Protect your mind and body by making one day a week a technology free day!
At Waters Family Chiropractic, we are increasingly seeing both adults and children with postural dysfunctions and neck pain associated with excessive time spent looking at a screen.
Despite the Australian Health Department guidelines recommending children spend fewer than two hours per day looking at screens, a study by UWA surveyed 2,620 Australian children and found up to 80% of children were exceeding the daily limit.
According to research by the British Chiropractic Association, over half of people watch TV or use electronic gadgets in bed before dozing off, spending up to four hours per night staring at screens! Many use the excuse that it helps them get to sleep, not realising that in fact it does the opposite. The more hours spent hunched over small screens or sitting in uncomfortable positions leads to poor sleep, bad backs and necks and other spinal problems.
Whether it be a laptop, tablet, mobile or television; the mental, social and physical health impacts of excessive screen time have been shown to include depression/anxiety, social isolation and obesity. 'Social Media Anxiety Disorder' is on the rise and if you find yourself reaching for your phone every spare second, you might be the perfect candidate for a technology purge.
So let people know you are having a technology-free day, so they understand why you are not responding to them right away, and try this experiment:
- Wake up and turn off your phone, shut down your computer, unplug your television, put your iPod/iPad in a drawer and hide any gaming devices.
- Pick up a book, read for an hour and when you’re done, pull out a sheet of paper and write a letter. Go for a walk/bike ride outside or have a swim at the beach - what a great start to the day.
- Arrange the day before to meet up with friends and suggest a phone stack - have your pals stack their phones in the middle of the table and enjoy the live conversation, food (of which there will be no Instagramming) and eye contact. First person to reach for the phone picks up the tab.
No technology does not mean no fun. The point of cutting out technology is to not only improve your health, but to create more space for life.
Still not convinced? Then this excellent video by Gary Turk will surely make you reconsider.
