Ever-present threats from information technology: the Cyber-Paranoia and Fear Scale

Factor analysis suggested the presence of two inter-correlated factors that we have termed cyber-fear and cyber-paranoia. In contrast to trait paranoia, cyber-fear/paranoia tended to increase with age and decrease with knowledge/use of technology. The distinctiveness of these fears and paranoias from general trait paranoia appears to mirror the clinical distinctiveness of ‘internet’ and other technology-fuelled delusions. Knowledge provision to increase technological proficiency and awareness may bring about a reduction in cyber-fear/paranoia. However, while lack of familiarity and knowledge predict content to delusional ideation, other predictors of paranoia may well not apply, at least in the same way, to information technology. These include the presence of hallucinatory experiences, perceptual anomalies, reasoning biases (need for closure, jumping to conclusions), and emotional processes (anxiety, depression, self-focus, interpersonal sensitivity).

In their study, 75 percent of the people surveyed had at least once interpreted the ranking of web search results as indicating the likelihood of a disease. Benign muscle twitches quickly become Lou Gehrig’s disease and the person’s anxiety escalates as quickly as the search engine spits out new results. A better understanding of medical anxiety caused by the Internet, should lead to better search engines. The Microsoft study concluded that, “Beyond the potential problems with the quality of medical content … we believe that Cyberchondria is based more centrally on intrinsic problems with the implicit use of Web search as a diagnostic engine.” The focus is now on more serious conditions and the person has been diverted from the much more common and probable diagnosis of migraine.

What we are not advancing is that cyber-paranoia has necessarily a wholly different etiology or psychology to trait paranoia, rather that the phenomenon may be sufficiently different in content and form to warrant specific measurement and thus further study. By way of background we outline some thoughts on the parasocial nature of cyberspace; some clinical observations concerning fears of technology, and computers in particular; followed by a discussion of paranoia in the general population. We present a new measure of cyber-fear/paranoia for general population use, which appears to be somewhat distinct from general trait paranoia.

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What they found was that search engines, unlike physicians, do not understand “diagnostic reasoning” and therefore do not discriminate between common benign disorders and less common serious problems. To avoid coming into contact with a computer, people with severe cyberphobia may stop going to work or school. They may choose to stay home where they can control their exposure to computers. Damaged relationships, financial problems, isolation and depression can result from this disorder. This concern can lead to feelings of vulnerability and anxiety about protecting their privacy and security. They might worry about getting “hacked” or having a computer steal their financial information.

• Blackhat, like its 1995 brethren, was a huge flop early in 2015 (even fewer people saw it than saw Hackers in its initial release).
• Pathological forms reflect exaggerated perceptual biases and judgmental predispositions that can arise and perpetuate them, are reflexively caused errors similar to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Lately, the IEET and Rinesi have focused on the ongoing Volkswagen emissions scandal.
• The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that 80 percent of all American Internet users, or 113 million people, searched for health-related information in a single year.
• But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to worry about, Irwin cautions.
• It’s a conceivable situation, for both smartphones and cars if, say, Mercedes begins supplying Ford with adaptive cruise control software that’s less fuel-efficient in a Focus than it is in an S-Class.

Matthews dubbed his own Influence Machine the “air loom.” The gas-powered instrument was a device that, according to Matthews, communicated with a magnet planted inside his brain. It would allow French agents to see into his thoughts and control him from internet paranoia afar using radio waves and other then-mystical technology. But for the most part, the hackers in Hackers—a band of them led by tech geeks with handles like Crash Override (Jonny Lee Miller) and Acid Burn (Angelina Jolie)—are seen as mostly harmless.

Therapy can help people with this disorder manage symptoms and learn to accept and use this technology. These individuals typically have a biased perception of reality, often exhibiting more hostile beliefs than average.[4] A paranoid person may view someone else’s accidental behavior as though it is intentional or signifies a threat. The Microsoft study confirmed that searching can lead to an escalation of symptoms and become a transformation of benign symptoms into concerns about more serious illnesses.

Paranoia

If your anxiety isn’t linked to anything obvious and it never seems to get better or go away, you may need to talk to a doctor about it. Feelings of anxiety and panic that last a long time or get in the way of your daily life might be signs of an anxiety disorder. Some call this paranoid, but we all have thoughts like this from time to time. Just because you’re worried that people might be talking about you doesn’t mean you have a mental illness. Clinical paranoia happens when you’re 100% convinced of it, even when facts prove that it isn’t true. Computers, smartphones and the internet are a major part of modern life.

What is the prognosis (outlook) for people who have cyberphobia?

The current crop of conspiratorial thinkers have a much easier time of it, whether to assert that child actors faked the Newtown school shooting or that vaccines cause autism. As distinctions between sources of information have been flattened online, we as a society no longer effectively judge and marginalize fringe ideas. In the past, LaRouche supporters may as well have had signs around their neck saying “Wacko.” They were to be dodged, put in corners, denied access to the papers everyone read and the events sponsored by respected organizations. Just last week, for example, Russia’s internet censor said that YouTube was a tool of Western information warfare against Russia. And so the fact that the state is getting more escalatory in its language also suggests that these tech actions are angering the Kremlin and that there may be more and more crackdowns than we’ve ever seen in the coming months. To start with, it’s important to eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise, and get plenty of sleep.

In addition to the common persecutory type of paranoid reaction, a number of others have been described, most notably paranoid grandiosity, or delusions of grandeur (also known as megalomania), characterized by the false belief that one is a superlative person. We’ll save money, the theory goes, because efficiency and optimization will be automated. We’ll save resources because our infrastructure will be algorithmically driven. We may even find ourselves healthier, as more data is collected and funneled into the health care system to inform technologies designed to detect or prevent illnesses.

That auto software would help lie to regulators, and hide itself from car owners, is a revelation so enormous — its betrayal of customers so profound — that it threatens to bring down the largest automaker in the world. “It’s tragic, but it’s also very funny because it’s basically Google and Wi-Fi,” Rinesi says. “For him, it was a paranoid delusion. But he was describing what, for us, is daily life.” Technology companies don’t need to pry into our brains to exploit us, Rinesi says; they have built windows into them, and those windows are open all the time.

Cultural definitions for paranoia

Rinesi says the challenge for our legal framework is that it’s based on a mechanical world, “not one in which objects get their software updated with new lies every time regulatory bodies come up with a new test.” It’d be easy to think that, in the past 20 years, filmmakers would have solved the problem of tackling the internet on screen, but they’re still struggling. Status bars still stand in as tension-mounting devices (as in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which had an eye-roll-inducing race between a status bar and a plane crash).

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Laymen and even physicians will ignore the “base rate” or low probability of a rare disorder and may immediately assume that their symptoms are due to a serious condition, ignoring the very low probability. The large amount of information on the Internet about serious and rare illnesses can make that information readily available to laymen to interpret without the benefit of medical advice. Bogost says there may be a movement afoot among governments to reclaim regulatory power. It’s seen in Europe’s push back against Google in both antitrust and privacy matters and bolstered by efforts in the US to reel in potential labor abuses in the sharing economy.

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is a phrase referencing a future where every object, from cars and buildings to toasters and thermostats, communicate to help us live better lives. Describing the path of technological progress, Marcelo Rinesi likes to point out an early 19th century drawing by a paranoid schizophrenic Welsh man named James Tilly Matthews. The sketch, reproduced in a book called Illustrations of Madness, is considered to be one of the first published pictures by a mental patient. Bound together by the internet, however, TIs can find books, articles, and testimony that reassure them that their suspicions are well placed. Unlike other troubling mental conditions, like anorexia or having suicidal thoughts, there is little material online telling TIs that they need help. In part that is because there hasn’t been much research on the topic, but also because it is hard to imagine a thriving industry of articles and interviews asserting that the world isn’t out to get you.

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At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone. Carlos decided to take a short break from his work and he entered “headaches” into his computer’s search engine. In less than a second it found over 34 million hits, providing him with more information than he could ever read, so he decided to open a few of the more familiar-looking sites. As a systems engineer he lived a life of details and constant interruptions, but this new project seemed to be pushing him to the edge of his patience. The headaches started a few weeks earlier and were affecting his ability to concentrate on his work.

Even being in the same room with a computer or smartphone can cause distress. The idea of learning to use a computer may seem too complex, which can cause anxiety. Someone with computer phobia has an intense fear of using a computer or being around computers. They may avoid going places (like an office or school) where computers might be.