I rely on my cell phone to get me through my day. I depend on it to wake me up in the morning, to remind me of any meetings or appointments that day, to keep me connected to my friends and family, and to be able to search the web at any moment. Have you ever heard of the saying, “too much of a good thing is bad”? Well apparently my cell phone, which is responsible for keeping me sane, is actually having negative effects on my health.
The National Institutes of Health has conducted research showing that the radiation emitted from only an hour use of cell phones is correlated to a person’s overall health. When talking on a cell phone, the part of the brain that is closest to the phone’s antenna has an increased consumption of glucose, or sugar. Even though scientists have stated that there is no known biological evidence to explain how the nonionizing radiation, which are weak energy waves emitted by cell phones, could potentially cause cancer, scientists remain concerned about whether the repeated stimulation of the brain from cell phones is having negative effects. Scientists believe that the increase in glucose production could be linked to the creation of free radicals, molecules, which in excess could be harmful to one’s health by damaging cells.
The NIH study does not tell us whether this increased brain activity from the use of cell phones is detrimental or even beneficial. The results from this study, however, should make us cautious about the over-use of cell phones. With regards to my personal addiction to my cell phone, I need to know if I am affecting my health. Imagine our generation in 15 years suffering from health problems because we abused today’s technology.
The benefits of technology should not out weigh the negative side effects. When technology tells a person to jump, instead of asking “why?”, they ask “how high?”. I feel that our society adapted to a technology dependent life, without first considering the detriments of technology. Now that many of us rely on technology to get us through the day, it will be hard to limit the use of cell phones, but we must think about the long term effects, instead of the benefits of technology today.
3 comments:
I do agree that too much of a good thing usually has terrible side-effects. I worry very much that so much technology is literally taking a physically detrimental toll on our bodies. I have seen many studies done on the effects of cell phones on our body tissues, and not many of the results of these scientific endeavors look promising. I hope that we are not accidentally turning all of our brains into mush by calling up our friends, family and others on a daily basis.
Blogger Christine Wilson said...
Can you imagine what would happen if cell phones were found to be dangerous, and were outlawed? I'm sure in our society, a safe alternative would be found fairly quickly. In the mean time, though, I can't even imagine the amount of uproar and chaos our society would face. Older people would say that they survived without them, so we don't need them now. I wonder, if we were forced to go without them, if that's true, or if we have changed the way our society works too much...
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