Looking back a couple of years and comparing things to current times can really help you realize how much things have changed. This is applicable to prices, tastes, fashion, etc. However, the most significant change must be the insane increase in the usage of cell phones. Social media is slowly taking over our lives and leaving the house without your phone clutched in your palm seems like a crime. It may seem obvious but to many teenagers 10+ hours of screen time on a daily is usual. Now the question arises, many people claim its usage is harmful but why so? What is so terrible about using your phone so much?
FORGETFULNESS
With notifications rolling in every few minutes it can be hard to feel like you aren’t missing out if you aren’t on your phone 24/7. Taking our phones everywhere with us has simply become a norm. Whether it be while eating food, doing homework, or even in the bathroom our phones always tend to be in our hands. It acts as a distraction and can disrupt whatever task we’re attending to at the moment. Our mind struggles to balance its focus between two activities at one time and thus it can reduce our memory. It can affect one’s learning process and how quickly an individual processes information. Researchers suggest this is because we are so obsessed with using our cell phones that we consider them to be an extension of our own brains. Thus, we rely on it for simple tasks and aren’t able to take the time to absorb information ourselves.
FEAR OF MISSING OUT
We’re all familiar with the wonderful world of social media, and though it’s a great tool to share your favorite moments and talk to your friends it can also be a hassle. Social media can be curated to look like whatever you want it to look like. FOMO or fear of missing out is something that a lot of social media users feel because of this. Feelings of anxiety, loneliness, or that you aren’t living your best life are all common considering that social media is curated to perfection. Social media displays a happy-go-lucky, so-called perfect version of a user’s life. Thus, an individual is more likely to be unhappy with their life and also experience lower moods.
SELF-ESTEEM ISSUES
Along with being able to curate how your life looks many people also end up nitpicking about how they look on social media. With apps like photoshop readily available it only takes 5 minutes to change how you look and turn yourself into whatever model you want to look like. Seeing these photos that have been posted after being stared at and tweaked with for hours can ruin our perception of ourselves. Social media presents a sugar coated version of an individual where they always look their best. This can lead to comparing yourself to not only how people live their lives but also how they look. This phenomenon can be shown in people’s desire to fit a certain aesthetic instead of living life on their own terms. At the end of the day, it simply turns into a game of how you display yourself and not who you are.
SLEEP PATTERNS
Using your phone before you sleep is also a terrible habit that’s become common in our generation. Melatonin, a hormone produced by the brain to help sleep is hindered or restricted due to cellphone usage. This is because of the blue light emitted by our phones. It keeps your mind engaged and makes it harder to go to sleep and in turn even harder to wake up the next day
EYESIGHT
Though it may seem like a tale all desi mothers have nagged their children for, facts are facts. Using too much of your cell phone is truly a contributor to weakening your eyesight. The same blue light that makes it harder to fall asleep can also end up weakening your eyesight. Why so? The science of it is that instead of light being directed towards your pupil and cornea the blue light affects your central vision in the retina. This can end up killing photoreceptor cells (stored in the retina) which respond to light.
Technological advancements (cellphones included) have helped us bridge an amazing number of gaps present before but it is also important that students realize that though their phone is a great way of keeping track of classes, reminders, and catching up on work it can also pose many harms. Thus, it is important they are wary of their cellphone usage accordingly. Other than that happy web surfing!