I have been in Vermont all week, busy teaching PCOS classes at Green Mountain at Fox Run. I have been so busy that checking email and answering my phone has been pretty much an afterthought. I realized how easy it is to drift into becoming attached to electronics in unhealthy ways.
I decided to Google"iPhone addiction" just for fun, and found a Stanford survey reporting the following results obtained from 200 students, most of whom had had their iPhones for less than a year:
When asked to rank their dependence on the iPhone on a scale of one to five, five being the most addictive, ten% said they were fully addicted. 34% ranked themselves a four and only 6% said they weren't addicted at all.
Nearly a third worried they may become addicted someday.
A full 75% admitted to falling asleep with the iPhone in bed with them, and 69% said they were more likely to forget their wallet than their iPhone when leaving in the morning.
Why is that an issue? When you are so attached to what is coming out of your electronic gadget, you are not paying attention to important cues your body may be giving you about stress, emotions, hunger…you may be so caught up in what is happening on Facebook that you fritter away time that you could be spending on yourself, in physical activity…your life is virtual, not REAL.
I see disturbing trends that show how detached we are becoming, such as people Tweeting from a meeting, reporting that they are at the meeting. How can you possibly be getting anything out of the meeting if you're not even paying attention to the people you are physically with?
I see people posting Facebook status reports from"getaways" in remote locations…when I thought the point of getting away to a remote location is to not be communicating with the rest of the world for a little bit.
I hear stories of people so attached to their iPhones that they actually feel phantom vibrations if they try to live without them.
If you bring your phone to bed with you, it's disrupting your sleep. And when your sleep is disrupted, you are more likely to be insulin resistant and hold on to weight.
Tell me…honestly…is that 3 am text you're waiting for really worth the 5 extra pounds you may be carrying just to get it?
Electronic food for thought: If you are really that important and indispensable, you don't have an iPhone. Your personal assistant does. If you're unable to detach from your Blackberry, you're a slave. Everyone you allow to contact you at 3 am is someone who has taken control of part of your life.
Take it back! Challenge yourself to leave the phone for a half hour or an hour. Leave it in the kitchen at night. Don't bring it to the gym. Give yourself one technology-free day a week. See what happens to your awareness. Of your emotions. Of your hunger/fullness. Of your choices of how to fill your time.
You might find that you start setting more limits with mailing lists, Facebook friend lists, Twitter follows, etc., because all that electronic chaos interferes with your life.
Technology isn't a bad thing, at all…my business is able to exist because of it. But if it is not used respectfully it may be one of the most important reasons your optimal health is so elusive.
You can't just read about, status report, tweet, electronically discuss healthy living. You have to LIVE it.