However, that doesn’t give you a green light to justify your smartphone addiction. There are other health risks associated with smartphone use that have given rise to an entirely new nomenclature of iDiseases. Do any of these sound like you? If so, it may be time to cut the digital cord and take a break from your smartphone.
Text Claw and Cell Phone Elbow
If you’ve experienced the finger cramping and sore hand muscles after a period of smartphone use, you may be suffering from “Text Claw.” In addition, continuous use of your smartphone can cause inflammation of the tendons in your hands and aggravate existing conditions, like carpal tunnel syndrome. This syndrome, which is commonly linked to office and computer work, can be caused or aggravated by smartphone use, because overuse of tendons in the arms can cause inflammation, which can compress the median nerve and cause pain or numbness.
Are you feeling tingling or numbness in the ring and pinky fingers? You may be pinching your ulnar nerve by bending your elbow for long periods of time.
Easy iFixes
If your marathon smartphone session has your hands cramped and sore, put down the phone, bend your wrists and make circular motions with your hands. If you develop a chronic pain that lasts more than a week, call your doctor to get checked out.
iPosture or Text Neck
The slouched posture we assume when hunching over our phones for hours at a time is destroying our necks and damaging our back muscles. Doctors have begin referring to iPosture and Text Neck when describing the damage that is done by the stress we put on our neck muscles.
"Unless you train yourself to stare straight ahead into your iPhone screen, you could be continually stressing your spine," The Atlantic reported, noting that pressure increases from around 27 pounds at a 15 degree angle to 60 pounds at a 60 degree angle. Researcher Kenneth Hansraj concluded in the study that such stress could lead to early wear and tear that could someday require surgical attention.
Although slumping to check a smartphone screen is only one aspect of bad posture, "it's certainly eyebrow-raising to learn that looking at Twitter in the supermarket checkout line is the equivalent of giving an aardvark a piggy-back ride," The Atlantic noted.
Easy iFixes
If you can’t limit the amount of time you spend on your smartphone, re-train yourself to hold your phone up at eye level, rather than hunching your body over the device. This helps relieve lower back pain and neck strain.
Damaged iSight
Staring at the tiny font on our smartphones to read articles, status updates, tweets or emails is causing major eye strain, which leads to blurred vision, dizziness, dry eyes, and eye damage. The combination of blurred vision and sore neck muscles can also lead to some serious headaches.
Further, several studies in recent years have shown that our habit of checking our smartphones before bed causes disruption in sleep patterns and vision damage. The blue light emitted by smartphones is extremely bright, and therefore damaging to look at when the lights are off.
Easy iFixes
You can increase your phone’s font size so that you aren’t straining to read. Or, as Dr. Mark Rosenfield suggested to Men’s Health, you can be sure to hold your phone more than 16 inches away from your face and give your eyes a break - look up from what you’re reading every few minutes and focus on something that’s far away.
If you can’t resist making one final round on social media at bedtime, do so before you turn the lights out. And once it’s lights out - leave your smartphone on the charger.
Sleep Disruption
This same blue spectrum light that is damaging to our eyesight may also be preventing us from getting the rest and recharge we need at night. Blue spectrum light, which is also emitted by TVs, suppresses the brain’s natural release of melatonin, the hormone that helps our bodies regulate sleep and wake cycles.
Easy iFixes
Ideally, you should turn off your electronics an hour before bedtime to give your body a chance to amp up the melatonin. However, if you can’t resist staying plugged in with what little free time you have, buy a pair of orange-tinted glasses, which block blue spectrum light and prevent it from blocking melatonin production.
iFilth
Did you know that your smartphone is probably carrying around 10 times as many germs as those currently taking up residence in your toilet? According to a study by the University of Arizona, this creepy fact can be attributed to our cell phone behaviors. We take our phones with us everywhere we go, and set them down on filthy surfaces, touch them without washing our hands, and then forget to wipe them down. Per the study: “While toilets tend to get cleaned frequently, because people associate the bathroom with germs, cellphones and other commonly handled objects — like remote controls — are often left out of the cleaning routine.”
Easy iFixes
Clean your phone with antibacterial wipes frequently. Be mindful of where you set your phone, and wash your hands before you handle it. You really don’t need to check how many Facebook likes your last photo got before stepping out of the public restroom, after all.
Nomophobia
This term - short for “no mobile phone phobia” means exactly what it sounds like: a fear of being without your cell phone. According to a 2012 study conducted by OnePoll in the UK, 66 percent of the population fears losing or being without their smartphones at any given time. While it may sound humorous, this disorder, which was first identified in 2008, carries with it the symptoms of a true phobia or anxiety disorder: obsessively checking to be sure your phone is with you, increased stress levels and worry, and anxiety and physical symptoms if you’ve lost or cannot use your phone (such as a dead battery or water damage mishap).
Easy iFixes
If you believe you’re suffering from nomophobia, you can try deep breathing techniques or yoga. You can also work toward breaking the smartphone addiction - taking breaks from your phone and deliberately leaving home without it.