Are Mobile Phone And Tablet Use An Addiction That Is Causing Health and Social Problems?

Mobile Phones and Media Usage Are Up, Way Up In All Age Groups and Demographics. This Article Will Discuss Some Research That Is Very Concerning About Media Use and It’s Effect On Our Health.

The growing use of mobile media has led to concerns by many health care practitioners, researchers, and parents about the heavy usage and how it is effecting us… and for good reason!

Kids and Adults are spending upwards of 7 hours a day attached to their tablets, smart phones, computers, & gaming consoles. The effects of this heavy usage on their brains is being shown to be very harmful.

The Journal Pediatrics in 2007, discusses how high the usage was 10 years ago… and it’s grown dramatically since that time!

Here is what they reported in 2007:

• On a typical day 75% of children watched television and 32% watched videos for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes.
• 27% of 5  to 6 year olds used a computer (for 50 minutes on average) on a typical day.
• 1 out of 5  0 to 2 year olds and more than 1 out of 3 3 to 6 year olds had a television in their bedroom.
• 70% of 0 to 2 year olds did not fall within the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines (10 years ago!).

Young children are often given electronic devices because as parents we want our kids to have fun and they enjoy these devices.

Unfortunately, most people don’t know about a few of the shockingly bad effects this can have on them (and us!).

Researchers have identified some very concerning brain changes with heavier use of media.

‘Digital Dementia‘ was first described a German neuroscientist, Manfred Spitzer in his 2012, book Digital Dementia.

The term Digital Dementia describes how overuse of digital media is causing a breakdown of cognitive performance in a way that is more commonly seen in people who have suffered a head injury or psychiatric illness… resulting in very significant symptoms and reason for concern.

Symptoms range from short term memory loss, problems focusing, social isolation (see video above), to anxiety, and more.

The heavy use of internet has been shown to be associated with significant brain atrophy / loss of brain mass.

It’s very likely heavy mobile electronic media use is causing similar brain problems.

Authors Lin and Zhou summarize their 2012 on neuroimaging findings in internet and gaming addiction:

“Taken together, studies show internet addiction is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision making, and cognitive control.” 

Social Interaction Concerns from Media Use

A 2005  paper by Marilyn Campbell resented to the Social Change in the 21st Century Conference Center for Social Change Research on “The impact of the mobile phone on young people’s social life” discussed some positive and negative effects of kids having cell phones.

Some of the problems mentioned included significantly increased cyber-bullying, social isolation in some, weakened parental control of their kids, and separation of family due to use of cell phones.

Many others have discussed problems with social behavior because the heavy users are interacting so much less with others.

Musculoskeletal pain and problems from heavy computer and mobile device use.

It has been recognized for some time that heavy computer use is associated with postural changes, musculoskeletal problems and pain.

The growing use of mobile media has led to even more widespread neck, back, and other musculoskeletal problems.

There are many reasons for this ranging from changes in posture, overuse syndromes, reduced amount of movement/exercise, and more.

A 2017 study published in the Journal Applied Ergonomics, “Texting on mobile phones and musculoskeletal disorders in young adults: A five-year cohort study” found neck and arm problems associated with high use of texting on mobile devices.

This followed up a 2011 article in the same journal that found musculoskeletal problems in the neck, dominant shoulder, and thumb in hand held device users.

Another 2017 article, “Prevalence and risk factors associated with musculoskeletal complaints among users of mobile handheld devices: A systematic review” in the same journal found more reason for concern.

The researchers found…

• A high rate of musculoskeletal symptoms reported by mobile device users of up to 67.8%.

• Neck complaints were the most common among mobile device users.

• There is evidence that a head forward neck posture associated with higher frequency of phone calls, texting, and gaming was associated with greater musculoskeletal complaints reported by mobile device users.

Why is this happening? What is driving the high use of digital media?

Unfortunately, the use seems to be driven by addiction.

A 2012 paper published in the Journal Brain Science found functional MRI changes associated with addiction in those with heavy game and media use.

Given these findings and many more that we don’t have time to discuss here today…

It’s probably a good idea to start to evaluate media use in yourself and your family. It might be a good idea to cut back in order to avoid some of these potentially devastating health effects.

 

References:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/5/e1006

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0030253

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4061797/

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2015/10/28/peds.2015-2151

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687016301235

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687010001249

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687016301739

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27465354_The_impact_of_the_mobile_phone_on_young_people%27s_social_life