Thursday, May 14, 2015

We are "Technologically Sick"

When we boast about technological advancements and how they all have altered our life and put us all on a fast track mode, there is another side that how we are badly affected by the excess use of them. These technologies make us glued to them, and make us all addicted to them.

We all know that much debated topic about how much the rays from mobile towers are causing cancer, and though mobile tower companies refute the argument, there is a popular belief that they do cause cancer.

Albert Einstein said "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots." If Einstein were a medical doctor as well, he would have added "the excess use of technology would have created technological diseases."

Most of these diseases are caused by the excess use of technologies, because people are so glued to the technology that they hardly have any physical exercise which causes so many diseases. They become less social. Frequently checking how many 'likes', 'comments 'we have garnered in social media for the status or the photo uploaded. We are increasingly falling prey to “gadget envy” and/or to the worry that we are not staying up to date on our Facebook or Twitter feed. We feel some kind of uneasiness and develop a kind of agony if we don't use mobile in frequent intervals and don't log into our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The major diseases caused by the excess of technology are:

Eye strain is caused by spending too much time looking at a screen including both computer and mobile screens. Tendonitis is caused by habitually working with our arms and wrists in unnatural positions while using a keyboard, mouse, cell phone, or game console controller. Hearing loss may be suffered by people who habitually listen to music at high volume levels on headphones or earbuds.

Necksyndrom is a kind of neck problem developed by the new generation by constantly looking down to their mobile phones. Insomnia can be caused by using cell phones and tablets late at night, which is quite common; many people sleep with their cell phones at their side.

Fear of Missing Out is a psychological disorder characterized by anxiety and stress as the result of fearing that you are missing out on some important or exciting experience on social media. Nomophobia (short for “no-mobile-phone phobia”) is the fear some of us experience of not having our cell phone with us, or of not being able to use it because of battery life running out or not having a good signal.

Phantom vibration syndrome is a sign of cell phone dependency. It happens when we have the sensation that our cell phone is vibrating in our pocket, even though it actually isn’t.

Cyberchondria is the digital version of hypochondria. It’s the habit of searching the web obsessively for health care information, with the fear that you might have some rare disease you read about on some health-oriented website, regardless of the reliability of the information. 
(Diseases are sourced from 
https://aleteia.org/2017/11/17/the-10-technological-diseases-affecting-us-today/amp/).

It is our duty to help ourselves technologically healthy, not being succumbed to all the whims and fantasies that technology could offer us.   

Image Courtesy: Google Image 

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