8 Surprising Effects of Technology on Health

The Oxford advanced learners dictionary defines technology as “scientific knowledge used in practical ways.” At the same time, health is the condition of a person’s body or mind. In other words, health can be defined as the totality of one’s state of mind.

However, we will be looking at the effect of the application and use of technology. Using tech in our contemporary world is not a bad idea nor something we can’t do without. The advantages cannot be denied or underestimated; it has been so helpful in making our day-to-day activities more efficient and less stressful.

Looking back, we can see that when it was not in the spotlight, things weren’t as effective as they would be. The coming of technology has helped many facilities come alive and helped in the sector of so many products and manufacturing companies today.

Its existence has helped shape and broaden our knowledge more to synchronize with things in vogue. It has helped the digital space to provide information, entertainment and communication more effectively. But it’s important to note that whatever has an advantage would have a disadvantage.

Technology can have adverse on health physically, morally, mentally, and socially.

What are the Physical effect of technology on health?

1. Eye strain is caused by spending a lot of time on tech devices such as mobile phones, tablets etc.
2. Poor posture: most people become unconscious of their posture pattern when dealing with and handling technology. This could result in bad posture and lead to musculoskeletal issues. This is caused by a lot of pressure applied to the neck and spine.
3. Another effect of tech on health is sleep difficulty due to the blue light from mobile phones. It tends to stimulate the brain.

As we’ve stated earlier, it has brought a lot of good change in the world. Still, its dependency has also increased, which can have a detrimental effect on our mental status if we are not careful.

What is the effect of technology on mental health?

1. Too much screen activity can adversely affect your brain. The brain is wired to crave more of the screen. It makes people starve themselves to get more screen activity or even continue pressing their phones while eating. Starving your body of sleep could also spell doom on your mental health as it reduces the ability to focus and concentrate on tasks.
2. Over time, we all know that one of the majors of technology is that it’s a device for information. Not all information is healthy, which could make a reader or an audience fall prey to anxiety and nervous disorder. Studies have shown that patients who fall victim to depression and anxiety are those who research their symptoms online. Fake news can affect the mind gravely.
3. Addiction to it can cause psychiatric symptoms, correlating with long-lasting situations; a person loses control and has the urge to repeat the same behavior. Among teens, addictions can lead to aggressive or repulsive behaviors; they get tense and unstable without their mobile devices.
4. Another effect of it is that it has made people’s minds wander, thereby compromising their capability to focus and reducing their sympathy abilities. The Internet has made many lose their ability to hold meaningful interactions with people.

What are the positive effects of technology on general health?

1. It helps the brain assimilate new things; many things can be learned with tech. It has helped people learn courses, take cooking lessons, and acquire basic skills. The opportunities bound to it are boundless; you can go to school and get certified right by pushing the buttons.
2. It keeps the mind active because one can think outside the box and be creative, which is good for mental health. With the various features and flexibility of programs on the net, the mind becomes flexible and open to new ideas. Content creators and innovators get their lit bulbs from tech as well.
3. It helps thinking proficiency to be more versatile and vast and makes communication faster and easier, thereby causing our social fitness to be more interesting. The scope of communication has increased from a local to a global scale. With technology, you can get in touch with people far and wide, making the exchange of data limitless.

How can the negative effect of technology on health be averted?

The negative effect can be averted if we:

1. Take regular breaks away from the screen, which may reduce eye strain risk. Especially for workstation workers, frequent short breaks will be good to prevent the ills of long screen time.
2. Reduce the screen brightness of your devices to avoid eye strain. To correct lousy posture from staying too long on technology devices, you must be self-conscious and avoid remaining in a position for a long time. Change position, take a walk, or stretch to keep the muscle loose and avoid tension.
3. It takes discipline not to get addicted to your tech devices. You have to be disciplined, determined, and conscious when handling them. If you are a parent or guardian, help your wards to discipline their screen time and schedule activities, especially before bed.

How Can Technology Affect society?

Many people ask if technology can affect society.

Yes, it plays a more significant role in affecting our society. It’s the society that births the existence of technology.

As we all know, it’s not just social media but a proper scientific application of knowledge that makes things more accessible at home, school, or work. Using machines in companies can cause pollution and contaminate the air, making the air terrible for the inhabitants. Such release can affect the lungs, leading to medical conditions related to the respiratory system.

It can affect society because civilization has taken over the culture where bad images are smudged as a good way of life.

Social media device was birthed by technology and has led the majority of society astray, especially young adults who engage in cybercrimes and watch pornography. Cybercrime, now a thing of the ordinary among youth, taints society’s image. Pornography, on the other hand, has polluted intellectual minds to become perverts; these are images not meant for younger ages, which has influenced a lot of moral decadence.

How can technology affect you and others?

The misuse of technology can significantly affect children. This can be seen as follow:

• Lack of attention: studies have shown that tech has reduced the ability to focus on tasks. A simple notification on their phone can lead to wandering thoughts and distractions.
• Addiction: technological devices are very stimulating to our brains, making it difficult for them to focus on other activities. Games and videos could make them skip meals and procrastinate tasks.
• Poor academic performance: promising tech can help boost a student’s academic performance with the various available sites to improve learning. At the same time, it can also negatively affect your kid’s grade at school. Using technology for other purposes could make them skip studying their books and hence, poor preparation, ultimately leading to poor performance.
• Victims of cyberbullying: teens are more interested in exploring technology than adults; therefore, children could be victims of bullying in cyberspace without proper guidance and supervision. This could, in turn, lower their self-esteem and, in worse cases, lead to suicide, especially among teens.
• Poor posture: most people have developed poor posture from launching their back and bending their necks. Text Neck Syndrome has become common among teens due to extended texting time.
• Depression: it can lead to depression in the sense that we could start to compare ourselves to those we see on social media. Then we have a feeling of missing out on the trends and also starving our bodies of sleep. This is a typical teen’s state of mind.
• Anxiety: scrolling through your phone often gives the brain a reward of dopamine which excites the body. The more we scroll, the more the body craves this reward of dopamine; perhaps at any point in time, if network connectivity is lost, anxiety sets in. That is why most teens get emotional when their phones are taken from them.
• Antisocial: the Internet has made people less social and reluctant to communicate with friends and family. This has made them keep to themselves more. Being antisocial sometimes makes teens unable to express themselves adequately, leading to poor interpersonal communication.

In conclusion, most of the effects are interrelated. The world is in a growing phase with new development and innovation related to tech. Just as its side effects, it also has a handful of benefits that contribute to healthy living. The use is never the problem, but check how you’ve been using it; are you using it the wrong way or the right way?

However, we must come to terms with how technology affects you just as you let it. What do you lose when you get more intentional with using tech? Definitely nothing; it helps to keep you off the harmful zone. Choose the right thing. Stay safe, stay healthy. Your health is your wealth.