How mobile phone usage affects your health and steps you can take to reduce usage
Mobile phone usage in India has increased from 524.9 million people in 2013 to 775.5 million people in 2018, and these numbers are expected to increase to 813.2 million in 2019. It can, therefore, safely be said that mobile phones are here to stay. These networked mini computers are extremely powerful, and have made the entire human population increasingly reliant on them.
How Mobile Phones Affect Health
However, this increasing mobile phone usage and dependence comes with a horde of health issues. Apart from causing dry and sore eyes, your cellphone is also home to a lot of germs. These germs come from carrying your phone everywhere. A study showed that your phone could be covered in traces of dangerous germs like MRSA, staphylococcus aureus (which causes staph infections and toxic shock syndrome), and E. coli.
Moreover, mobile phones also cause headaches and stress. In fact, the stress/fear of not having your phone near you is a real thing: it’s called Nomophobia. Another mobile phone caused condition is the ‘text neck’. This is the pain caused in your shoulders and neck by constantly looking down at your phone.
With all these health hazards, it might be better to stop using mobile phones altogether. Unfortunately though, that is not really an option in today’s world. The solution is, rather, to be responsible with its usage, and there are many steps you can take to do so.
Steps to Control Mobile Phone Usage
Here are a few easy steps you can take to reduce your mobile phone usage:
- Keep your phone out of your reach while you are reading or watching TV. Focus on what you are doing instead of letting your phone distract you.
- Turn off notifications that don’t require immediate action. For example, you can turn off notifications from Whatsapp groups that only share forwarded messages.
- Clock the browsing you do on your phone. At night, fix a timing to stop browsing your phone and then put it away.
- Do not be using your phone while you’re in bed. In fact, turn your phone off, or at least put it on airplane mode before you sleep.
- Stop checking your phone while in line. Don’t be browsing just because you don’t have anything to do for a minute.
- Don't repeatedly check your all social media apps. Check one at a time instead and put down your phone after. This may take a little self-training.