In your pocket right now is the source of the widespread self-consciousness, physical decay, emotional breakdown, and social disconnect plaguing our society today.
The overuse of cellphones, tablets, and laptops is listed as the third worst thing you can do to your body, according to Men’s Health, only narrowly beaten out by excessive consumption of alcohol.
There is no better example of these detrimental widespread effects then in a high school. Long term technology use is a major contributor to depression, anxiety, obesity, and even chemical imbalance among teenagers today.
Walking down the halls at New Trier, you are bound to see hundreds of kids sitting in the cafeteria, or hanging out in the scrounge.
At times it’s an eerily quiet scene, most of the kids are hunched over their iPads with music blasting through their earphones.
These “social hotspots” have turned to places where people go to disconnect from everything going on around them. Instead of healthy social interaction, we have turned to an unnatural substitute which is actually hurting us psychologically and physically.
Up to five hours a day at school we are staring at iPads, causing our eyes to slowly deteriorate. Somewhere between 50% and 90% of people who work at a computer or tablet screen have at least some symptoms of eye trouble.
Looking at anything that is so close to you can put a strain on your eyes; add bright LED screens and the effects are compounded.
With the number of screens on the rise, the need for glasses is rising. I recommend optometry for anyone seeking a field with job security.
Screens also decrease physical activity. It is not uncommon for me to be walking home from school (often listening to music on my iPhone) when I look up and see the Sears playground filled with children.
The problem is that, even if I wasn’t listening to music, I probably still wouldn’t have heard anything. Instead of laughter and yelling, I faintly heard the Angry Birds theme song coming out of the end of the slide. Almost every kid was on a phone or tablet.
The playground used to be a place to get exercise and promote social development in children, but is now all too often a stagnate wasteland of social disconnect.
Just surfing Facebook, Buzz Feed, or Instagram puts impressionable teenagers at a higher risk of chronic fatigue, depression, and decreased social skills, warned psychiatrist Dr. Larry Kerns.
“On social media you see the most perfect version of everyone, because you see who they want you to see. Unfortunately these cause teens to become self-conscious and in some cases even depressed,” Dr. Kerns said.
Research also shows that scrolling through a news feed can be a hidden trap of exhaustion.
While scrolling, you constantly need to make decisions, ‘Should I read this… click this, like this, share that?’
These micro-decisions all require a great deal of mental effort and actually wear down the glutamine stores in your brain, which slowly exhausts you.
If you don’t believe it, then try not using social media. After one day without using social media you will free refreshed and energized.
So next time you sit down and pull out your phone or iPad, stop, look up and interact with the world around you. Your brain and body will thank you for it.