Mary Aiken – författare

A groundbreaking exploration of how cyberspace is changing the way we think, feel, and behave              Mary Aiken is the world’s leading expert in forensic cyberpsychology—a discipline that combines psychology, criminology, and technology to investigate the intersection where technology and human behavior meet. In this, her first book, Aiken has created a starting point for all future conversations about how the Internet is shaping development and behavior, societal norms and values, children, safety, security, and our perception of the world. Cyberspace is an environment full of surveillance, but who is looking out for us? The Cyber Effect offers a fascinating and chilling look at a future we can still do something about.   Drawing on her own research and extensive experience with law enforcement, Mary Aiken covers a wide range of subjects from the impact of screens on the developing child to the explosion of teen sexting, and the acceleration of compulsive and addictive behaviors online (gaming, shopping, pornography). She examines the escalation of cyberchondria (anxiety produced by self-diagnosing online), cyberstalking, and organized cybercrime in the Deep Web. Aiken provides surprising statistics and incredible-but-true case studies of hidden trends that are shaping our culture and raising troubling questions about where the digital revolution is taking us.   The Cyber Effect will upend your assumptions about your online life and forever change the way you think about the technology you, your friends, and family use. Readers will gain a new understanding of the rapid change taking shape around us and come away with critical tools to become part of this very necessary conversation.Advance praise for The Cyber Effect“Just as Rachel Carson launched the modern environmental movement with her Silent Spring, Mary Aiken delivers a deeply disturbing, utterly penetrating, and urgently timed investigation into the perils of the largest unregulated social experiment of our time.”—Bob Woodward “Mary Aiken takes us on a fascinating, thought-provoking, and at times scary journey down the rabbit hole to witness how the Internet is changing the human psyche. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the temptations and tragedies of cyberspace.”—John R. Suler, PhD, author of The Psychology of Cyberspace“Drawing on a fascinating and mind-boggling range of research and knowledge, Mary Aiken has written a great, important book that terrifies then consoles by pointing a way forward so that our experience online might not outstrip our common sense. A must-read for this moment in time.”—Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the New York Times bestseller Freakonomics“Figuring out how to guide kids in a hyperconnected world is one of the biggest challenges for today’s parents. Mary Aiken clearly and calmly separates reality from myth. She clearly lays out the issues we really need to be concerned about and calmly instructs us on how to keep our kids safe and healthy in their digital lives.”—Peggy Orenstein, author of the New York Times bestseller Girls & Sex “Having worked with law enforcement groups from INTERPOL and Europol as well as the U.S. government, Aiken knows firsthand how today’s digital tools can be exploited by criminals lurking in the Internet’s Dark Net.”—NewsweekFrom the Hardcover edition.

Dr Mary Aiken is the world's leading expert in forensic cyberpsychology - a discipline that combines psychology, criminology and technology to investigate the intersection between technology and human behaviour. In this, her first book, Aiken has created a starting point for all future conversations about how the Internet is shaping our perception of the world, development and behaviour, societal norms and values, children, safety and security.Covering everything from the impact of screens on the developing child to the explosion of teen sexting, and the acceleration of compulsive and addictive online behaviours (gaming, shopping, pornography), The Cyber Effect also examines the escalation in cyberchondria (self-diagnosis online), cyberstalking and organized crime in the Deep Web. Cyberspace is an environment full of surveillance, but who is looking out for us? Full of surprising statistics and incredible-but-true case studies of the hidden trends that are shaping our culture, this book raises troubling questions about where the digital revolution is taking us.Upending your assumptions about your online life and forever changing the way you think about the technology that you, your friends and your family use, The Cyber Effect offers a fascinating and chilling look at a future we can still do something about.

Cyberchondria is characterized by a pattern of excessive health-based search behaviors that are likely to increase health anxiety or distress, heightened by ever-increasing access to and normalization of technology use and the internet specifically. The internet can be a source of valuable medical information and is an efficient vehicle for awareness-raising and dissemination; however, it can increase anxiety in audiences without medical knowledge or training and can pose a challenge to the traditional gatekeepers of medical knowledge and expertise. Technological advances are accelerating rapidly; however, concomitant to this acceleration, an epidemic of online mis- and dis-information that has the capacity to negatively impact general health, health literacy, and health behaviors globally now exists. The World Health Organization (WHO) has described this information overload as an infodemic. The Handbook of Research on Cyberchondria, Health Literacy, and the Role of Media in Society's Perception of Medical Information covers a wide range of topics from the characteristics and prevalence of cyberchondria to the pandemic policy response and cybersecurity issues relating to eHealth initiatives and pandemic-related surges in cybercrime. Therefore, this publication has transdisciplinary relevance to professionals from healthcare, government, law enforcement, academia, the technology sector, media, cybersecurity, and education. Graduate and undergraduate students may also find it to be a beneficial resource, not only in terms of the study of cyberchondria but also in terms of the psychological and sociological implications of global crisis events. One of the key messages of this book is as follows: All stakeholders must work together strategically to disseminate authentic public health messages during any global health crisis. They must work to reduce health-related anxiety mediated by technology and seek to improve critical thinking skills and global health literacy.