The Effects of Smartphone Usage on your brain

What are the health implications of smartphones? Let’s begin to understand this by keeping our phones aside. Honestly, analyze the time you can be without your Smartphone. Will you be able to go a day without using your phone for an hour or more? We wouldn’t be able to operate for very long without our phones. Smartphones have become ingrained in our daily routines.

The craze for it has gradually surged upwards in the last decade. Furthermore, it became more severe during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like everything else, Smartphone usage too has its share of pros and cons. Smartphones have enabled students to study remotely, assisted many of us with work, simplified daily chores, and even entertain ourselves. But using them too much may lead to Smartphone addiction. 

These cell phones affect our brain activity. You can monitor how much time do you spend on your phone with a number of applications. These apps show how much time you spent scrolling and searching with a weekly screen time report. The numbers on this report are scary for most of us. 

Remember the adage: – Too Much of Anything is Bad. Smartphones have simplified a lot many things in our lives. But, comparatively, it has affected us more adversely. 

Read on further to know what all this staring at the screens and scrolling does to your brain. 

 

Reduce Cognitive Ability

Several pieces of research have shown that Smartphones are adversely affecting our cognition. The process of cognition applies and learns knowledge through experiences, thoughts, and sensations. Smartphones are similar to that of an entire encyclopedia. You will have instant access to vast amounts of information about anything. Google it – is the new norm – to search anything and everything. 

It has led to a much more shallow or superficial way to retrieve information. Always turning to just Google things rather than other mediums is finding an easy way out. The more we become reliant on these types of sources or information aids, the less our brains process. Our brains don’t have to work very hard to find the information we require. 

 

Impairs Social and Emotional Skills

Have you ever noticed that the more time you spend with your Smartphone, the less time you spend with people? Since we are all so engrossed in our smartphones, I am sure we have all heard the saying that putting your phone down while talking to someone shows respect. This quote would have arisen from our habit of ignoring face-to-face conversations and focusing on the screens. It has made it more difficult to establish strong relationships and interpersonal connections. These are essential for our mental health and the community’s overall well-being.

The richness of communication, face-to-face interactions have all been lost with the introduction of smartphones. All our conversations are now on call or through texting. 

Take; a moment to consider how these devices and smartphones provide us with instant entertainment and information, making us impatient with face-to-face conversations.  Eventually, it may also lead to depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. 

 

It Can Make your Brain Lazy

With the ease these smartphones have provided us, we can no longer even memorize a phone number. Before the advent of smartphones, we used to remember several phone numbers with much ease. Any information required – we immediately Google it – and within a few seconds, we have the required information on our screens. 

This way, too much reliance on our smartphones has led us to mental laziness. 

Giving people the chance to store information outside of their brain remotely will make them more reliant on it. It will be detrimental to their memory. We become too dependent on various external aids and lose the ability to remember things. 

 

How Its Radiation can harm your Brain

We have come across several news pieces indicating the harmful effects of radiation from our smartphones due to our heavy use of screens and the internet. It is difficult to accept that the heat emitted by our phones while talking continuously for an hour is similar to that of the heat emitted by a microwave in one minute. 

Radiation interferes with our natural communication processes. The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland conducted a study that found that mobile radiation can damage brain tissues. Another research implies that the bone marrow of a child absorbs ten times more radiation than of an adult. 

While we all are so addicted to this machine, we should still practise caution. I am sure most of us would have never noticed that mobile phone websites carry statutory warnings related to Smartphone usage. In the fine print, they warn us to limit our talk time and keep the device at a considerable distance from our bodies. It is why they recommend using hands-free. 

 

The takeaway message: 

TruHap – the best child development center in Hyderabad understands the impact of smartphones on generation Z. 

You would have read about the harm caused by mobile phones in great detail above. But it also lends today’s children safety, security, educational support, health applications, GPS monitoring, etc. Using these smartphones, we have easy access to various information. 

Instead of watching television, read a motivational or fiction book. Spend quality time with your loved ones. Pick out a pen and practice your writing. Replace your screen time with pursuits that you enjoy. Replace the screen time with fulfilling your hobbies. Bond with your pets to feel happier and relieve stress. 

Reducing your phone time will improve your mental health and provide emotional clarity. To know more; on ways to minimize the screen time and focus on other activities, contact us – the best psychology center in Hyderabad at +91 9491 208 645 or write to us at info@truhap.com