Internet Zombies

Did you know the average person spends four years of their lifetime on Smartphones, computers or other devices?

Did you know, research has proven that the average person spends 4 years of his or her lifetime looking at their electronics? This includes smartphones and computers, among other electronic devices.

The average teenager spends most of their day looking at screens (iPads, iPhones and other devices), while spending little time with their friends and families.

“Did you know the average human attention span is one second lower than a goldfish?” Technology can lead to many negative effects on us such as isolation, depression, obesity, addiction, stress, lack of privacy, vision loss, and hearing loss.

Isolation: Social isolation is the lack of contact with other people in normal daily lives, such as in the office, at school, with friends, family and in other social activities. We tend to isolate ourselves by listening to our smartphones, iPods, computers or other screens. It’s been shown that people who are socially isolated will live shorter lives.

Depression and stress: Technology makes it much easier for people to get depressed with the lack of human interactions.  This causes them to socially isolate themselves.

Poor sleeping habits: We are so into technology that we sometimes get sucked in our own imaginary world with constant streaming for new information, texting, watching videos or movies. Looking at screens at night makes it very difficult to put the brain to rest.  Going to bed without our screens might even become a problem.  In a study consisting of 10,000 16 to 19 year olds, it was found that spending more than four hours a day looking at screens results in 49 percent greater risk of taking a longer than an hour to fall asleep, and makes you 3.5 times more likely to get under five hours of sleep a night.

We should be more mindful of the the time we spend using technology. If you have longer conversations with siri than you have with real people, that means it is time for you to put you devices down, or away and do another activity that does not involve you looking at screens. Creating a balance between your devices and other activities will help you enjoy the awesome benefits of technology without becoming an “internet zombie.” (a person who is in need of sleep who is mindlessly surfing the internet. Usually an insomniac who gave up tossing and turning in bed who turned on the computer to have something to do: urbandictionary.com)