the proliferation of the internet use is the internet surfing. However, now that what is being searched on the internet has become the individual himself or herself, another problem called ego surfing comes into existence. Ego surfing is described as the behavior in which some of the people who are fond of technology constantly search for their own names on the internet and follow the updates regarding their lives, feel happy when they find any information or like for them, but discomfort otherwise. This study concentrates on the definition of online narcissism, how it has emerged, and how it can be dealt with. With a survey of 20 questions, it has been aimed to determine the users’ internet addiction, their perception for the extent to which they are narcissist, and how often they search for their names.

Hakan Tan, in his chapter entitled “Digital Cynicism”, questions whether cynicism is also observed in digital space or not, based on behaviors and discourses of the individuals (actors) on some social media platforms they deal with. Does digital cynicism exist? Is digital cynicism a disorder that needs to be treated? What is normal, and what is abnormal? Is cynicism a dangerous philosophy for the society, or is it possible for it to have a positive function of stimulus for the society? Tan, in his study embracing these critical questions with nuances, discusses whether cynically fundamental behaviors and discourses are observed on some social media samples or not. Tan questions whether cynicism, a highly special term in terms of its philosophical history, is experienced as digital cynicism today. In this study, some samples that display cynical behaviors without possibly not acting with the awareness of cynicism, i.e., unconsciously display them are interpreted.