What Your Smartphone Is Doing To Your Body & Mind

On average, people pick up their smartphone 221 times a day to do things with it. It’s no secret that we are getting more and more addicted to these handsets, but have you wondered what effect that is having on your mind and your body?

Scientists are definitely curious and have a few ideas about the ramifications of smartphone usage. You can measure your own smartphone usage to gather data about how often you check it, and then compare it with the smartphone addiction checklist to know if you have a problem.

Over the past few years, there have been plenty of studies citing how it helps and how it hurts the human being.

Smartphones Are Giving Your Fingers Superpowers

Touchscreens have meant that you use fingertips a lot more for interaction with objects. Apparently, that has translated into more brain activity every time an object now touches your fingertips, according to scientists at the University of Zurich.

Comparing smartphone users to those still on old phones, the researchers touched the tips of the thumb, index and middle fingers of several people and recorded their brain activity with an EEG. The researchers found that the electrical activity in the brains of smartphone users was enhanced when all three fingertips were touched, especially the thumb. And as the interval from when subjects last used a smartphone got shorter, the electrical activity in the brain got higher.