The more gadgets that become available to us, the more we may feel tempted to explore these new technologies, but their constant claims on our attention could end up harming our health
ISLAMABAD (Pakistan Point News / Online - 05th April, 2019) The more gadgets that become available to us, the more we may feel tempted to explore these new technologies, but their constant claims on our attention could end up harming our health.At home and in the workplace, various technologies compete for our attention: Computers, smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches all urge us to prioritize different tasks and rewards with their push notifications and the appeal of social media.
And even when we sit down at the dinner table with our partners or catch up over coffee with a friend, some of us may feel tempted to whip out our phones and check for new likes and messages on our various media accounts, switching from one app to the next.According to a new study from Rice University, in Houston, TX, Dartmouth College, in Hanover, NH, and The Ohio State University, in Columbus people who often switch between forms of digital media are more likely to be overweight or have obesity and to have poorer self-control.
"Increased exposure to phones, tablets, and other portable devices has been one of the most significant changes to our environments in the past few decades, and this occurred during a period in which obesity rates also climbed in many places," says lead researcher Richard Lopez, Ph.D."So, we wanted to conduct this research to determine whether links exist between obesity and abuse of digital devices as captured by people's tendency to engage in media multitasking," he explains.
The researchers report their findings in a study paper that appears in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior.Lopez and the team conducted two related studies that assessed the link between media multitasking and obesity. In the first, the researchers worked with 132 participants aged between 18 and 23.The participants answered questions from a specially designed questionnaire aimed at evaluating how much they multitasked and how easily they got distracted for instance, whether they felt the urge to check messages on their phones while having in-person conversations.At this stage, the team found that individuals who scored high on the media multitasking questionnaire had higher body mass indexes and more body fat than participants who had low scores.
