Mind Your Head When You Are Texting

The new age smartphones help us carry our daily routine efficiently with its various functions such as GPS, games, alarm, reminders, e-mails, etc. However, as these devices are turning to be boon to the mankind, it has its own side effects. The study by Chief of Spine Surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, Dr. Kenneth Hansraj reveals that we tend to bend our head down as we are busy on our phones either texting, gaming or working.

The adult’s head weighs around 10-12 pounds (approx 4-6 kg) when in the upright position. However, as we gradually get involved in texting activity on the phone, due to gravitational pull, we tend to bend our head more and more towards the phone. This is where the problem lies.

Dr Hansraj’s research found out that by this way even if we bend out head at 60 degrees, the posture is putting the weight of up to 60 pound (around 27 kg). This is as good as a seven year old kid sitting on the neck.  

He further mentioned in the study that "The weight seen by the spine dramatically increases when flexing the head forward at varying degrees. Loss of the natural curve of the cervical spine leads to incrementally increased stresses about the cervical spine."

It further leads to a bad posture and further problems such as back pain and other neurological issues. Moreover, these stresses may lead to early wear, tear, degeneration and possibly surgeries.

Hence, while you are engaged deep in conversation or playing games on your phone, mind your head. 

Smart Phone or Smart Drug!

There is no doubt that we spend more time on our smart phones than we spend on any other devices. In fact, many of us check weather updates and e-mail notifications even before getting out of the bed in the morning (alarms, we’ll blindly snooze but we can’t bear even one minute checking Whatsapp pings). Conducting a detailed survey about such habits, Tecmark, a marketing agency, has revealed few interesting facts.

According to the report, users undertake, on an average, 221 tasks every day on their smart phones as compared to 140 tasks on a desktop or laptop. Furthermore, study reveals that smart phone users spend almost 3 hours 16 minutes of their time on phone performing different tasks.

No doubt, we are addicted to smart phones.

Study: New Technology Becomes Obsolete After Five Years

Technology is an ever-evolving field. It progresses by constantly replacing outdated and obsolete technology. The electronic products and gadgets that you hold so dearly become outdated sooner than you think. To illustrate it more clearly, The Consumer Electronics Association has recently revealed its report on a survey they conducted, named as ‘CE Product Life Cycle study’.

It tries to understand users’ perspectives of product life cycles for various consumer electronic items such as smartphones, cameras, laptops, computers, gaming consoles, etc.

As per the findings of the survey, on an average, these products lose their relevancy in five years and need to be upgraded. The highest life expectancy is 7.4 years, voted for televisions; while smartphones have the lowest expectancy of 4.6 years. So, if recently you think your relationship with your gadget has lost its spark, you are ‘obseletely’ right!