The problem phones cause for our health
April 13, 2022
We use our phones more times a day then we could count for about everything . Phones are essential parts of our lives nowadays but we haven’t heard about all the harm they can and are doing to us. While it would be almost impossible to remove phones from our daily lives we need to look at the research. Phones can be causing a lot of problems to our health.
Back problems
Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD said “Looking down at your smartphone while texting and browsing strains neck muscles and may lead to knots or spasms. It may even lead to nerve pain that radiates to the back, shoulders, or down the arms.” Phone usage and looking down at our phones has caused back and neck problems for many people. Skeptics may say people always have back and neck problems and an easy solution is to not look down at our phones. The problem is many people don’t even realize how often they do it our how back it has gotten.
Future health issues
“There have been concerns, from both scientists and the media, that cell phone usage is linked to tumor development”, Diana Zuckerman, PhD. Smartphones are a new thing so it is hard to determine long term affects. Since cancers can take 10-20 years to develop they are starting research now but it may take years to know. Some may argue many things could lead to illnesses that we have linked and have done nothing about. They could say it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Sleep
“Some sleep experts warn, it is the type of light emitted from your mobile device’s screen that might just be messing up your sleep cycle, even after you turn off your device.” Kendra Cherry, medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD. “The lights in our phones cause a reduction in levels of melatonin we produce before going to bed.” Others might argue they need their phone for their alarm in the morning or to help them fall asleep at night. It’s not good for us to be staring at the lights in our phones before we go to bed.
Addiction
“We have a growing addiction to our phones. Researchers who have asked participants to go without their phones for various periods of time have found that breaking the technology habit, even for a relatively short interval, can be exceedingly difficult”, Kendra Cherry, medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD. People will argue they can go without their phones but we use our phones for everything. they need it for a variety of reasons such as work emails, to get in touch with family members or to use it for maps. While this is true for many people we can develop new ways to use our resources that won’t harm us as much.
Research has shown that our phones impact our brains in many different ways with not all ways being good. While it would be difficult to take smartphones out of the picture, we do need to recognize the damage. Learning the problems with our phones can prevent these issues in the future.