On an emotional level, technology overindulgence has led to escalating levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, along with a warped sense of reality and desensitization. ’Digital dementia’ has sadly been coined to depict the negative intellectual fallout of poor memory, deteriorating cognitive capacity, and shrinking attention spans seen in today’s youth who overuse technology. The resulting social implications are many, including isolation, detachment, lack of boundaries, and increased aggression coupled with decreased empathy for others. Although constant …show more content…
A burgeoning amount of scientific evidence proves that the net, with its continual distractions and interruptions, is manufacturing scattered and superficial thinkers. “Digital Dementia”, is a term created by top German neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer in his 2012 book of the same name, used to characterize how overuse of digital technology is horrifically resulting in an incredible breakdown of cognitive abilities in a way that is more commonly seen in people who have suffered head trauma or psychiatric illness. Individuals who rely too much on digital tools may suffer deterioration in cerebral performance, such as short term memory dysfunction, a decrease in the ability to focus, and deficits in attention span. Many heavy net users, specifically 18% of those between 10 and 19 years of age who use their smartphones for an excess of seven hours daily, cannot perform simple memory tasks such as recalling their own phone numbers. Even more graphic is the MRI research that has shown that the brains of Internet users who don’t control their use exhibit changes very similar in nature to drug and alcohol addicts. A 2011 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change study demonstrated that digital addicts went through physical and mental withdrawal symptoms after unplugging from technology for only one single day. The intellectual mixed with the emotional consequences of internet indulgence paints a dark …show more content…
Gazing at your phone all day has triggered people to wreck their spines. When you tilt your head 60 degrees to stare at your phone, you’re putting 60 pounds of pressure on your neck. Sitting in front of computers all day can negatively affect our stature, causing a bad back (Holmes). Too much technology use also has led people to strain their eyes. Too much eye contact with our screens is exhausting our sight, and this is causing our vision to become blurry and drying our eyes out. Nearly 70% of American adults say that they’ve experienced symptoms of digital eye strain at some point in their lives (Holmes). If you stare at a screen for too long, you may experience tension headaches as another result of digital eye strain. Reading dark text on a bright screen can lead to muscle spasms at the