Dr Masarat Jabeen
It turns out that tapping away at those tiny keypads for hours and hours is having an impact. At the cost of making yourself up to date with the changing trends in smartphones and checking out the latest whatsapp post of your friend you may be compromising on your health front. And that of course is not a smart idea. In using smartphones, you have to be smart else you would end up with one or more of the following health problems.
*Joint and muscle pain
Constant texting wreaks havoc on the nerves and tendons in your wrists and elbows, making everything, from carpel-tunnel syndrome to arthritis, worse. Plus, it’s creating a few new problems, like cell phone elbow. That’s when the nerve that runs through your elbow gets swollen because of how you hold your phone.
*Text Neck
Text Neck is a term used by doctors or physicians to describe the spinal disorder arising out of excess usage of smartphones. Normally, if the head is placed upright, there is no stress on the neck part of spine. But to read and text on smartphones, people tend to bend their necks up to 60 degrees. This increases the pressure on the neck. Long term usage of smartphones bring forth neck pain . According to a recent survey , upto 80 percent of adult users suffer from this text neck pain.
The best way to avoid it is to bring up the phone to the level of your eyes and look straight into it. You need to make it a habit though it may look awkward. Another solution is to lower your eyes instead of bending your neck.
*Wrist Problems
Another problem that comes with over usage of smartphones is the wrist problem. The way we hold smartphones for long durations, strains the wrist. People usually hold their phones using last three fingers and the thumb while using the forefinger for performing actions on the smartphone screens. Retaining the posture for longer durations every day tends to create pain in the wrist.
It is better to keep on changing the posture of phone when performing tasks like reading.
*Numb Fingers
Overuse of texting may overexert fingers of smartphone users which may become numb and produce a tingling sensation. Holding the phone places stress from the elbows to the fingers leading to slower blood circulation and if not corrected immediately, can have long lasting effects.
Instead of persisting in the same posture, it is recommended to put the phone away for a while. Then perform some movement of arms and fingers so that the feeling goes away. It is a good idea to keep away the smartphone for at least one minute every fifteen minutes of usage when reading or texting. That would avoid permanent problems that may arise due to persistence of prolonged usage .
*Increased risk of accidents
No matter how many laws are passed or how many mishaps people hear about on the news, people still text while driving and walking. Cell phones are blamed in a quarter of all traffic accidents. Focusing on your smart phone throws off your proprioception, that’s your awareness of where your body is – and that makes accidents more likely. So keep your hands on the wheel and off the cell phone.
*Effects on skin
The blue light emitting from smartphones can cause disruption in sleep cycles leading to trouble falling asleep ,dark circles around the eyes ,under eye puffiness,dull texture of skin and premature wrinkling. Spending late hours texting on your phone saps the glow and shine of the skin. Recent studies have even found the phones as common carriers of bacteria which may trigger skin infections. So it is utmost important to keep cleaning your smartphone at frequent intervals.
*Vision problems
Reading small fonts on a smartphone can disturb your vision permanently. This problem happens as your eyes are strained constantly by looking at the blue light coming out of the smartphone. Reading or using smartphones during absence of external light further boosts the problem. Your vision becomes poor and you might have to go for glasses.
The best way to avoid this is to look away from smartphones at regular intervals. Look at something far off and focus on it for a while before returning to the smartphone screen. You can also make settings adjustments in your phone to increase its font size.
Check if you are addicted to the smartphone – and if you think you are, you may want to consider its usage pattern.
*Effects on mental health
People can literally become addicted to their smart phone and suffer severe anxiety if they’re cut off from their technology. This may lead to anti-social behavior, because addicts lose the ability to interact with people face-to-face, and can only communicate over text and email. In our technology-driven world, you can’t just go cold-turkey. Limit your access to your smart-phone to certain times of the day. Being on a schedule will help you develop some smart-phone self-control.
Cell phones with all their fancy inbuilt memories and features like calculator helps you save time but may end you up with poorer memory and mathematical skills. Remember the times when you remembered so many numbers from your directory by heart and dialled them with ease. Or when you did not have to reach out for your ever-ready smartphone calculator icon and do the mental maths on your own in a jiffy. Well ,you guessed it right , just like any other organ. brain areas also remain more active if you regularly put them to use. One should often challenge oneself to remember some contact numbers and sharpen our cognitive skills. So don’t let the grey areas weaken and be smarter than ever.
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