On June 29th, 2007 Apple came out with the very first iPhone. And since then, teens have not been able to let go of them.
Facebook, twitter, Instagram, and texting are the new day to day way of life for most teens. We are on it when we wake up, during school, after school, during your meals, and before we go to bed. But this might be having a bigger impact on us than we may realize.
On June 29th, 2007 Apple came out with the very first iPhone. And since then, teens have not been able to let go of them.
Facebook, twitter, Instagram, and texting are the new day to day way of life for most teens. We are on it when we wake up, during school, after school, during your meals, and before we go to bed. But this might be having a bigger impact on us than we may realize.
In 2008, a study conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology information found subjects who spent excessive amounts of time on their mobile device reported headaches, fatigue, impaired concentration, memory disturbances, sleeplessness, hearing problems, facial dermatitis, and warmth behind their auricle and behind their ear. Excessively looking at the light coming from the iPhone has also been found the damage vision and in some subjects cause insomnia.
But that isn’t the only negative effect.
Researches at the University of Albany found that social media activated part of the brain that is similarly seen in brains of those who have a drug addiction. Additionally, the researchers also found that new notifications on social media act as a reward and not knowing what is going to happen keeps us checking social media.
And it is very easy to get caught up into this behavior.
“There’s a voyeuristic tendency none of us realized would be so high,” said Neil Vidyarthi, editor of Social Times. “That’s why there are 500 million users spying on one another. We’re all interested in what others are doing. Facebook does something you could never really do before. Now you have this real-life, breathing example right in front of you and it’s so fascinating to people and they can get addicted.”
We are currently going down a downhill spiral where many of us are fixated on our phones and would rather hide behind a screen than go out and socialize face to face. Not only this but our health is on the line.
Social media addiction is real and it is dangerous. So before you go on your phone today, or check your twitter, put your phone down and take a step outside.
