StudyCentre

Constantly looking down into a hand-held screen or jutting the neck out while using laptops puts a lot of pressure on the spine. The number of hours we spend on various devices everyday makes us susceptible to a host of problems including acute and chronic neck, shoulder, back, elbow, wrist, and thumb pain.

Apart from device usage, the increased anxiety and stress related to answering messages and calls from time to time can trigger muscular spasms, aches and pains.

It impacts breathing and functioning of structures, leading to poor posture. Smartphone is also a cause for parent-child conflict in 30% of the cases. On an average, people spend 30 to 60 minutes in the bed playing with the smartphone before sleep.

Some tips from Heart Care Foundation of India:

• Electronic curfew means not using any electronic gadgets 30 minutes before sleep.
• Take a Facebook holiday for seven days every three months.
• Avoid use of social media once in a week for the entire day.
• Use your mobile phone only when mobile.
• Do not use computer for more than three hours in a day.
• Limit your mobile talk time to more than two hours in a day.