Since being an active user of social media requires frequent use of some technological devices it also causes multiple health problems. Some of these damages are visible even to an outsider and shows how devastating this dependency can be. These visible health problems originating from social media usage, generally show some physical symptoms. As many people use social media to build the image of a perfect life and find it easier to condemn the others such posts can easily be subversive for those who have insecurities.
One of the most common ailment seen in social media users and caused by this judgmental attitude is anorexia nervosa, a disease caused by losing too much weight. Especially for young women, these offensive comments on their body can be more coercive and may force them to put their health
...at risk for the sake of changing their look. As written by Steven Levenkron in his movie, “Soon I'll be thinner than all of you, she swore to herself. And then I'll be the winner.
The thinner is the winner. “ (Wright quoted in “The Best Little Girl in the World” movie, 1981). This quote distinctly shows how influential an opinion can be on a person’s idea of herself even though it comes from a stranger. In some situations, this obsession can be fatal. When doctors obtained that a person has anorexia nervosa the aspect of the others that around the patient is important through the healing process because, with the idea of how great the lost weights is the better for her acceptance, no one may assume how far this determination can go.
Another widespread visible health problem seen in social
media users is obesity which can be described as having an abnormal amount of body fat. Obesity mostly stems from inactivity. Since usage of social media requires standing still for long hours in front of a device, the spent time can be hard to predict for the users. Especially for younger generations, social media usage starts at an early age and becomes a basic ritual of daily life, hence causing the user to decrease his activity time.
As mentioned in Hasan Çam and Naim Nur’s research, children with an addiction to frequent usage of technology make up 25 percent of obese children (Çam&Nur, 2015, p.4). This clearly shows that the addiction of social media deeply affects the human body with no age border. Unrelated from the metabolic rate or eating habits, overdose usage of social media transforms people. These statistics are especially frightening because obesity in early ages is more dangerous due to the fact that this over weights can be permanent or extremely hard to rehabilitate. Also since obesity is a serious health problem which disrupts the balances of the body, it can cause many other related diseases during adulthood.
As you can see these visible health problems should not be underestimated because they both have really strong physically damaging sides. Social media usage and it’s requirements directly disrupts the balances of the human body and can go far as changing the addicted person’s look, weight, body and the way of living. There are some other health problems causing from social media usage which are invisible due to the fact that they do not show any specific indication that can be observed by an outsider or
the patient in a short-term situation.
It is a common knowledge that cell phones, computers and these kinds of technological devices spread a certain amount of radiation. Radiation is basically ionized atoms with high energy levels. Radiation disrupts the cells and changes their genes which makes it very dangerous. Either if a person is a social media addict or just a frequent user it is obvious that he spends the most of his time with at least one technological device near him even though he is not using it at that moment.
Being exposed to radiation constantly is not only a simple threat to the human body, but it also bears an overall cancer risk. Even if the radiation is used for some medical treatments it still has a odds to cause cancer. A study on radiation therapy strongly verifies this information. Based on Thomas, Williams and Karaoglou’s research, almost 1 percent of people who were exposed to external radiation for medical purposes got thyroid cancer. This clearly shows that radiation has some side effects which are irrepressible.
The reason that it is this hard to prevent is that cancer in cells and organs does not show any clear sign to the patient. If the awareness period takes too long, the disease may come to a point where there is no cure or no way to treat because cancer grows in silence and can easily pass from one organ to another. Even though that early detection of cancer is related to the patient’s awareness, it would be reckless to disregard the fact that this illness occurs with the often exposure to radiation due to social media addiction.
Another invisible
health problem is insomnia which can also be seen in a longer-term situation. Insomnia is a sleeping disorder which makes falling asleep harder and usually followed by feeling tired, low energy or day time sleeping. When usage of social media goes as far as addiction, it usually pushes that addicted person to stay up all night going through the internet. Especially children can easily be affected by this disorder due to the fact that social media addiction is already normalized for their generation.
Also, parents tend to use cell phones or social media posts as a way to distract their child at nights and in years this becomes a habit for the child. According to Van Den Bulck, children with a habit of mobile phone usage after the lights out tend to feel tired. This research shows that insomnia has some side effects like disrupting daily life by making that person always feel tired at daytime. All of these assumptions are confirmed by numerous studies and the outcomes show that the addiction to social media is harmful to the human body and can cause many health problems.
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