NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 31 August) – The mobile phone is getting cheaper and, thus, is easily available to many. Even in remote towns, market vendors and motorcab drivers have this gadget to advance their trade. The phone was found particularly useful during the coronavirus pandemic in online shopping for basic commodities, which greatly minimizes viral infection. The more advanced phone with internet access is convenient in facilitating distance education, sparing children from illness and the hazards of inclement weather.
The utility and advantages of mobile phones are, however, eclipsed by its ill effects on young users.
Constant staring at a mobile phone may cause eye dryness and blurred vision. Kids may have difficulty reading as a result. Using phones day and night ruins eye health and the damage might be for a lifetime. Thus, the practice of parents in giving a mobile phone to their pre-school kids to pacify them or to avoid their distraction in their chores should stop
Children staring at the phone screens all day long, with their heads bent and their shoulders drooped leads to bad posture, neck ache, headache, backache, and tendonitis.
Students find it fascinating to watch the virtual world in their phone and spend hours lost in it. They spend more times with their phone than with their books and other school activities, and losing focus, their academic performance suffers badly.
Indulging in video games and other applications and their long, addictive engagement may result to headaches, migraine, and anxiety.
Mobile phones compete with sports and social activities and would isolate their users. Even in get- together events, some participants continue to fiddle with their phone and remain isolated in the crowd. Needless to say, this behavior can seriously harm their mental and social health.
Accordingly, spending too much time on phone disturbs one’s sleep. The radiations being emitted by mobile phones tend to disturb the natural sleep pattern and cause sleeplessness and the blue light emitted by the phone keeps the brain awake and alert even at night.
The addiction to mobile phones is so strong that kids seldom do not let go of their phones, even in boarding a vehicle and while walking on the street or crossing the road. This increases the possibility of accidents.
Young users, who lack the mental and emotional capacity to deal with cyberbullying, may fall victims to it. This could result to low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.
There is a lot of inappropriate content on the internet. Students, who are too young to differentiate between fact and fiction, find this mesmerizing and could be misled. They may ape what they see and adversely affect their person and moral disposition.
Indeed, the fire from the gods has both use for good and evil. Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware).
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental)
