We are now living in the age of technology. From computer operated toilet seats to rovers capturing sunsets in Mars. At this age, leaving your smartphone behind is like living your soul at home. Contact info, schedules, latest news, celebrity gossips, stock exchange are some of the perks you can get when carrying your phone around. With all the good coming from technology, especially smartphones, there also comes a bad.
Smartphones can carry negative side effects on the body. If your hands cramp often and you feel like your phone is always vibrating you should read on the list below.
Here 5 Serious Side Effects of Using Smartphones:
Posture and Neck
Staring down your phone and slouching for a long time can hurt your neck and back. Smartphones are one of the reasons of bad postures in teenager and back pain in adults. Slouching over and staring down your phone causes stress in the neck and back muscle.
Lessen the strain from your neck and back by placing your phone directly in front of you instead of your lap. This pose can get a little tiring but it can remove strain on the muscle and lessen smartphone usage time.
Nomophobia
Nomophobia or “no-mobile-phone phobia” is the fear of not being with their cell phone. Symptoms of this phobia include obsessively checking for your phone, making sure you brought it or haven’t lost it, worrying all the time that you might lose it and general anxiety. Women are more prone to getting Nomophobia than men.
Relieve Nomophobia with anxiety relieving activities such as meditation, yoga and breathing exercises.
Phantom Pocket Vibration Syndrome
Have you ever experienced your phone vibrating in your pocket, then you check your phone to see nothing? That is called a phantom pocket vibration syndrome. It is the feeling of the phone vibrating in the pocket when it actually isn’t. People who are hooked on social media and text messaging tend to get more anxious when their phones aren’t vibrating. This anxiety sometimes causes the phantom vibration.
Place your phone in your bag instead, this will prevent you from imagining vibrations and stop you from checking your phone every so often.
Text Claw and Cell Phone Elbow
Excessive gaming, scrolling and texting can cause the muscles of the forearm and fingers to cramp. Also known as the “Text Claw” this side effect of smartphones can cause strains in the fingers causing it to look claw like. Another side effect of excessive use of phones is the “Cell Phone Elbow”. This is the numbness in the pinky and index finger. The numbness comes from bending the elbow for a long time.
If you are starting to feel strain on your hands and arms from smart phoning, try doing some stretches and wrist reflexes
Computer Vision Syndrome
Eyestrain, dizziness, dry eyes, blurred vision and eye discomfort can come from staring at your phone for hours. The small fonts on your phone are causing strain in your eyes and staring down at your phone or tablet can be causing stress in the neck muscles, triggering headaches.
Avoid computer vision syndrome by placing computers, phones and tablets at least 16 inches away from the face and increase font size of the device. Rest your eyes every few hours, stare at something far away and blink.
Avoid getting these side effects by lessening your smartphone habits. Remember to keep your phone in your purse rather than your pocket and prevent checking your phone every minute.
