Effects of Smartphone Addiction on Health

1 Introduction:

The invention of new technological tools like Smartphones, androids, iPhones, and Laptops has helped us to stay informed about the news and technologies of the whole world. Smartphones have become handy tools for anyone who is living on the surface of the Earth. Everyone gets in touch with their friends and family members by using these technological inventions and also our children are studying, getting knowledgeable information, and being entertained through these technologies. Due to smartphones, everything is at our fingertips but, on the other hand, there are many negative effects of smartphone addiction on our health.

Nowadays, the number of smartphone users has increased, in Germany, the number of smartphone owners in 2009 was 6.3 million and in 2021 this rate has surpassed 62.6 million. Most of the time, overuse of smartphones causes addiction. When anyone gets addicted to these technological tools, they become victims of different psychological and mental diseases. Anxiety, Depression, behavioral issues, and reduced attention are, usually, caused by addiction to smartphones. Many physical problems are also the effects of smartphone addiction like obesity, eye strain, diabetes, heart disease, and neck strain.

The most occurring and primary diseases of smartphone addiction have been discussed in the following topics thoroughly.

2 Effects of Smartphone Addiction on Mental Health:

Smartphone addiction has many effects on our brains. It brings various kinds of problems into our daily life and causes disturbance in our social life.

2.1 Anxiety:

The bond between a smartphone owner and a smartphone is like the emotional bond between a child and a mother. When a mother does not meet her child for a longer period, the child feels unease and gets disturbed. The same is the case with the one addicted to his/her smartphone. They feel irritated and get disturbed when their smartphones are not within reach.

Mostly, smartphone owners want to get in touch with their phones while doing other basic activities. They have a burning desire to reply to text messages and various emails. When they cannot reply to their messages, or their response gets delayed they feel irritated and experience anxiety.

2.2 Disturbance In Sleep:

One of the effects of smartphone addiction on health is a disturbance in sleep. Overuse of smartphones causes disturbance in sleep and changes sleep patterns. These phones emit various kinds of light that are dangerous to the eyes and the quality of sleep becomes poor due to these lights. The frequent use of smartphones causes dizziness and those who are addicted to their smartphones always remain in a sleepy state. At night time, many people give answers to their phone calls and texts, these calls disturb their sleep and soon they get affected by insomnia. According to studies, in most universities, the number of cell phone users in female students was 65.0%, and in males was 35.0%, and their daily time for using cell phones was approximately 7 hours per day. This overuse of smartphones caused poor sleep quality and depression in all those students who were addicted to their smartphones.

2.3 Depression:

Depression is also a negative effect of smartphone addiction. By using various kinds of social media apps on smartphones, adolescents usually compare their work and personality with others. In case of finding themselves inferior to the developing world, they get depressed and take various unusual steps that lead to many problems and their family members get depressed.

According to a study, children who were involved in non-screen activities were happier and were better at facing social life problems because of a lack of depression than those who were working on digital screens. A report stated that in the whole world, the rate of medical students who are suffering from depression and anxiety is approximately 27 percent and 34 percent more than the normal population who are addicted to their smartphones, because of overuse of smartphones with other tiring activities.

2.4 Reduced Attention:

Reduced attention is also an effect of smartphone addiction. The attention span of smartphone users has become less than the average span that is common all around the world. Multitasking like working on many digital screens can reduce the focus in the long term. Mostly, people that are in front of digital screens lose concentration after 8 seconds which is even lower than the normal attention span of a goldfish and the attention span of the people of this era is too less than the people who lived before the invention of smartphones.

2.5 Fear Of Missing Out:

The most common effect of smartphone addiction on health is Fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO has increased with the invention of smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Teens spend their most of time chatting with their friends and group members and they feel out of their group when they do not receive any replies from their friends. They look for new updates and anything that makes them feel happy but if they do not find any amusing thing, they spend more time in front of screens and get addicted to their smartphones. More screen time than usual makes teens more prone to various health problems.

3 Effects of Smartphone Addiction on Physical Health:

There are many negative effects of smartphone addiction on physical health too. Various physical problems are caused by the overuse of smartphones.

3.1 Eye Strain:

Smartphones emit various kinds of light that are unsecured for the eyes. The more we look at our smartphones the more we strain our eyes. When smartphones are used more than enough, they cause vision problems, eyes start burning and things will look blurry with time. The emitted lights that make their way through our eyes cause headaches and weaken our eyesight.

In a recent study, a questionnaire was held among 200 students who were using smartphones. Of which 100 were male and 100 were female and of those 27.5 percent were affected by myopia, 5.5 percent were affected by hyperopia and the percentage of those who were astigmatic was at least 7 percent. All these vision problems were caused by the overuse of smartphones while lying in bed and at night-time.

3.2 Neck Strain:

Neck strain also known as ‘text Neck’, is one of the adverse effects of smartphone addiction. The weight of the head and the pressure which is exerted on the neck when someone uses a smartphone in the wrong posture strains the neck muscles. Looking down on the smartphone for too long can rupture occipital nerves in the base of the neck and due to their rupture one can experience a headache. Scrolling on the smartphone and surfing the internet for hours also brings pain to the fingers, especially in the thumb.

Studies found that most nomophobia students had neck strain and pain in their thumbs. 113 people were asked different questions, out of which 46.9 percent felt pain in their neck and 29.2 percent had pain in their thumb because of prolonged use of smartphones without safety measures.

3.3 Obesity:

Obesity has become a common health problem in the developing world. It is usually caused by lying and sitting all the time without any exercise or physical games. Those who are addicted to their smartphones always stay in touch with their phones and keep surfing the internet and playing different online games, which keep them in one state either lying or sitting and in this way, they become victims of obesity.

In the United States, most teens spend more than 5 hours using smartphones or laptops and do not participate in other physical activities, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. These teenagers were more prone to being obese than the normal population who spend less time on smartphones.

4 How to Avoid Cell Phone Addiction:

As discussed above, smartphone addiction has many negative effects on our health, but how can we remain away from smartphones and can live a better and healthier life? There are many theories and tips for remaining away from smartphones. We have collected the easiest and most applicable ones over here:

1. Whenever you enter your home or during other basic work like studying, put your phone on silent mode and keep it in a hidden place like a cupboard, so you can concentrate more on your given task. As Christopher Mims writes beautifully:

“The more you physically remove the phone, the more you can build a habit of having some ability to ignore it when it’s on your person.”

2. Keep the smartphone out of the bedroom, so it will not be the last thing that you see before going to bed and will not be the first thing that you see in the morning.

3. Set up a limited time in the daily routine in which you can use the smartphone and keep an alarm for yourself so you can use it at a given time. Some apps are used to note the screen time and quality of usage.

4. Turn off all unusual notifications like Facebook, Telegram, and Instagram that push you to stay in touch with your smartphone. Your life will not be ruined If you do not reply to a friend on time. No one pays attention to you as much as you think because everyone is busy with his own life.