Healthy Soch
Youngsters are increasingly becoming prone to nomophobia
healthysoch
New Delhi, June 2, 2019:
Technology addiction is increasing at an alarming rate in India. Almost three in four adult consumers in India constantly use more than one device simultaneously and spend nearly 90 percent of their workday interacting with devices, as per a study by Adobe. There is a need to raise awareness on the fact that excess screen time can cause both mental and physical harm.
The study also indicated that switching screens is common in India with 50% of consumers starting an activity on mobile and then switching to a computer. Prolonged use of mobile phones can cause neck pain, dry eyes, computer vision syndrome, and insomnia. About 60% of youth between 20 and 30 years of age fear losing their mobile phone, a condition called nomophobia.
Speaking about this, Padma Shri Awardee, Dr K K Aggarwal, President, HCFI, said, “Push notifications, vibrations, and other alerts on our phones and computers make us feel compelled to look at them constantly. This seems to trigger the same kind of neural pathways as during an imminent attack by a predator or in the face of some danger. This further means that our brain is constantly active and alert, but not in a way that is healthy for its functioning. We constantly seek that activity, and in the absence of it feel restless, agitated and lonely. Constantly looking down into a hand-held screen or jutting the neck out while using laptops puts a lot of pressure on the spine. The number of hours we spend on various devices everyday makes us susceptible to a host of problems including acute and chronic neck, shoulder, back, elbow, wrist, and thumb pain.”
Adding further, Dr Aggarwal, who is also the Group Editor-in-Chief of IJCP, said, “Having access to so many different streams of information through gadgets has been found to decrease the brain’s grey matter density, which is responsible for cognition and emotional control. In this digital era, the key to good health should be moderation i.e. moderate use of technology. Most of us have become slaves to devices that were really meant to free us and give us more time to experience life and be with people. And we are leading our children in the same path as well.”
Smartphone is also a cause for parent-child conflict in 30% of the cases. Often children get up late and end up going to school unprepared. On an average, people spend 30 to 60 minutes in the bed playing with the smart phone before sleep. Some tips to prevent smartphone addiction from HCFI.
- Electronic curfew means not using any electronic gadgets 30 minutes before sleep.
- Facebook holiday: Take a Facebook holiday for 7 days every three months.
- Social media fast: Avoid use of social media once in a week for the entire day.
- Use your mobile phone only when mobile.
- Do not use computer for more than three hours in a day.
- Limit your mobile talk time to more than two hours in a day.
- Do not recharge your mobile battery more than once in a day.
Healthy Soch
