Phone Addiction
How is it affecting your life?
- Written by Shani Kaplan
In today’s day and age, everybody is guilty of feeling slightly too attached to their smartphone at times – you’re quite possibly even reading this from your smartphone right now.
It’s hard to deny the plethora of positive capabilities a smartphone has on one’s health when you can simultaneously listen to a health podcast whilst entering data into apps that track your food intake, quality of sleep, and steps; all the while purchasing the next online fitness program or supplements from across the world to be delivered to your door within days.
The pressing concern is when this reliance on your device ultimately becomes detrimental to your health. If you’ve questioned this for yourself, you’re not alone. There’s even an official term for it:
‘nomophobia’, the Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the fear or worry at the idea of being without your mobile phone or unable to use it”
Similarly, a journal published by the M V Shetty College of Physiotherapy found that 79% of the population between the ages 18-44 have their smartphones with them almost all the time, with only 2 hours of their day involving no phone in-hand[1]. These are pretty staggering figures, in light of them, let’s take a look at the most concerning health issues of phone addiction.
Posture
You may have heard of the phrase ‘text neck’, created by US chiropractor Dr. Dean L. Fishman in 2008, which refers to the position of the neck hunched over while staring down at a device for prolonged periods. This posture is severely altering the natural curve of the spine and at minimum, causes headaches as well as neck and upper back soreness. But left untreated, it can result in much more serious conditions; like flattening of the spinal curve, early arthritis, spinal degeneration, or even nerve damage [2].
Poor Sleep
It’s a trendy topic in recent years with many studies looking into the direct correlation between poor sleep and declining health - obesity, poor immune function, and negative mental health, to name a few. With the emergence of sleep trackers on-trend [3], it’s never seemed more important to make sleep a priority for overall health and wellbeing. It is also really important for helping your body recover from intense workouts, read more about that here.
A recent study funded by Queensland University of Technology, found that one in five women (19.5 %) and one in eight men (11.8 %) now lose sleep due to the time they spend on their mobile phone (vs. 2.3% of women and 3.2% of men in 2005) [4]. Why should you try to avoid the prolonged use of smartphones in the hours before sleep?Because the blue light from the screen suppresses your melatonin levels; the hormone that regulates your sleep cycle. In addition to this, there is the overwhelming information the brain receives while scrolling, reading and responding on your device, which causes stimulation overload instead of using this pivotal time to relax your mind for optimal rest.
Mental Health
It has become the “norm” to multitask digitally; sitting on the couch watching tv, whilst scrolling through social media, online shopping, or replying to emails. It’s not abnormal to look across when out dining and see multiple tables distracted by their phones instead of being present in that moment. But how is that affecting us, and our children today? Jean M Twenge, Professor of Psychology reports, “recent research suggests that screen time, in particular social-media use, does indeed cause unhappiness.”[5]
In a world that has never been so connected- loneliness, anxiety, and depression are on the rise. This feeling is exacerbated by the epidemic of cyber-bullying, which is a traumatic experience for anybody, especially vulnerable children.
Don’t despair! We have put together some easy tips to help you reduce your screen time:
Step 1
Set Guidelines for Your Phone
Be wary of how often you are checking your phone (or at very least mindlessly scrolling), and how long you end up spending on your phone. You can even considering using apps that are explicitly created to monitor usage time, such as- QualityTime, OffTime, and Moment.
Step 2
Silence Notifications
Social media notifications always pop up on your phone as if they are something urgent that you need to respond to. By silencing notifications you can avoid the temptation to constantly pick up your device and end up in a digital vortex.
Step 3
Pay Attention to Your Posture
When you are using your smartphone, notice your posture, and hold your phone higher at eye level instead of hunching down. It might also be safe to avoid texting while walking and look both ways before crossing the street.
Step 4
Put Your Phone Away Before Bed
Most of us make a habit of winding down by "relaxing" while being on social media or catching up on the news online, but these restrict your melatonin production and can throw your circadian rhythm off course. Try to make a habit of putting your phone away 1-2 hours before bed. Opt for other ways of winding down such as reading (or listening) to a book, having a bath, or unwinding with a tea and catching up with a loved one.
Step 5
Limit Your Child's Screen Time
Children are naturally drawn to phones and screens because of the flashy lights but this can negatively affect their creativity, attention and mental health. Enforce guidelines and encourage creative, musical, or sporting activities that build important life skills and help them spend time off their phones.
Shani Kaplan
Shani Kaplan is a contributing writer for Truth Origins. She combines her knowledge gained from working within the fitness/wellness industry in Sydney and London for the last seven years as a Personal Trainer, and class instructor, with her addiction to research due to her BA in Business Marketing. Shani loves martial arts, resistance training, dance and yoga, nutrition, travel, design, photography, and art.
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References
[1] NEUPANE, Sunil; ALI, U T Ifthikar; A, Mathew. Text Neck Syndrome - Systematic Review. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, [S.l.], v. 3, n. 7, july 2017. ISSN 2454-1362. Available at: <http://www.imperialjournals.com/index.php/IJIR/article/view/5343/5143>. Date accessed: 27 sep. 2019
[2] NEUPANE, Sunil; ALI, U T Ifthikar; A, Mathew. Text Neck Syndrome - Systematic Review. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, [S.l.], v. 3, n. 7, july 2017. ISSN 2454-1362. Available at: <http://www.imperialjournals.com/index.php/IJIR/article/view/5343/5143>. Date accessed: 27 sep. 2019
[3] Twenge, J. (2019). Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/ [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].
[4] Oviedo-Trespalacios O, Nandavar S, Newton JDA, Demant D and Phillips JG (2019) Problematic Use of Mobile Phones in Australia…Is It Getting Worse? Front. Psychiatry 10:105. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00105. Available at:<https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00105/full> Date accessed: 27 SP 2019
[5] Twenge, J. (2019). Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/ [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].