I was sitting in class on a normal Tuesday when my professor was explaining the assignment for the weekend. We were to turn in our smart phone’s on Friday and spend the weekend living deliberately without technology and our phones would be returned to us on Monday. Thinking about completing this assignment filled me with a sense of absolute dread, I did not want to give up my phone. My thoughts immediately began racing, my heart rate sped up, and I started to panic a little. I felt surely something awful would happen this weekend in which I didn’t have my phone. Maybe I would get injured and have no way of contacting EMS, perhaps someone in my family would get hurt and I wouldn’t be able to receive that news, or perhaps I would miss an important email from the internship I started in just two weeks. My complete panic about being separated from my technology got me thinking; I was so worked up into a tizzy over the thought of losing my phone, what would happen to my mind and body when I did not have my phone? What is this technology doing to my health? Is it harmful for me to use technology and feel the way I feel about it?
In todays current time almost everyone over the age of 20 uses a smartphone. 95% of millennials and Generation Z own or have access to a smartphone 1. During a poll nearly half of all American’s reported they “could not live without” their smart phone 2. This constant access to technology keeps people connected to their family, friends, and brings the vast knowledge fo the internet to our fingertips but how is it affecting our physiological and mental health?
I designed a study to test the affects of technology use on physiological health, in this case specifically overnight blood pressure. Increased overnight blood pressure is the leading blood pressure related cardiovascular health risk 3. Considering 40% of all deaths are cardiovascular related, it is an appropriate measure of physiological consequences to one’s lifestyle 4.
Participants in the study took a battery of surveys including the Perceived Stress Scale, MBTI personality test, Social Media and Technology Usage Attitudes Scale, Need to Belong Scale, and Fear of Missing Out Scale. They were then asked to wear a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor that recorded blood pressure every 20 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes overnight.
After testing 68 participants the results were in, use of technology is having significant health affects on blood pressure. Participants who reported higher anxiety around not having access to their technology and/or a greater dependence on technology had increased overnight systolic blood pressure. Additionally, participants who reported greater perceived stress using technology had increased overnight heart rate. This pilot study pioneers the effort in determining the health effects of our ever increasing technology usage. It remains to be seen what the long-term health affects of this increased blood pressure and heart rate are but we know one thing for certain, technology use is not as harmless as it seems.
References:
1. Alt, D. College students’ academic motivation, media engagement and fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior. 2002; 49:111-119.
2. Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. Teens, social media & technology 2018. Pew Research Center, 2018; 31.
3. Fagard, Robert H., Hilde Celis, Lutgarde Thijs, Jan A. Staessen, Denis L. Clement, Marc L. De Buyzere, and Dirk A. De Bacquer. "Daytime and nighttime blood pressure as predictors of death and cause-specific cardiovascular events in hypertension." Hypertension 51, no. 1 (2008): 55-61.
4. American Heart Association. "Heart disease and stroke statistics 2017 at-a-glance." Geraadpleegd van: https://healthmetrics. heart. org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Heart-Disease-and-Stroke-Statistics-2017-ucm_491265. pdf (2017).
Wow, my blood pressure went up reading this! I would not turn my phone in during the weekend for a class. Though it's not so much of a fear of missing out, unlike twenty years ago when people had cell phones AND landlines, it was easier to contact people. Sure there is email, but I just immediately thought of my parents who barely have cell phones and still utilize their landline. If I didn't have my phone, they could not contact me, especially since my mom's email is through her work that she doesn't have access to at home. My parents being older, I would not want to not have the ability to access them. However, given that cell phones now have so many features on them, especially social media outlets, people are becoming "addicted" to them much earlier on in life (Gutierrez, Rodriguez de Fonseca, Rubio, 2016). Though I like searching through apps and news feeds on my device, it's not so much losing the ability to access those functions so much as the actual ability for my parents to get a hold of me. As you mentioned, what if you were in an accident or someone else was or your job was calling you; you would want to know. We have become reliant on these devices for keeping us connected, but by keeping us connected we are not exploring all that we possibly could be in a healthy manner. Instead of getting outside to explore, we stay locked in reading. Or if you're me, you're awake for two hours before getting out of bed going through Facebook, Instagram and Reddit before finally deciding I should actually just get out of bed. And what do I gain by doing this? Nothing but lost time honestly. I don't even really like doing it, it's just a mild distraction from facing the days responsibilities and thus right away in the morning not putting me in a good head space for the day. Smart phones have definitely been an improvement in making life easier, but with any improvements there are costs associated. Mental health, physical health (blood pressure increase), and the endless bombardment of information is affecting us negatively (Rosen & Samuel, 2015). It really makes you think about when children should first be exposed to smart phones and at what capacity do they engage in either using one or carrying one frequently. I didn't have my first cell phone until I was 18, and it was a flip phone where you had to hit a number three times just to get the letter you wanted. Seeing how technology has advanced since my first phone and the way smartphones are utilized, it will be interesting to see long term side effects of what carrying a smartphone has on one's perceived image of themselves, their mental health and their overall health due to the attachment of this mini pocket computer.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Gutierrez, J. D-S., Rodriguez de Fonseca, F., Rubio, G. 2016. Cell Phone Addiction: A Review. Front Psychiatry, 7:175. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00175
Ronsen, L., Samuel, A. 2015. Conquering Digital Distraction. Harvard Business Review. June 2015, 110-113.
For a class last semester, I designed and ran a study examining the effects of sociocultural body ideals as portrayed through social media. We didn't find anything significant in our study, but I ended up doing a lot of research about how social media affects our mental health. Most of the studies I looked at pointed out that social media is a platform that we use to compare ourselves to others, whether we realize it or not. We get that "fear of missing out" due to the fact that if we are missing out, we aren't part of the sociocultural "norm." It speaks to out need to conform, to feel like we belong. It hurts our self-esteem, making us more prone to anxiety, depression, and the physiological consequences of chronic stress. Smartphones make all of that easily accessible and very addictive. A combination of blue light and social anxiety makes it hard to sleep, hard to focus, and hard to keep ourselves balanced.
ReplyDeleteEckles, K, Roberts, L. R., Rose, J. P. & Vogel, A. (2014.) Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(4), 206–222. doi: 10.1037/ppm0000047
This topic is extremely interesting as well as scary. I wanted to read more about cell phone addiction in America. In the search bar I typed in “Cell phone addiction”. The number of articles that appeared claiming titles of “the new wave of killers” or “the shocking truth of cell phone addiction” is indeed shocking. The first article I read was enough to pique my interest in the magnitude of this problem. The article stated the average person spends roughly 3 hours of their day on their phones and picks up their phone 110 times. 40% use them in the bathroom and 15% in the shower! This problem is most severe for teens, 50% of teens admit they are addicted to their phones and could not go a day without them. This problem had more devasting affects including a 26 percent increase in car accident rates.
ReplyDeleteThis news is shocking! It made me curious of my own smartphone activities. After looking at my “screen time” setting in my phone I realized I spend 2 hours a day on my phone and pick it up 79 times a day. However, the time spent on the phone is not dedicated to academic purposes, it is consumed by social media. I recognize that my usage is below the national average, but I still find that number to be too high. I am definitely going to try and limit my usage. Even going as far as leaving my phone at home some days. I might complete this professors challenge to see if I can complete it.
References:
LaVecchia, T. (2017, January 13). Cell Phone Addiction in America - The Shocking Turth. Retrieved October 11, 2019, from https://www.lifehack.org/521175/cell-phone-addiction-america-the-shocking-truth.
Thanks for the read! This is such a relevant topic considering the average time spent on phones is 3 hours. I think most people can agree that we spend more time on our phone than we probably should. Although there are so many useful features with smartphones making many aspects of our daily life easier (connecting with friends, navigation, entertainment), we need to make sure we use in moderation. Being connected and having access to information 24/7 can really affect our mental health. Excessive cell phone use, especially social media use, may be causing anxiety and depression symptoms (Shensa et al., 2018). Should we focus on limiting cell phone use in general or specifically social media use? In addition, maybe we are using our cell phones to ease our anxiety? There are times I catch myself reaching for my phone to scroll Instagram when I feel a little stressed. Regardless of the reasons why we pick up our phones, it is clear that smartphone use continues to rise and the long-term effects of this usage are not clearly known.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Shensa, A., Sidani, J. E., Dew, M. A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., & Primack, B. A. (2018). Social Media Use and Depression and Anxiety Symptoms: A Cluster Analysis. American Journal of Health Behavior, 42(2), 116–128. doi: 10.5993/ajhb.42.2.11
Thanks for this great post, i find it very interesting and very well thought out and put together. I look forward to reading your work in the future. comprar smartphones
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