How Is Smartphone Silently Destroying Our Health?

Today smartphones are everywhere and for everyone, for most teenagers and adults, it has captured a significant portion of their daily lives. As smartphone technology has improved, people’s use has steadily increased. What a mobile telephone was just a decade ago has now turned into an advanced personal computer, smart camera, digital wallet, GPS navigator, social media platform and much more. To be honest, smartphones today are no more just phones but an integrated part of every activity we do in our lives.

But one question we often forget - are smartphones just 100% PERFECT and everything about them is just 100% GOOD?  Delhi’s Eminent Psychologist and Counsellor Shivani Misri Sadhoo answers this question as “NO”. Counsellor Shivani says there are primarily 4 ways smartphones silently destroy our health with each passing day.

1. Smartphones can add to depression.

According to a psychological study done at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champlain, people who constantly check their smartphones tend to experience greater levels of depression and anxiety. This happens because people struggling with depression use their phones as a kind of escape. But is reality smartphones cannot reduce depression rather adds to it. Also, frequent use of social media has been found to play a role in depression, since users are apt to compare their own lives to the highlights being posted by others online. For many, their smartphone is their connection to the social media.

2.  Smartphone can silently turn you insomniac

The blue light that smartphone emits seriously damage a person’s sleep. That's because smartphone screen’s blue light activates the area in the human brain that suppresses melatonin, which helps induce drowsiness.  In simple words, smartphone reduces your sleepiness feeling – that is essential for a healthy lifestyle.

3.   Smartphone is gradually causing CVS

People, especially those who are addicted to their smartphones for playing games, chatting, watching videos, spend hours looking at their device screens and that gradually affects their eyes. According to the American Optometric Association, extended use of technology, especially without breaks causes the wide range of symptoms from eyestrain and headaches to dry eyes and blurry vision.

Environmental factors such as bad lighting and glare on screens can worsen the eyestrain caused by routine screen usage. Additionally, if you already have a poor vision, you may be more susceptible to experiencing computer vision syndrome or CVS.

4.  Your smartphone can’t be your friend.

Smartphone tricks people to believe they are connected with their friends and others when in reality these devices make them more and more lonely. People start to live with the belief that they know what is happening in their friends' lives, through social media and chats they are now connected with them all the time. But in reality, years have passed since the person in actual has met his/her friend face to face and did a real talk (not through technology). In cases of people (especially teenagers) who are shy and feel uncomfortable in social interaction, smartphones are gradually becoming an escape tool for them to avoid actual social setting.