Negative Effects Of Technology we Need To Be Aware Of

How often have you caught an elderly or just a millennial asking someone of the current generation to put their phones away? In fact, in South Asia, most mothers blame the continuous use of phones by their children for every problem they face. For example, a teenager might go to his mother to complain about something like him not finding his things.

There is a 60% chance that the mother will reply saying “You are always on that phone of yours, no wonder you cannot keep track of where you put things”. Technology has definitely made our lives easier. Starting from phones, social media to even higher forms of technology used in medical science, mechanical world, space, etc. Technology has helped us see and do things easily.

However, everything has its pros and cons. When it comes to technology, even now many people are reluctant to maximize the use of it because it has, evidently, caused problems. Well, technology serves its purpose well, the purpose of making things easier. But, we humans, often do not know the right way to use it or use it at a higher than necessary rate.

We all know what technology enables us to achieve but today, let us find out how it can affect us negatively as well. Because we can only prevent the negative effects by knowing well about it.

Negative Effects of Technology: The ones to be aware of

1. Health problems.

This should come to you as no surprise. Even when there was no phone to stick your eyes at, people valued physical exercise. With smartphones, video games, etc. In the scenario, physical exercise is even more valued yet as far away as possible.

So, what are the kinds of health problems you may face due to technology?

Obesity: The first is nothing other than obesity. Children nowadays prefer staying home, sitting on the couch, watching Netflix series and movies and avoiding going out. And what is a movie without some food to consume?

Therefore, people are getting more rest and food than necessary and this is building up the cholesterol in them and making them obese.

Back and Neck pain: You do not bring the screen to your face but you take your face towards the screen. This puts your neck and also back in an eery position which really harms them in the long run. The current generation experiences more back and neck pain then the previous generations did when in their age.

Eye Problems: The light and rays that screens emit are not as innocent as natural light. So, when you stare at a screen for excessive hours, it puts a strain on your eyes that worsens over time. This is will cause reduced, blurry visions, pain, watering, etc.

Other than that, your hand, fingers, thumb, etc. May suffer as well.

2. Sleep Problems.

How often have you lie down to sleep, not felt sleepy and gotten back to browsing on your phone? Eventually, you may have slept when the birds started chirping. This is actually an endless loop.

People often use their phones within one hour before they sleep. This does not only cause trouble before sleeping but also when you wake up. You will find it harder to sleep every night and when you wake up, you just feel tired and cannot focus.

This is even harder to avoid because most work is dispatched online so you have to check it before sleeping. But, you should avoid it as much as possible because the rays emitted really hamper the sleep patterns by reaching the melatonin under your skin.

3. Hampers Mental Health.

The number of adolescents who are depressed is very high at present. You will come across a perfectly fine young lad getting everything in life but you will probably see him speaking of how depressed he is. While it may not be the most accurate thing to say but technology does impact mental health and cause depression, anxiety and more.

Now, the question is how? You see, when you log in to social media, you post the best pictures you have and the best stories you experienced. Even when you post sad ones, there is sarcasm and a positive vibe in it.

And, others do the same. So, what you are exposed to in social media is the better side of life which does not happen every day but you think that it does in someone else’s life. Even when you have a great day and come home to see someone else had even a greater day, you feel that it was not enough for you.

This is how technology often affects mental health.

4. Reduced tendency to think deep.

Technology just brings everything to your hands at the click of a button. You do not have to spend hours to find a fact in a library, you do not have to remember things because you can easily find it on the internet. Furthermore, you do not have to analyze or think deep as there is already an explanation somewhere online.

As a result, children, especially these days do not really have a great imagination or thinking capabilities. They just take information and digest them.

5. Lack of skill development.

When you solve math you can easily use a calculator to find the answers. This is what technology does. Although it reduces the time required, it reduces your skills as well.

Through technology, YouTube videos and more, you know what can be done and how to do them using technology. But, what if you were stranded on an island with nothing? Would you know how to survive? Nope. So, it sure is reducing practical skills.

6. Reduction in social interaction.

Technology is both making people more social and also unsocial. People talk all day and all night on social media. However, when they meet they return to their own caves focusing on the phone they have on their hand rather than talking.

7. Increased dependency.

When people get bored in class, they sneakily bring out their phones to pass time. Even when waiting in line or any other tough situation, people do not taste themselves but bring out their phones to help them out. For example, when a couple of fights, one of them might easily turn online for easy comfort and consolation, oftentimes these lead to cheating.

So, people are losing control of their own human nature and letting technology handle everything for them. Children do not want to eat if they are not given some screen time.

8. Easy crimes.

As people can hide their identity online, crimes like cyberbullying and more are getting more common. It is also easier to get away with such crimes.

9. Lack of privacy.

Everything you do and say online is recorded somewhere. Imagine having al your photos, messages and videos being spread worldwide due to a global privacy system failure. Sounds scary, doesn’t it?

But, it’s possible and that is how technology can even destroy lives.

10. Early and excessive exposure.

There is basically no limit to what you can find on the internet. Children are being exposed to adult content and much more violent content too early. This normalizes many crimes for them and seriously diminishes the ethical standards.

They grow up to believe many things as right while in actuality they are not.

In Conclusion,

Everything has pros and cons and technology has more pros than cons. How it affects someone depends completely on how someone uses it. Therefore, reduce screentime for children, talk about the problems and find ways to reduce them.

It is not possible to move back to an earlier age but it sure is possible to control the negative effects and move towards a better future.