Have you ever wondered about how many times we look at our screens in 24 hours? I mean, can you even imagine spending a day without looking at a screen? From switching off the alarm in the morning to set the alarm at night, we send up spending all day looking at mobile phones, computers, TV screens, iPad’s, and the list goes on.
Now that you have realized that you spend all day looking at screens, have you ever thought of the harmful effects they leave on your mind and body? With advancements in technology, we have sadly become slaves of machines; we rely on gadgets, whether for studying or working.
Our day starts from looking at a screen and ends up with it. From toddlers to the senior (old) population, everybody uses mobile phones and laptops for whatever reason. They have become a permanent part of our lives, and we cannot even think of living without them because it is impossible. To go with the flow, you have to do all the things to advance in life.
Side Effects of Using Screens:
Vision:
If you use screens for longer periods, you might be aware of the signs and symptoms that screens put on your eyes. You might feel dryness, strain in the eyes, along with a blurred vision. One common symptom that shows that you are affecting your vision is prolonged headaches.
Suppose you use a computer or laptops for a long time, and you consciously or unconsciously don’t realize that you are sitting with a slouched posture. In that case, it can affect your shoulder and neck muscles, and you can experience moderate to severe pain in these areas.
Weight:
There is no direct link between computers or mobile phones on the weight of a person. But sitting on computers for long periods and not moving a little can make you prone to weight gain, especially in gamers who sit in front of computers for a long time.
After buying the accounts, video gaming is all they do. This makes them gain weight without them even realizing it. Gamers usually rely on junk food that is easy to eat, and players don’t have to take out time for a meal. They skip meals and take higher quantities of junk food and drinks with high amounts of processed sugars.
You might not feel that you are gaining weight at first, but once the dependence on junk food increases, you will see the difference yourself. The same goes for people who watch TV for a long time; they too ingest larger amounts of junk food to gain weight.
Sleep:
Studies have shown that increasing screen time has an immense amount of adverse effects on sleep. It has been concluded through experimentation that the radiations from the screen subdue the effect of our sleep-hormone.
Sleep-hormone helps us have a peaceful sleep that freshens us after waking up and drives away all the fatigue from our body. After the hormone is suppressed, we are not likely to restful sleep the way our body has scheduled.
We have become so addicted to screens that we have lost track of time. We use our mobile phones and PCs all night, and usually, we stop when our eyes have strained so much that they stop processing the visual information to the brain.
Physical activity fatigues us but using different types of screens puts on the pressure on us. We become mentally fatigued after processing so much and absorbing all the screen radiations, but we don’t want to stop.
Happy-hormone, known as Dopamine, is released from the human brain to express happiness at the sight of something that appeals to us. Studies have shown that similar effects are being produced by playing video games.
We like getting rewards from playing video games and satisfying our brains; we play all day. The same feeling can be experienced when you get a hundred or thousand likes on a picture you posted on social media.
The thing is our satisfactory needs have changed. We try our level best to take a good picture to post on social media and get hundreds of likes. We can check characters limit of social media post by character counter. We play games all day to advance in levels and get rewards from the game. We watch TV all day because watching our favorite movie or show is what makes us happy.
The definition of happiness has changed for us; we know that a mobile phone screen or computer screen is harmful to us, but the happiness and satisfaction we are getting from these things are more important and keeps us motivated and addicted to them.