Bre Avery
Don’t get me wrong: technology is astoundingly amazing. Technology provides so many beneficial products and services to the world around us. Technology improves our quality of life, our lifespan.
To every upside though, there’s most certainly a downside, and tech is no exception. There are surprisingly harmful effects technology can have on us all, especially as we continue to overuse technology, and we all need to be aware of the following.
Awareness is key and being informed will help you combat the negative effects so you can continue to enjoy the positive benefits technology brings to your life.
Depression
The correlation between depression and technology has mostly been studied in teenagers and young adults so far, but the results are shocking and are applicable to adults as well.
Jean Twenge is a well known psychology professor at San Diego State University who does a lot of research around how the rise of smartphone use in teens results in an increase in depression.
She recently contributed to a study that found: “Adolescents who spent more time on new media (including social media and electronic devices such as smartphones) were more likely to report mental health issues, and adolescents who spent more time on nonscreen activities (in-person social interaction, sports/exercise, homework, print media, and attending religious services) were less likely.”
Solution
Make time to put your phone away and do something else.
Go to the gym, go for a walk around the block, meet up with a friend for coffee, anything that gets you off your phone and out into the world.
Sleep Suffers
It’s try, your sleep is suffering due to technology. It’s easy to get sucked into social media or things on the internet and spend so much time on those things that you stay up way later than anticipated.
On top of that, there’s a study correlating the use of your smartphone around bedtime to a lack of sleep.
Additionally, people that use their phones right before bed take longer to fall asleep. Yikes!
Solution
Pick up a book when you get in bed instead! Or fall asleep to a tv show.
Stress
The level of stress everyone experiences from being too connected simply didn’t exist in the world prior to technology addictions.
The American Psychological Association found that 86% of Americans are addicted to their gadgets and of those who are constantly connected and checking social media, stress runs FAR higher than those who don’t engage in this.
Also worth noting in their study:
“Social media also negatively affects a greater proportion of constant checkers than non-constant checkers. More than two in five constant checkers (42 percent) say that political and cultural discussions on social media cause them stress, compared to 33 percent of non-constant checkers. Additionally, 42 percent say they worry about negative effects of social media on their physical and mental health (compared to 27 percent of non-constant checkers).”
Solution
Make sure you are giving yourself time away from social media and your smartphone. If you have to, make yourself a schedule every day where you give up even just an hour of everything and go disconnect instead.
Isolation
Studies are coming out that people who are more isolated have a significantly shorter life span.
Social isolation comes down to a lack of connecting with people on a daily basis or in your day to day life.
Having your headphones in, being constantly attached to your phone or on social media: all these things contribute to isolation.
Solution
Make time every day to make meaningful, in person connections with your friends, family, and coworkers.
Invite someone out to lunch or after work drinks with you and make a point of putting your phone away.
Bre is a female millennial go getter residing in New York. One part entrepreneur, one part geek, she obtained her degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology.
She has held some exciting roles in both fashion as a designer working for brands like Victoria’s Secret and Henri Bendel, as well as in ad tech working for publishers like Ziff Davis.
Today she operates her own luxury label and is also the Chief Chick at Chipchick.com which reaches millions of women each month.
Bre is passionate about keeping women informed of the latest technology trends and products to improve their lifestyle and believes in providing real, useful information and advice to her readers.
