10 Reasons to Worry about Negative Effects of Mobile Phones

You may believe mobile devices are not a health hazard. But are they the new Big Brother predicted by George Orwell in his book 1984? It could be argued that there are numerous anti-social threats posed by modern technology and the negative effects of mobile phones on society are a major contributor. The effect of excessive use of mobile phones on health and cell phone radiation are still not fully known or at least not universally agreed on.

It’s possible in a bizarre situation that an I-Pad, I-Phone or Smart-Phone could actually land you in hospital or, even worse, kill you. The effects of excessive use of mobile phones can have serious consequences. What are the harmful effects on students, and their effect on human health? We should be aware of the facts.

Sit up and take notice.

If a Smart-Phone can kill you, we should all be concerned about the negative effects on Society. Here are 10 negative effects of Mobile Devices.

• Information Overload
• Discomfort, Agitation and Stress
• Cell phone radiation effects.
• Human replacements – Robots
• Lack of verbal interaction
• Peer pressure
• Privacy ceases to exist
• Don’t let the Monster control you
• Road accidents

Negative Effects of Mobile Phones on Society

Information Overload

Information overload makes communication more difficult and leads to greater stress. When we use Mobile Phones excessively the negative effects are well documented.

Do you remember when you got your first mobile phone? How excited you were. But how much time it took to set up and understand. And in those far-off days, it was just a ‘PHONE. As they were developed, over the years, they got lighter and smaller. How brilliant it was and how happy you were then.

But my oh my, how things have changed as the juggernaut of technology rolled on. It tramples us underfoot, leaving us confused in its wake with anxiety and depression. It supplies us with never-ending products which enable us to learn and communicate faster and better. 

A misconception if ever there was one! Excessive use of anything always has dire consequences. Drug and alcohol use are prime examples.

Discomfort, Agitation and Stress

Mobile phone effects on health are manifested in discomfort, agitation and stress.

We are not in control anymore. But how quickly are we learning that the Masters of Technology are forcing us to accept a new way of interacting?

And it does not require us to use our vocal chords or ears. Even if we don’t have a speech impediment or hearing disability, they drag us into a silent world of non-verbal communication.

Mobile phones are one of the devices we use that create discomfort, agitation and stress, all of which are detrimental to our health.

Mobile Phone Radiation

It is difficult to find a definitive answer to the radiation effect argument for the obvious–conflict of interest reasons.

But if it is universally accepted that mobile devices emit radiation, they must have some effect on humans which is unlikely to be beneficial.

‘Mobile phones emit radiofrequency energy, a form of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, which can be absorbed by tissues close to the phone. The amount of radiofrequency energy a mobile phone user is exposed to depends on many factors as the technology of the phone, the distance between the phone and the user, the extent and type of mobile phone use and the user’s distance from cell phone towers.

In 2011, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified mobile phone radiation possibly carcinogenic, means that there “could be some risk” of carcinogenicity, so additional research into the long-term, heavy use of mobile phones needs to be conducted.

While an increased risk of brain tumours from the use of mobile phones is not established, the increasing use of mobile phones and the lack of data for mobile phone use over time periods longer than 15 years warrant further research of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk. In particular, with the recent popularity of mobile phone use among younger people, potentially longer lifetime of exposure, WHO has promoted further research on this group and is currently assessing the health impact of RF fields on all studied endpoints. A cohort study in Denmark linked billing information from more than 358,000 cell phone subscribers with brain tumour incidence data from the Danish Cancer Registry. The analyses found no association between cell phone use and the incidence of glioma, meningioma, or acoustic neuroma, even among people who had been cell phone subscribers for 13 or more years.’

International Journal of Health Sciences

Human Replacements – Robots

Another of the negative effects of mobile phones becomes apparent when we are led into the silent world of robots.

We exchange incomprehensible word bytes with the creators of software who unsubtly avoid any interaction. Referring us instead to FAQ’s where, we know,most of the answers cannot be found. To their annoyance, we may find a contact email address hidden away. It will be in a dusty corner of a website, where they hoped we wouldn’t spot it.

Chat

You will seldom find a telephone number, but you are invited to CHAT. Don’t expect to find a human being who will speak to you on the subject of your enquiry. You will be met by a robot trying desperately to fool you it is a real person. Unless you are a robot too, you should spot it sounds like a serial killer in a phone booth taunting the DCI who is trying to catch him.

Lack of Verbal Interaction

If we don’t talk to each other, the flow of opinion and ideas will dry up.

You probably don’t phone anyone often. You understand people aren’t interested in speaking to you or anyone else much anymore. They would rather waste countless hours, on their amazing new mobile devices.

There they confuse the hell out of everyone they contact, by sending thousands of messages. Messages that only bear a passing resemblance to the language, you learnt forty years ago, sent to people they don’t care about anyway.

Could poor language skills mean a breakdown in society? Without a doubt. Read the post to get my views.

Peer Pressure

Cloning is underway. If you don’t walk around with earplugs that look like cigarette butts you will be seen as an odd ball. You finally concede defeat to your friends at the squash club.

If that doesn’t happen, it embarrasses you when your daughter’s friend says you look ten years younger than you are. But to be cool you must get one of the latest mobile devices.

They tell you it is an essential appendage you can’t do without in the modern world. As though you just climbed out of a First World War trench on the Western Front. Then your teenage son chips in and says – ‘people will think you are a ‘crusty old man’ if you don’t have one’.

You give in under the pressure, and soon find out that you can do nearly everything on your new device except make coffee. It cost you more money than you’ve ever spent on yourself., but you get emails (the majority of which you don’t want). You also have Facebook, Twitter, ITunes, and another 100 things called apps. You have no interest in any of them and no idea how they work.

But you play along and pretend you are hooked.

Privacy Ceases to Exist

You can’t go anywhere or do anything without your mobile device – It feels like you are being stalked. No-one told you it was a government tracking device.

 Even though it’s twice the size of your old mobile phone it is not big enough to live alone. Like your dog, it must accompany you everywhere and you must never turn it off or tie it to a lamp post outside the grocer’s shop. And it makes weird noises all day long.

It takes you time to realise your pockets aren’t filled with parrots and cockerels. And the TV isn’t turning itself on and off. It’s you sitting on the control buttons.

But because you have followed your squash buddies and your children’s advice to the letter you are now at everyone’s beck and call 24/7. If you don’t respond within seconds to a communication, they will assume you have died.

So you end up with constipation because you don’t want to be caught in the loo with your trousers down. Then you start to smell bad because you can’t afford the time to take a shower until two am. Thats the time when everyone you don’t want to communicate with is safely asleep.

Don’t Let the Monster Control You.

Growing up without TV was not a problem when there weren’t any. Mobile devices are no different. Now you have one it’s too late. And you can’t fight it for fear of the physical backlash.

In an effort to bring some sanity back into your life, which the device has control of, you offer to take your wife and kids out for a meal to a smart restaurant. Everyone is eating one-handed, as though disabled, but you see the other hand preoccupied, texting at lightning speed. Not a word is spoken until you ask for the bill.

When you arrive home you ask your wife politely “Do you remember me, honey?” Whereupon she smashes you half to death with the expensive I-Pad you bought her last week. Fortunately, the doctor says you should make a full physical recovery. But will your sanity be restored?

It may be amusing but is just an example of the negative effects of mobile phones.

Road Accidents

25% of road accidents are caused by mobile phones.

Last but by no means the least important is self-inflicted. We cannot blame our Mobile Devices if we behave irresponsibly when using them, which results in the first incredible statistic on this list.

1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving.

The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year.

Nearly 390,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving.

Texting while driving is 6x more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.

Answering a text takes away your attention for about five seconds. Traveling at 55 mph, that’s enough time to travel the length of a football field.

Texting while driving causes a 400 percent increase in time spent with eyes off the road.

Of all cell phone related tasks, texting is by far the most dangerous activity.

94 percent of drivers support a ban on texting while driving.

74 percent of drivers support a ban on hand-held cell phone use.

edgarsnyder.com

Life Ain’t What it Used to be for Mobile devices.

(Featured image header: Photo credit: digital advices.com)

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Updated May 2024