Digital Disease

This is everyone’s motto, no matter the line of work you are in. Our digital work and lifestyles have melted together with the help of our social media, interconnectedness with mobile devices and some clever AI algorithms tracking/predicting our every move. This of course, as nature has provided, produces pressure. Atoms stirring about will cause heat and pressure to increase. Pressure in turn, causes things to pop or if the container is strong enough to melt.

If we apply Newton and his clever gangs’ findings about natural law to our current trajectory, most of us are in serious trouble. There is always cause and effect, equal reactions to our actions. The “pop” result is the physical damage we do to ourselves and “heat” the possible mental meltdown on the horizon.

Physically we have a lot of evidence proving that our over usage of electronics does influence our bodies. We have an ongoing debate over the effects of RF (Radio Frequency) and it leading to cancers of all types. We have increasing cases of eye ailments including impaired vision and eye irritation from working on displays every waking hour. Neck Strains and Back Pains are the direct result of poor posture. Then there is the obesity and the overweight-unfit challenge – this is not a TikTok challenge.

Much to be said for the state of our bodies overall all wellbeing from the extra pressure. It is well known that stress causes or intensifies hypertension in humans, but from our new habits one would say that diabetes and cardiovascular disease is our biggest threat.

However, the lack of exercise or even lack of other interest besides, from what is happening on the phone, laptop, or game console is easier to get balanced.

 Intentional changes in posture can help. Like having an external keyboard and mouse that forces you away from the screen to be in a more upright position. Make sure you have the correct office or home furniture for your sitting position and having a screen timer app to force you to take a break now and then. There are plenty of remedies to fix the physical that is easy to implement, but to enforce it would be a mental thing, right?

This is the worrying part for me personally. What happens in our Brain from all of this? Surely there is clinical help if you cannot identify the problem? The calamity is that we mostly deny the problems. None of us think that anything is wrong because we meet the problems daily and it is just part of life. For me personally it has become apparent that there was a problem when I could not even answer my personal phone anymore. I could see and hear it ring, I knew who was on the other end (which made it worse somehow) and I was 90% sure what it was about but could not answer.

 I could and still would much rather send a text message later saying, “Sorry I was in a meeting; how can I help?” – hoping they will not call this time.

I identified this as anxiety. For some of you it might sound ridiculous, others would relate. My over usage caused me to become anxious to use my phone.

 It can be my mother, brother, friend, or foe. I will not answer a call until I have prepared what I am going to say. It is the same with messaging or emails I receive.

I might as well walk around with an unpinned grenade. Personally, I am on the phone so much that it has come to this. For me, it is the phone, for other people it might be a game console, laptop, or TV.

Social and internet media has several mental impacts. We find ourselves being triggered subliminally by a post, picture or tweet and then dive headfirst into the comments section. Next moment we are “doom scrolling” through hundreds of negative comments. This happens almost accidentally as you were triggered by something nonsensical and now you have an opinion about it that you didn’t even know you had.

 An influencer is now a job title! It is someone’s daily purpose to find things that will trigger you, based on your interests (collected by many search engines and online habits). It then gets repeatedly shoved into your face with opinionated beliefs stamped on it. Again, affirmed by the comments section. Many people experience an online or social loneliness and depression from all the negativity experienced online.

As terrible as it sounds, most of us experience a level of addiction to this torture. Unbelievably we all get home and start doom scrolling from scratch.

Although confirmed that these ailments might be a direct result from increased technology use, there is no stopping the rise of our 4^th industrial revolution. It is and will be the way of the future. Let us hope that our detriment from digital lives will also be our saving grace….