Hyderabad: Apps on Internet and on social networking sites, which claim to predict when and how one would die, is leaving some youngsters disturbed, according to psychologists.
Though most netizens do not take such predictions seriously, some sensitive users take it to heart and get depressed, said a psychologist.
Abid Hussain (name changed), said an app that he tried showed that he would die by 2026 in a road accident and even listed names of his Facebook friends who would attend his funeral. He laughed it off.
But Abhishek (name changed again), who was told by the app that he would die by 2017, became depressed and had to be referred for counselling.
“I was already disappointed with some personal issues, and this app added fuel to my existing problems,” said Abhishek, who says he is feeling better now.
“About 10 per cent of Internet users, who are sensitive to such predictions, take them very seriously. Irrespective of whether it is a prediction by an app or by astrologers, these people get depressed,” said clinical psychologist Venkat Subbaiah. A member of Jana Vignana Vedika, which campaigns for scientific thought and denounces superstitions, demanded that the people behind such cyber predictions be booked under cyber laws.
“Such apps may mentally disturb people. Not just such cyber predictions, people should stop believing traditional astrologers’ predictions too,” said Mr Ramesh.
Astrologers also said that predicting death is a wrong practice, “According to the Shastras, no one is allowed to predict death. Even if a person has knowledge of such a happening, he should never disclose it,” said numerologist-astrologer Jayashankar Sistla.
