Technology came to make our lives easier and we are so used to it that we can no longer imagine living without a cell phone, a refrigerator, a camera or so many other things. There is no doubt that the inventions of recent centuries have managed to improve our quality of life and that we now have knowledge within reach of a device that fits in our pants pocket.
However, with everything good comes something bad, these gadgets that are so useful are causing some health problems. We are talking about mobile phones, tablets and computers. These electronic devices that we like to look at so much could cause our body to transform in the not too distant future. And the result is not so nice. Several studies have already been done to understand how technology – especially smartphones– affect our physiognomy, and some experts already have an idea of how will we see ourselves in the year 2100.
A group made up of scientists from the University of Toledo and specialists from the company Maple Holistics have made a visual forecast of what humans will be like in the next century. To do this, they created a 3D model with all the documented physical problems that people are now having due to the indiscriminate use of these devices and exaggerated them a bit to give us an example.
We introduce you to Mindy, a woman from the future.
As mentioned above, the first impression is not very good. According to experts, humans will have, like Mindy, a short neck, an arched back, clenched hands, an elbow in a constant 90° position, a larger skull but with a smaller brain, and a second eyelid.
These physical modifications would be the consequence of the postures and customs that we currently have due to the use of smartphones and computers.
Arched neck and back.
A large number of people spend several hours a day in front of a computer and/or a cell phone. In general, the position we take is a bit relaxed, with slumped shoulders and downcast eyes; This gradually causes our back and neck to slouch due to the tension exerted by the muscles.
Caleb Backe, health and wellness expert at Maple Holistics He explained that by spending a lot of time looking at the phone or the computer, the spine loses balance, forcing the neck to make an additional effort to support the head. In turn, this will cause your neck muscles to work harder and become stronger and larger, leading to a much thicker neck. This was explained by Dr. K. Daniel Riew of the New York-Presbyterian Orch Spine Hospital in a para Health Matters where they call this new condition “technological neck”.
Clogged hands.
The cause of this would be exclusively the mobile phone. The way we hold it makes our hand take a “claw” posture; that is to say that the fingers curve towards the interior of the hand.
90° elbow.
Dr. Nikola Djordjevic of Med Alert Help mentioned that this position is the cause of cubital tunnel syndrome, a disorder caused by compression of the ulnar nerve that affects both the fingers and the elbows.
He said that when holding the phone, the elbow is held at a 90-degree angle, putting pressure on the ulnar nerve. «This causes numbness or tingling in the ring and little fingers, pain in the forearm, and weakness in the hands.» he explained.
Thicker skull.
In 2011, the World Health Organization declared that the radiation of smartphones could be carcinogenic to humans. However, children are thought to absorb up to twice as much radiation as their skulls are thinner. That’s why experts predict thicker skulls in the future, to protect us a little more from radiation.
small brain
Human beings managed to “dominate” the world thanks to the development that our intelligence reached. However, now that technology can do so much for us, we no longer need to be the biggest, strongest, and seemingly most intelligent species. according to several studies, the human brain has shrunk by 10% since about 30 thousand years ago. Although this does not mean that we are necessarily becoming dumber because intelligence is not directly related to the size of the organ.
Second eyelid.
Various research It also suggests that blue light from screens causes eyestrain, tiredness, headaches, and even blindness. Dr. Kasun Ratnayake of the University of Toledo believes that the new step in the evolution of the human being will be a protection mechanism against artificial light to which we are exposed practically 24 hours a day.
«Humans may develop a larger inner eyelid to avoid excessive light exposure, or the lens of the eye may evolutionarily develop so that it blocks incoming blue light but not other high-wavelength light such as green, yellow or the redRatnayake explained.
Your body may not be able to take an extreme posture like Mindy’s, but without a doubt spending too much time looking at a screen can have negative consequences for our health. So now you know, if you don’t want yourself or your offspring to look like this; start making small changes.