Ours is a time when there is no denying the positive impacts of technology. But that is just one side of the coin. When you check the dark underbelly of technology, you will discover how your electronic gadgets can pose possible risks and hazards to your health.
Physical Strains
In some cases, excessive texting and swiping using your smartphones and tablet can lead to inflamed tendons, thumb joints, and index fingers. Modern computing technology tends to involve overuse of our thumbs and index fingers. Although we do the pressing, tapping, and swiping very lightly, the physical strains of these long and repetitive actions can lead to stress injuries. Think about texting thumb and articular degeneration. A person can suffer from pain of the wrist, weakness of the grip, and popping sounds when moving one’s fingers.
It’s rather reassuring that most of the text apps today use predictive entries or auto-correct functions to make input easier without spelling out every character of a word, but if you consider users’ very frequent interactions with their phones, those features barely help.
Use both thumbs when texting: Some of us use just one finger from our dominant hand to manipulate our devices. We use that one thumb with fewer breaks, thereby putting stress on it.
Poor Posture
Poor posture is, more often than not, a product of bad childhood habits. If a child gets used to poor postures like forward head, hunched back, or rounded shoulders, he is likely to carry them over to adulthood – all because of too much use of handheld devices like cell phones, tablets or even gaming consoles. If you’re a parent, it is your duty to teach your kids proper posture. A growing child needs to maintain excellent posture for the healthy development of their bones and joints.
Dr. Ewa Gustafsson, a researcher and ergonomist at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, conducted a study about the mobile phone habits of 56 young adults who send text messages every day. Half of the respondents say they suffer from arm, wrist, neck, and back pain due to prolonged use of their cell phones.
There are ways to avoid these problems, though. If you can prevent it, don’t sit in the same position for a long time. Avoid hunching your back, as well, when texting.
Disrupted Sleeping Patterns
Refrain from using handheld electronics at least 2 hours before you jump into bed. The artificial light from your mobile phone or tablet hinders your pineal gland from producing melatonin – a hormone that stabilizes the human body’s circadian rhythm, widely known as our 24-hour biological clock. Because your brain associates light with complete wakefulness, it may disrupt your bio clock and tell you to stay awake even if it is already time to sleep.
This is why heavy electronics use is linked to an increase in stress, sleep disorders, and depression in both men and women. These sleep-related problems affect those people in the ICT industry, where work requires them to use computers intensively and to always communicate through their phones.
Also, at nighttime, don’t watch TV shows or movies that cause adrenaline rush, like horror, suspense or action-packed movies. These movies keep your mind awake even hours after they had ended. You will be hard-pressed to catch some restorative sleep afterwards. Think about how you will fare the next day – whether at school or at work – if you lack sleep the night before.
Ariana Huffington was right when she said, “Let’s sleep our way to the top!”
Obesity
Any handheld gizmo today can morph into an entertainment tool if you think about the hundreds of thousands of available game and leisure apps that one can download in a few clicks. Your smartphone or tablet can be an instant gaming console! But the bad news is when you hit the point where you become addicted to video games. Apart from the repetitive strain injuries we mentioned, prolonged use promotes a sedentary lifestyle. And you know what the result? Obesity!
So fear, fear, fear!
Risk of Cancer
If you’re asking if our electronic gadgets emit radiation, the answer is yes. However if you run a quick search on Google, the views of the experts about whether or not this radiation heightens the risk of cancer are divided. For some, radiation causes cancer, kills neurons, and weakens our immune system. Others say that the radiation from our devices is only of small amount and low doses of it actually help our health and our thinking abilities. Take it to be true though, modern tech users tend to own a couple or more gadgets, and the cumulative amount of radiation they emit can have an adverse effect on our health.
Considering the indispensable role of electronics in our lives (and I’m sure not many would be willing to let go of their mobile companions), the scientists are looking at a way to neutralize the radiation that humans absorb from it. Their goal is to balance out the amount of radiation to zero. Although the research for has just begun, this certainly spells hope for people whose jobs require them to use electronics like cell phones and tablets all the time.
Here are some tips you can do to avoid too much exposure on radiation:
- Don’t use your phone for calls when it shows low battery. It uses more power and emits more radiation. It’s always better to place the phone farther away from your body so text if your phone hits low bat.
- In the same way, if signal quality is poor, don’t force the device to send SMS or call because it emits radiation that is twice as strong.
- Set up your wireless router in a little-used area. As much as possible, shield yourself away from radiation, so don’t install it near the bedroom or in the living room or anywhere the family spends most of their time.
- Turn off your phone’s Bluetooth and your PCs wireless connectivity function. It invites a meet up with other electronic devices and exposes you to electromagnetic fields.
- Whenever possible, use a cord to connect to the internet instead of enabling your device’s wireless connection.
Worse, recent studies show that our mobile phones, for example, contain perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA), a carcinogen usually found in non-stick cookware and fabric treatments. This toxic chemical is found to be in the bloodstream of 95% of Americans and is accounted to contribute to heart diseases, cancers, and reproductive illnesses.
Let me cite a health platitude that bears a thousand repetitions: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So with all those caveats about our electronics, whether true or not, it’s always better to ensure your family’s and your safety. Yes, even from something as innocuous as the tiny gizmos we find very helpful in our lives.
