▲The doctor reminded that developing children should not use mobile phones excessively, and it is best to establish usage rules; the picture is a photo of the situation, and the characters in the picture have nothing to do with this article.

(Photo credit: shutterstock)

Text/Chen Changsheng

A middle school boy was brought to the outpatient clinic by his mother, who was worried that he would "swipe his phone all the time at night" and "regress in his grades".

Especially when mothers see media reports, they are worried whether their children will have "mobile phone dementia"?

The medical community has yet to confirm whether smartphones are the cause of dementia.

However, in the past 20 years, some studies have shown that the dependence on smartphones can affect the following brain functions.

Please read on...

◎Brain functions that may be affected by mobile phones:

●Spatial concept: In the era before navigation, finding the way depends on asking for directions or looking at landmarks and maps.

Studies have shown that when people have GPS navigation, their ability to recognize the road becomes worse, and they cannot remember the details of the road.

●Social rewards: With the emergence of social media, we gradually get used to looking at the number of "likes", "shares", and "comments" to get a sense of reward, replacing real-time interaction with physical humans.

Some socially withdrawn teenagers even completely rely on social media for outside information.

●Delayed reward ability: Do you need immediate gratification for doing something?

Or are you willing to wait until there is no result yet, and you are still willing to continue to do it?

Most real-life tasks require a certain amount of "patience" to be rewarded.

However, with the prevalence of short videos and mobile games, between people and mobile phones, there is often a reward and feedback immediately at the touch of a button, which makes it impossible to train long-term concentration.

A lot of ongoing research is about whether mobile phones can damage our "delayed reward ability" and "focus".

●Sleep: Using mobile phones or 3C before going to bed can affect night sleep, which is the current medical consensus.

Blue light or exciting content will affect our sleep structure, and long-term lack of sleep will cause anxiety, depression, lack of concentration and other physical and mental symptoms.

Children's brains are still developing and have far-reaching effects

At present, the medical community generally believes that mobile phones have little impact on healthy adults, and brain power can be restored after reducing the use of mobile phones; but for children whose brains are still developing, the impact may be far-reaching.

Although the decline in grades is not necessarily caused by mobile phones, parents and children can still make an agreement in advance to develop a good habit of using mobile phones together.

◎Rules for using mobile phones:

●Appropriate rest time: let your eyes rest after 30 minutes of use.

Avoid excessive use of electronic products to fatigue the brain and eyes.

●Set rules for not using mobile phones: do homework, drive, go to the toilet, walk, do not use mobile phones before going to bed, etc.

●Reduce the chance of searching the Internet: When you have a problem, you can first check the book or ask the teacher or others, and use tools other than mobile phones to do the tasks you want to do, and you will have the opportunity to train your brain in different fields.

(The author is a physician in the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Tai Adventist Hospital)

☆Health news will never be missed, click like to follow the fan page.


☆For more important medical news, please go to Liberty Health.com.

keywords

  • 3C products

  • health care

  • eye fatigue

  • child development

  • brain cognition

  • brain function

related news