One of the most damaging habits we have in the modern world is a smart phone. It can seriously undermine your happiness and make you feel low and dull. It is very funny nowadays to go to a restaurant on a weekend and see people sitting in groups but totally glued up to their smartphones. Nobody is talking to anybody and I think most are not even noticing what they are eating. Seriously if you want be really happy, dump that smartphone NOW! And here are some of the reasons:
- Smartphones create Impatience, Anxiety & Depression
Smartphones are emerging as the number one reason for anxiety which eventually leads to depression. People who are continuously hooked to their phones expect constant updates and interaction from friends and feel impatient when these aren’t received. Minute by minute checking of phones develops agitative behaviour and soon people feel hugely frustrated when they don’t get a response in the form of message or call. This frustration soon becomes a habit leading to depression.
If you are thinking Wow I only play games so I am safe, you are in for bad news too. For every minute you’re playing Candy Crush or Farmville you’re missing out on a minute of exercise, of cooking healthy meals, of walking the dog and of real-life human interaction – all of which are important for good mental health.
A study from North Western University revealed that the more time people spend on their phones, the more likely they are to be depressed.
The average daily use for a depressed person was 68 minutes, compared to just 17 minutes for someone who has better mental health
2.Smartphone use ruins your Memory, makes it harder to remember anything.
Do you remember the last time you were able to remember a phone number instantly? I can bet it was very long ago. Now we store contacts in phone and if we lose the phone we are almost on the verge of losing all our friends and relatives because we can’t connect. I often come across people from whom I haven’t heard in months just cause their phone fell in the swimming pool and they lost my number. This kind of sole reliance on technology to remember things for us ruins the capacity of the brain to remember things— in fact we stop bothering to remember things by ourselves. I like to call it Digital Memory Loss!
3. Smartphone Use Weakens Your Inductive Reasoning
Today, it is incredibly convenient to just Google things we don’t know and get the answers in just a click. But this over-reliance on Google and on the internet to solve our problems and questions backfires on us.
Dr. Gordon Pennycook, a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Waterloo, expresses that our over-reliance on the internet has diluted our intelligence and ability to logically solve and determine correct answers on our own.
This is because we are truly dependent on what the Internet is giving us. Rather than reading about things and making conclusions analytically, we assume that the answers we garner from the internet are simply correct. This has also given rise to a term … “Webakoof” meaning “fooled by web” !
4. Smartphone use can cause Disruptive Sleeping Patterns
Keeping your eye on the screen can make it difficult to fall asleep. More and more people are falling prey to insomnia due to overuse of phones. Apart from being unable to relax the blue light emitted from electronic devices disrupts our production of melatonin hormones. These hormones are the ones responsible for promoting sleep. And you will be amazed to know that even 2 to 3 days of sleep deprivation ie sleeping less than 7 hours a day can severely undermine your cognitive abilities, make you feel low, reduce your immunity and drastically reduce your energy levels.
5. Smartphone use makes you a couch potato and a health disaster
Cell phone use is known to compromise your indulgence in physical activities, people who are addicted to smartphones exercise much less. If you are physically less active, the muscles in your body begin to weaken, along with your endurance and immune system. This, in turn, makes you prone to physical injury.
We’ve all heard about the accidents caused by driving and texting, but did you know that you are also prone to accidents while walking and texting? Smartphones can lead to physical injury by distracting you from your physical surroundings.
6. Smartphone Reliance Can Lead to Excessive Weight Gain
The smartphone lets us access our favourite movies, games, and social media apps digitally. In just a few clicks, we are able to do whatever we want. This just worsens our sedentary behaviour and lack of physical activity. These factors contribute to obesity and risks for chronic illnesses.
7.Smartphone kills Social Interactions
The use of smartphones effectively kills your mood and pace, especially if you’re in a group setting. It steals away your attention from the people around you as well as your surroundings.
It diminishes your cognitive ability in connecting and socialising with other people. This often results in further withdrawing from society and increasing the likelihood of being a “shut-in.”
In fact Phone and Tablet usage seriously impairs Social-Emotional skills in children.In a paper in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine took a closer look at the available literature on smartphone and iPad use in very young children. They concluded that using such devices to entertain or pacify children, tcan have a hugely detrimental effect on their social and emotional development.
8. Nerve Damage
Smartphones don’t just affect your health on a day-to-day basis – they may also cause long term, incurable side effects.Like occipital neuralgia – a neurological condition where the nerves that run from the top of the spinal cord up through the scalp become compressed or inflamed.This condition causes symptoms similar to those you’d experience with a severe headache or migraine.
One journalist diagnosed with the condition described it as like being ‘hit over the head with a rod of steel’ sending ‘bolts of pain’ through his skull.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for occipital neuralgia – only treatments to manage the pain which include steroid and numbing injections, yoga, massage and laying off the smartphone usage!
9. A Source of Bacteria
Disturbing research from the University of Arizona has discovered that the average phone has 10 times the amount of bacteria that is found on a toilet seat! While you might clean your toilet regularly, it’s likely your phone is given a good wipe down far less often. And no matter how clean your toilet seat, you’re probably not going to let it touch your face! Next time, be careful where you leave your phone, and wipe it regularly.
The bottom line chuck that smartphone right away! Get a stupid phone get a life! ( Authors: Anupma and Ananya)
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