Today almost everyone has a mobile device. Even kids today that are too young for a cellphone have multiple electronic devices on them. While we in our childhood used to play in the dirt, kids these days are stressed out about not getting enough likes on their new profile picture. The cell phones have entirely changed our lifestyle, but there has been a cost for it; it came at the cost of our health.
Here are some important reasons as to how cell phones are damaging our health and well-being.
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- It's addictive
Like any other addiction, smartphone addiction can have negative impacts on our health. it increases a person’s dependency and its withdrawal often becomes painful. According to a study, students were found to spend 10 hours on their cell phones for surfing, chatting, and spend less time with their friends and family which is considered as healthy social interaction.
- Mental Distraction
Cellphones can be a big distraction when you’re up to doing something important and substantial. We may feel the need to check our messages and emails several times during an hour or to see what notifications we have got on social media. Use of cell phones has been linked to release of dopamine and serotonin in the brain which gives us a feeling or satisfaction and happiness. This makes us distracted and makes it difficult for us to be attentive and focus on the important tasks at hand. This condition now has a name, nomophobia, a condition in which a person fears the absence of mobile device in their life.
- Hurts you back
Getting deeply involved in our cellphones requires us to constantly look down and hunch over. This position is extremely unhealthy for our spinal disk as it puts a lot of pressure on our back. The long-term effects of it can be dangerous, while people experience back pain due to it as a short-term impact. The pressure we put on our back in this position is equivalent to carrying a child on your back all the time.
It’s also found to create a condition called Text Neck Syndrome, named after the cause itself. You can develop pain in your neck, back, shoulders by looking down for longer periods. Exercising, using your phone less, stretching, arching our back and doing Yoga can help. Pinching your phone between your neck and shoulder is also a position we take while multi-tasking. This position is unhealthy and can hurt your neck.
- Damages nervous system
A serious condition due to damage to the nervous system can be caused due to cellphones. Compression or inflammation develops in the nerves of our spinal cord which causes a condition called Occipital Neuralgia, which creates symptoms such as a headache and twitching. The damage to the nerves may be as serious as an injury on the head.
- It’s Dirty
A study found out that there are more germs on our cellphones than there are inside a toilet seat. Sounds filthy, right? We tend to carry our cell phones everywhere. While we bathe daily and wash our hands several times a day, how many times we do bathe our cellphones? We don’t because it’s going to be the last time we use them (unless you’ve gone totally waterproof). It’s a simple evidence to why it’s dirtier than our toilet seats which we wash almost every day. Obviously, that amount of bacteria on your cellphone that you keep in your hand can be a good reason for us to get sick.
- While Driving or walking
Hopefully, there is no explanation required for you to understand how texting while driving can damage your health, except in case you send an unintended text to your wife while driving. Then you might also feel a need to see a doctor. Also, looking down into your cell phone while walking might as well make you walk your way to heaven.
- Night Surfing
Mobile phone screens emit blue light. Surfing in blue can be a health risk in both cases i.e. at the beach, or on your bed while trying to sleep at night. Too much exposure to light after the sun goes down can disrupt your sleep and trick your brain into staying awake due to the sensation of daytime. This can be linked to health problems such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and diabetes.
- ThumbieNumbie
Too much use of cellphone can cause a condition of your thumb known as thumb arthritis. As the name suggests this condition is painful and makes the surrounding tissues more tender. Too much texting and holding on to your phone can cause this condition. Trigger thumb is another condition which can develop due to this, in which the thumb gets stuck in a bent position.
- Cubital Tunnel
Ulnar nerves can be damaged by this condition. It’s a syndrome that develops when you lean on to your elbow to listen to a phone call or keeps your elbow on a hard surface.
- Interfere medical devices
Make sure to not use too much cellphone close to any patient having a pacemaker or any other device implanted such as defibrillators.
- Damages you Eye
It’s been a longstanding debate on whether watching too much TV or staring at your smartphone can damage your eyes. In fact, the light being emitted from it can damage your eye tissues, your cornea, and cause pain.
- Depression and Anxiety
Due to information overload, comparing your life with other people on social media, and doing less physical activities can make a person depressed and live a virtual fantasy instead of going on in the real world and live life. This also leads to decreased social interaction and reduced exercise as people may spend more time playing their favorite game on the cell phone instead of opting for a sport. All these factors add up to cause anxiety and depression. Researchers found that people who spend more time on their cell phones are more likely to be depressed. A pile of new tasks associated with cellphones can also make a person suffer increased stress, such as taking calls, looking every time at every notification, message or ad email, and instant chatting.
- Inactivity and Fitness
Due to inactivity and sedentary style of cellphone use, people are more likely to gain weight and become obese. Their body’s capacity to endure tough conditions also reduces, as human bodies are designed in a way that they’re not meant to be sitting all day long.
- Social Health
Cellphones make us disrupt our social health, which is also very essential for physical and emotional health. We start paying less attention to people who are trying to talk to us. A device that’s meant to connect people is actually making people socially more isolated and disconnected. Instead of living in the present reality and socialize with people, we indulge ourselves in the virtual fantasy profile we’ve created for ourselves inside these handheld computers. We are slowly forgetting what it means to have a substantial, deep, and meaningful conversation. Instead, we’re down to just small talks, pleasantries, and talk in chat abbreviations.
- Radiation
Cellphones use electromagnetic micro radiowaves, whose effects on our health are rather controversial and not well-found. However, it’s getting clearer that it potentially has a lot of health issues. It’s generally told not to keep our cell phones next to our head while sleeping as the radiations can harm our nervous system. Doctors advise to not keep our cell phones on the front pocket as it’s too close to heart. They also advise not to keep it in your pants’ pocket as it’s too close to the pelvic region and can cause reproductive issues. I wonder where on earth we should keep them to have our cell phones on us? The Wi-Fi signals are also found to be harmful to reproductive organs.
Conclusion
Despite the indispensable use of cell phones in today’s world, there are many harms of carelessly using our mobile devices that can damage our health and well-being. To keep ourselves healthy and happy, treat your cellphones like a non-living instead of treating it better than a living human being that’s right in front of you. Forming a relationship with humans and animals can be as healthy as forming it with a mobile device is unhealthy.