How is Technology Affecting Our Health
What do you think…is technology good or bad for our health?
Experts, themselves, can’t make up their minds, but here’s some of what we know.
On the plus side…
Creativity
Many see artificial intelligence as “the biggest opportunity of our lifetime to extend and expand human creativity and ingenuity”. Studies have found that creativity can bring us happiness, reduce dementia, increase our left-right brain connectivity, improve our mental health, and strengthen our immune systems.
Boredom
Technology means that many dull, repetitive jobs are now being done by some form of machine or automation. This is good news for our brains because data shows that boredom can ‘hurt’ our brain, causing effects such as poor thinking, hallucinations, and childish behavior.
Social Skills
Like it or not, machines can learn to do almost anything we can do with our brains. Yet, as advanced as machine learning is becoming, machines are still having lots of trouble with ‘human’ activities such as understanding natural language, recognizing human emotions, and using high levels of cognition (reasoning, thinking, etc.). So, the workplace will look to humans in areas such as healthcare, therapy, caring, and teaching. Our brains will develop these skills further to meet those needs.
On the other hand…
Memory
At the moment, memory problems usually have specific causes: age-related, disease-related, etc. Yet, technology will most likely change this.
We can get a window into this already. Those of us who are 50+ used to be able to recall up to 10 telephone numbers, and many people remembered more. Now, quite a few of us don’t even remember our own phone numbers!
This trend will continue. As more and more information is available at our fingertips, it will make less and less sense to remember it. In the brain, one of the mottoes is “Use it or lose it”, and that is just what is going to happen. Learning by rote is on the decline and will eventually become extinct. Today, valued workers are those who can apply information, not recall facts; people who can solve layered problems by combining expertise in several areas, not those who can recite data. This will continue in the future. As a result, there will be changes to the brain areas which deal with our memories.
Artificial Light
Light from fluorescent bulbs, LEDs, and screens can have negative effects on our health. One big area is sleep.
Sleep problems are a huge issue. In the U.S., roughly 7-19 percent of adults say they do not rest or sleep enough daily. Another figure informs that about 50-70 million Americans suffer from ongoing sleep issues.
You may know that light has different wavelengths and that each wavelength gives a different colored light. Blue light, for example, is great during the day. Blue light keeps our attention high, reaction times optimum, and moods good. However, at night, blue light can seriously affect our sleep. Fluorescent bulbs, LEDs, and screens all give off mostly blue light.
Blue light affects our sleep by changing the amount of melatonin our bodies produce. Basically, melatonin is the chemical which tells our bodies that they are tired and need to rest. In a natural environment without artificial lighting, the dusk and darkness tell our brains to produce melatonin and get us ready for sleeping. The artificial blue light we are exposed to makes our brain think it is still sunny daytime, so no need for melatonin production.
A lack of sleep can leave many of us tired and groggy in the morning, but there’s more…and it’s not good. Research shows that there is a link between “exposure to light at night, such as working the night shift, to some types of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity”. Current thinking is that this is caused by the lower melatonin levels or that the lack of sleep is leaving our bodies weaker and more open to disease.
It is recommended to:
Get a lot of blue light during the day via sunshine or artificial light. This will help your body distinguish between ‘time to be awake and time to go to sleep’.
Power down about 2 hours before you want to turn in.
If you must be exposed to blue light (night shift workers or nighttime computer users, etc.), technology can help. Install apps on your devices to change the screen light according to the time of day (filters out the blue-green wavelength when it is night where you are and increases the reds and oranges). Wear blue-blocking glasses.
Use dim, red light bulbs in nightlights.
Did you make up your mind about technology?
No matter what you decided, it’s a good idea to maintain your brain health.
Through puzzles, reading and connecting with friends you can maintain your brain health.
Stressed? Tired?
Even when you’re over tired or stressed, Ceremin can help you keep thinking clearly, make better decisions, and remember even the smallest details.
It puts you in a better mood!
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, even after 30 days, participants reported feeling less anxiousness, less “blue” and their outlook on life and mood had definitely improved!
