Technology When does it go from being a tool to an addiction?
We cannot question the high instrumental value of technology in the development and culture of humanity, but we must also understand that this advance has produced new threats to our health and quality of life.
Making use of it for our good on a day-to-day basis, either to satisfy our needs or to indulge ourselves, is not bad. However, we must set well the limits that separate the good use of technology and the abuse of the same that can be incurred.
The use of this is one of the challenges that human beings have had to face in this digital age, where there is greater connectivity, however, there is a greater tendency to isolation and risks that were not previously identified. Most of the population, specifically adolescents, cannot imagine a life without internet, since many were born and are growing up in a world where there are no distances, the search for and obtaining information is instantaneous and communication with the “ other ”is a message or a button for a call at any time and place.
There are many advantages that technology offers, currently with the closure of schools due to the coronavirus it has been the number one tool to give continuity to the teaching process of students and to save the school year. Like the adult in terms of jobs. It also opens channels of knowledge, improves training processes, is a new agent of socialization, allows social connection, brings those who are far closer together, facilitates alternatives to learn new things and provides means for leisure activities (movies, games, virtual visits to museums, places, attending virtual concerts) and the list can be endless.
Every day for a personal safety issue, parents provide their children with cell phones so that they stay connected and located in real time and in the face of an unexpected event, anguish and despair can be avoided. However, you can often see children and young people with smartphones with the freedom to search and find information not suitable for their age.
However, are we aware of the problem and the risks that technological development generates to our health when it becomes a technophilia?
When a person regardless of age uses electronic devices with high frequency and for long hours they may tend to abandon other important activities and responsibilities, here we mention some of the problems and risks to which we expose ourselves:
In this way, it is possible to understand how health is at risk and how sick situations arise every day that seriously threaten health and well-being, not only personal but of the entire population.
Now, how to help someone addicted to technology? BMI gives you some tips that can help you:
- The first thing for a child, adolescent or adult is to supervise what is the use that they are giving to technology, if it is as a tool or as an object of distraction and dependence.
- Talk and raise awareness about the aforementioned risks and clarify your doubts.
- Reorganize routines.
- Try to make the person establish a schedule for responsibilities and leisure, balancing the times.
- Encourage and provide recreational activities based on experiences, in such a way that they help to defocus the individual from the intensive use of electronic devices.
- Observe if there have been drastic behavioral changes in your lifestyle, in order to have more time to be connected. If this is so, it is a red flag, for which it is important to seek help from a health professional.
- Finally, remember that in the case of children and adolescents, parents model behaviors through example, therefore, evaluate what is the use and the time that you are spending to be connected to the network.
