Smartphone Addiction: Causes and Effects

Over usage of smartphones causes many problems people did not have only couple years ago. From finger pain to insomnia, smartphones are to be blamed.

Do you spend more than seven hours a day playing with your smartphone? Congratulations (or not), you are addicted!

Phantom Vibration

Is there no new message on your phone but you could swear that you felt it? You do not have to worry that you are the only one – but you should worry because it is a sign of addiction. This phenomenon has earned its very own medical term – Phantom Vibration.

Similar situation is when we think we heard our name in a noisy room. Did we really?

Causes of Addiction

The causes of addiction are quite obvious. Smartphones are not only trendy and cool anymore. They also replaced many other devices of daily use – electronic or not.

We do not carry a map or GPS, cameras, mp3 players or portable DVD players. Smartphones comprise all of them. We often use smartphone instead of computers or television. 

Furthermore, internet providers and app developers are continuously making us more and more hooked up. Watching YouTube videos, playing online games and checking social networks became an inseparable part of our daily routines.

Effects of Addiction

Smartphone addiction has got health, social and psychological consequences.

·  Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a painful, progressive condition that occurs when the median nerve in the wrist is compressed.

· Danger of short-sightedness is increased by constant looking onto the screen, especially at young age.

· Social disconnection – people think they are more social than ever before because of their omnipresent smartphones allowing them to text with their friends. Facebook, Twitter, Viber, WhatsApp, KakaoTalk… all of them make us feel that we are socially active while we are just alienating ourselves from the others.

· Digital Dementia is characterized by memory deficits, attention disorders and emotional flattening among young people who spend too much time using a gaming device, web searching, texting, and multimedia on smartphones.

· Insomnia is a sleeping disorder. There are many causes and smartphones are one. Do you take your smartphone to bed? Do you play or text even after the lights are off? Those are the reasons causing your troubled sleeping at night and tiredness during the day.