Starting from a 3 year old, in today’s times there is not one person we can find whose life is not influenced by cellphones. Irrespective of financial status, profession and age a mobile phone is a must have accessory for everyone these days.
Around two decades back, the concept of a cellphone was slipped into our lives, like a drug slipped into our drinks.
And then we woke up one morning, only to find out that life as we know it has jumped a century ahead.
In cellphones, parents soon found a baby sitter. It seemed much easier to hand a mobile phone to a child rather than spending time with them.
But the question here is – Since nothing can compare or replace parent’s love for their children, can a cellphone replace a parent?
In case you have kid(s) in your home, you should know about these serious side effects of cellphones :-
1. Radiation
Cell phones emit a type of radiation that is known as Radio Frequency-Electromagnetic Radiation (RF-EMR), also referred to as microwave radiation.
There have been concerns from the scientific community about whether or not cell phones are safe. Cell phones are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer (due to adolescents putting cell phones in their bras), parotid (salivary) gland tumors, and sperm damage mainly for adolescents.
2. Social Skills
Cellphones are gateway to another dimension. In social gatherings now-a-days, we see everyone busy with their phones rather than interacting with each other. We live in a peculiar era where people, especially, the youths spend hours in social media networks while they find it boring or uneasy to socialize with family members and relatives in real life. We have shifted our feelings and emotions from genuine smiles to the casual smileys. We tend to care less and respect even lesser.
It is much easier to hook up with someone over the internet, rather than actually meeting up with someone and being vulnerable. Verbal communications are depleting and kids these days prefer a chat session rather than actual human interaction. Cell phones in fact are changing the social interaction patterns of our youths, which is quite alarming!
3. Brain Development
The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies cellphone radiations as a “possible human carcinogen”. Prolonged exposure to Radioactive electromagnetic fields can damage delicate cell development process in children.
It can hamper development of memory and destroy concentration.
4. Interpersonal Relationships
Having cellphones means, to have a virtual best friend. Children need to be monitored, as to what they are looking up on the internet.
Teenagers, especially the adolescents go through emotional as well as psychological turbulence of life. Due to various hormonal changes in the body, they feel as though nobody understand what they are going through and easy access to porn, cyber crime, sharing of explicit images spirals situation out of control before we can even sense it.
Everything on the internet is not authentic and true – as parents it is our responsibility to keep a watch on what our children are watching.
5.Eye sight
Extensive usage of cell phones can damage the retina, sclera, lens, cornea as well as vitreous humour which are the most important parts of the human eye. A cellphone should not be used more than necessary.
Users are advised to refrain using cellphones in rural areas or a car, where the cellphone uses more power. The human eye matches the wavelength of wireless signals used for cellphones or wireless devices.
Cellphones have their disadvantages more than advantages. We need to be more human and start connecting with one another more often on a personal level.
We may be modern and more technology oriented, but children still need the love and warmth of parents. They need to feel safe to be able to share their true feelings with their parents. Teenagers easily fall prey to frauds online and end up in situations which forces them to take their own lives.
We hand a three year old a cellphone, just to make him/her stop crying. But cant we adopt the techniques that parents of previous generations adopted in handling their children ?
We must grow and we need to grow. As technology grows, we have to be one step ahead of it. We can use it to our advantage by introducing relevant content to young adults, find a way to motivate them and use cellphones and Internet for their betterment and the society.