Screen time is only increasing. This is true for both children and adults. When you spend so much of your time in front of a screen, it’s most likely to show effects on your health.
Our devices have become a crucial part of our lives. From starting the day by looking through your social media feed to checking your emails before going to bed at night, our bodies are constantly taking the beatings of screen time.
If you pay attention to how much time you spend on digital screens, be it your smartphone, laptop or iPad, the number might be shocking for you.
Here are 5 negative effects your beloved devices that would encourage you to set tech boundaries:
Screen time leads to stress, depression, anxiety
You can blame it on workload and financial crisis all you want but screen time also has a way of messing with your mental piece.
Too much screen time is related to symptoms of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. It reduces your attention span, focus ability and hampers your emotional senses.
Not only this, looking at other people’s fabricated lives on social media creates a kind of comparison trap that makes you feel incompatible and not enough. The Internet exposes us to a world of information, views and opinions that we wouldn’t have known otherwise.
While it’s amazing that we have access to all that information, when we compare our lives to others and feel like we are living life as well as we should, that’s when the problem begins.
Screen time leads to eye strain
It’s not a secret that too much screen time could leave you with eye-related problems such as eye strain, blurry vision and dry eyes. Although you experience these problems temporarily, they could be uncomfortable when you are trying to focus on something.
Not only this, these devices are also notorious for throwing off blue light which may lead to damages in your retina. It is believed that long-term exposure to blue light could trigger vision disorders such as cataracts and macular degeneration that could also lead to vision loss.
If you feel eye strain, make sure you use blue light glasses or add blue light filters to your fake reading glasses. This filter will block blue light and make sure that it doesn’t reach your retina. You can also adopt other healthy practices such as taking screen time breaks and blinking eyes as much as you can to prevent dry eyes.
Screen time leads to bad posture
Holding the same posture for a long time could start to hurt your back, neck and shoulders. Poor posture is one of the most common reasons why you should take care of your kids’ screen time habits.
Whether you are sitting on a chair or a sofa, when you use devices, you tilt your head and slouch a little to make yourself comfortable. But, what you don’t realise is that doing it for a couple of hours can put a strain on your neck and shoulder muscles.
If you kids usually slouch or bend their back when looking at devices, then they might be doing the same in their classroom. Don’t let this problem go unresolved as bad posture might also get in the way of your child’s physical development.
Screen time messes with your sleep cycle
Blue light not only affects your vision but your sleep cycle as well. Blue light blocks the release of melatonin hormone that your body needs to put you to sleep.
While blue light exposure is healthy during day time as it doesn’t let your body shut down and trigger awareness. But, when you use devices at night, you are disturbing your natural circadian rhythm which will show effects on your sleep patterns.
Even if you have to use screens after dark, make sure you use blue light blocking glasses. Wearing glasses can also add to your style if you invest in the right frame. For instance, if you go to school or college, weartransparent glasses for men and women. These frames are playful and will inject fun into your personality.
Screen time could rewire your brain
We don’t know how true this is, but too much screen time could lead to changes in the way your brain functions. If your brain indulges in the same activity for hours every day, it takes that activity to be highly stimulating.
Thus, too much screen time could lead to impaired structure of the brain and its functionalities. It will affect your ability to plan your tasks, prioritize them and may even lead to a delay in cognitive functions.
As screen time could mess with your health, make sure you set boundaries with what is good and what’s bad. The goal is not to remove screens from your lives entirely as it’s not realistic. But, if you could, make sure you adopt healthy screen time habits and avoid over exposure to blue light.
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