The harmful effects of smartphone addiction and social networks

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In general, things that have the ability to boost a person's mood to the better can be addictive. Not only stimulants, today smartphones and social networks are also things people cannot live without. So what are the consequences of smartphone addiction and social network addiction?

1. What is smartphone addiction?

Electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets are becoming more and more popular. A study conducted in 2015 showed that most children learned to use smartphones before the age of 2.
Manifestations of smartphone addiction include:
Always keep your phone with you; Constantly checking the phone every few minutes; The phone cannot be turned off during weekends; More interested in texting or seeing posts from online friends than meeting each other in real life; It is undeniable that smartphones bring people a lot of benefits, but excessive smartphone addiction also comes with some harms as follows:

Sanitation problem: Smartphone addicts will bring mobile phones move around with you everywhere, even in the bathroom. Moreover, very few people clean their smartphones regularly and properly. A study found that 1 in 6 phones had E.coli bacteria, but the hard surface of the screen often makes it harder for bacteria to survive, so it is less of a big deal. In short, actually the phone is not as clean as we think.

Neck and hand syndrome: Spending too much time looking down at your phone can strain your neck muscles and cause spasms. The pain can even spread down to nerves in the back, shoulders, arms, elbows and fingers, which are affected by holding the phone and scrolling or tapping on the screen for too long.

Danger in traffic: Many smartphone addicts use their phones even while driving or walking and this actually increases the risk of an accident. Statistics show that texting while driving increases crash rates by 23 times and 4 times when talking on the phone.
Sleep disorders and other medical conditions: Exposure to high levels of "blue light" from phones at night can disrupt sleep. In addition, the harmful effects of smartphone addiction have been linked to diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other health problems. The short wavelengths of "blue light" emitted by smartphones also cause your eyes to quickly get tired and sore, and even damage the cornea and harm vision.
If excessive cell phone use interferes with your life, seek help from a doctor or psychologist.

2. What is social network addiction?

If you feel like you're spending too much time on Facebook, Instagram and other social networking apps, you might be addicted. Recent studies show that 10% of social media users are actually hooked to the point of addiction. The random occurrence of interesting articles and videos has an effect on the human brain similar to the addictive mechanism of cocaine.
In addition, the feature that allows you to freely share your life with friends and others also creates a sense of urge for users to want to use social networks more.

3. Harm of social network addiction

Obviously, today's major social media sites like Facebook or Youtube have many distinct benefits for children and adults alike, but not without limitations. So what are the consequences of social media addiction?
Impact on quality of life: It is easy to see that people addicted to social networks today choose to "surf Facebook" as soon as they wake up instead of exercising and having breakfast. They also take advantage of social networks during their lunch break or even during working hours, making work less productive. At night, many "addicts" continue to use social networks until the device runs out of battery or is too tired to go to sleep.
The harmful effects of social media addiction make the body exhausted and disrupt circadian rhythms, reducing work efficiency and quality of life.
Negative thinking: Instead of simply using social media to stay in touch with friends, some young people choose to use social media negatively, such as a comparison tool. . This difference in personality factors contributes to the negative impact of social networks on mental health, including psychological guilt and low self-esteem.

Reduced face-to-face interaction: Some people, especially celebrities or people with a lot of interest, actively spend more time engaging with social media because they think this real benefits. However, in reality, addiction to social networks can cause them to stay away from friends and no longer keep in touch with family to nurture their own "online" relationships.
Unofficial sources: The rapid spread of news can also amplify issues that are overly factual and sometimes falsify the truth. Spending a lot of time on social media causes the brain to absorb a large amount of unimportant or even completely meaningless information every day.
Besides, trusting inaccurate articles online is also one of the harmful effects of social media addiction, causing users to be deceived or applied according to unscientific weight loss fasting methods. .
Psychological problems: There are also studies that have found a link between social media addiction and depression, anxiety, reduced sleep quality, lack of confidence and poor communication, or inability to concentrate and learn overactivity in children.
On the other hand, some surveys show that addiction to social networks in particular and smartphones in general can increase attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and affect children's behavior, but at the same time reduce feelings of boredom. depression and the risk of depression. Therefore, it still needs more time to be able to draw an accurate conclusion.
In general, overusing social media can be harmful to your mental health, especially when used so often to the point of smartphone addiction or social media addiction. Limit the amount of time you spend using your phone online each day and stick to it to help minimize the harmful effects of social media addiction. If you can't control your habits, talk to your doctor or therapist for help.

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Reference source: webmd.com