ExclusiveInternet addiction harms eye and ear health by blocking connection to reality

Welcome to Epoch Insights with Tiffany. My name is Tiffany Brannan. Think about your day so far. Think about all the things you've done. Even watching this. And imagine all the technology you've used that didn't even exist 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, maybe within the last five years. Whether it's on your laptop, desktop, or smartphone. It seems so much of the time we spend in our daily lives is looking at screens. There's an article in the recent edition of the Epoch Times which is talking about this. It's in the Life and Tradition section and it's called Freedom from the Web. This article was written by Walker Larson and it begins with a poignant observation. The internet is a powerful tool. It has provided access to more knowledge at the touch of your fingertips than was ever available before. We can communicate with people on the other side of the world in an instant. Yet, like so many things, it's a tool which can be used for evil and which can be so much more detrimental than helpful if we misuse it. This article has some startling statistics on the For instance, there's one statistic in here that an 18-year-old in the United States today will spend approximately 93% of the rest of his life in his free time looking at screens. That's not a very meaningful life, it would seem, yet it really is an addiction. This article is talking about exploration of the tech resistance movement, how some people are finding ways to break free of this addictive hold which technology has developed. There's a quote by C.S. Lewis from his famous novel Screwtape Letters. In case you're not familiar with this book, it's very interesting because it's a bit of a satire but it's supposed to be written from one devil to another as an older devil gives his nephew advice on how to entrap and ensnare souls. The point that really stuck with me from this book was where the more mature devil says to his nephew, you must keep your patient, as they call their victims, constantly occupied with things which aren't useful but which he doesn't enjoy. He says that one of the most detrimental things is a truly wholesome and enlightening experience like reading a book, listening to a beautiful piece of music, something which he truly enjoys. Keep him so occupied with mindless things that by the end of his life he realizes he's done neither what he should have done nor what he enjoyed. And I think that's so true of using the internet. So many times it seems like we're giving ourselves a little break to scroll through social media, look at silly YouTube videos, look at Pinterest, whatever it is you do to kill time on the internet. And after an hour or two has gone by, you realize that's exactly what you did. You killed time. Surely there was something you could have done which would have been more enjoyable. Yes, you weren't doing something which was hard or which used a lot of brain power, but you didn't do something which could have been enriching to your mind or even your heart and soul. Maybe there's a book you've been wanting to read, maybe a book you've been wanting to write. If we gathered up those little scraps of spare time we toss around, it's like putting spare change in a piggy bank. A few dimes might not seem like anything now, but if you save it long enough, you'll have a lot of money. The biggest problem with our consumption of media, especially through the use of smartphones, is that it's disconnected us from the real world, from reality and what's important in life. In addition to this article, which talks about the great social and spiritual problems this can cause, there are some significant health problems as well. The mind and body section of this issue of the paper has two articles which are very much in keeping with this subject. One of them is about the detrimental effects which digital use can cause to the eyes, and the other is to the ears. On the cover of this section is an article called How Wireless Noise-Canceling Earphones Can Damage Hearing, and a statistic. 20% of teenagers today will experience hearing loss partially due to their headphone and earphone use. This article starts with discussing AirPods, which is an Apple product, and their wireless earphones. Many people have noted through recent studies just switching back to wired earphones as opposed to wireless greatly reduces the exposure to radiation and other harmful electrical impulses which are damaging to your brain, as well as to your hearing. But this article particularly is talking about the fact that thousands of users have developed tinnitus. There are a number of reasons why headphones, but particularly wireless earphones, are dangerous to your hearing. Firstly, we weren't meant to have sound piped directly into our heads. At least having headphones is better because you're still hearing it from the outside instead of having something actually in your ear. It also mentions the fact that that creates a damp, moist, humid environment in your ear which can lead to infection, which will damage your hearing. One of the biggest reasons that it causes tinnitus, though, isn't what you think. Many people who use headphones or earphones will think, well, if I keep the volume down, I'm not going to hurt my hearing. If it's too loud, that's when you're blasting out your eardrums. That's partially true, but that isn't the biggest thing which contributes to hearing loss. It's actually the noise-canceling technology, and that's why this problem has gotten so much worse just in the last couple of years. Because one of the biggest reasons people wear earphones isn't just so that they can hear their favorite music. It's so that they can block out the noise of a noisy environment and keep their music to themselves. So these earphones have a noise canceling technology. But this is disturbing not only to the ear, but to the brain. The brain is expecting to hear certain sounds, especially when you're in a crowded, noisy environment. When you cancel those sounds by using that technology of that electrical impulses, because it's not just sticking cotton in your ear, there is an electrical process that's The brain is frustrated. It wants to hear some additional sound, so it substitutes a sound, the characteristic high-pitched ringing that people who suffer from tinnitus experience. This is very disturbing, of course. Anyone who's ever suffered from tinnitus knows that it's very irritating and very bad insomnia and stress. It can also lead to hearing loss if left untreated and if it's chronic. This article points out that the problem is much greater if you use earphones over a longer period of time, especially if they're noise canceling. As some of these people have discovered, one way you can protect your hearing is to use earphones which are made a little longer ago, a few years back, that don't have the noise canceling technology, or headphones. The biggest reason that this is damaging, to break it down, is that it's blocking out the real world and your brain doesn't like it. That just shows what the whole topic from that first article is that we're discussing. Yes, there are some very harmful electrical impulses, radiation, EMFs. These are all real things we can discuss that are real problems. But the deeper theme which this article is highlighting is the psychological and sociological problem that is arising from it. We, as human beings, are claiming that we're more connected than ever. Social media. It's a way to socialize. It's a way to have thousands of friends. But really, it should be called anti-social media because we're blocking ourselves off from other people, from real world connection with other human beings. Whether that's being glued to your smartphone, or preferring to just text a greeting instead of saying hello, sitting in the corner with your noise canceling earphones in, or looking at your smartphone to watch videos instead of watching television, or watching a movie. That can actually be an enjoyable experience for a group, or for family and friends to enjoy together. It's a group experience if you're all watching something together, similar to going to a play, going to a live performance, because it's an activity. You're experiencing it. You can look over at your friend, or look at your family member, and laugh at something together instead of being completely obsessed with your own little world. That brings us to the topic discussed in the other health article, how eye contact deepens human connection. This article talks about how making eye contact with another human being is one of the first milestones that we pass as babies. Within a few days, although babies have weak eyes for distance when they're infants, a baby is able to look up and recognize his mother's face. And it's been shown to be one of the most enjoyable experiences babies have, and they enjoy looking at a person who's looking back. In fact, the neural network can perceive the mother's eyes from 8 to 12 inches away within only a few days, which is the exact distance from if a mother is holding a baby at her breast to her eyes, because we were designed so that a mother can be nursing her baby and forming that deep human connection. Sadly, some statistics show that 30% of mothers use a smartphone or look at a tablet when they're bottle feeding their baby. Interestingly, only 10% of mothers who breastfeed use some kind of technology. But beyond infancy, throughout our whole lives, making eye contact is one of the best ways to develop a friendship, to show trust. Studies show that people who hold eye contact for longer than three seconds, up to five seconds, are perceived as being more intelligent, more compassionate, quicker. Of course, some people are uncomfortable making eye contact, and that's become a bigger problem. People would rather look at their phones when they're standing in an elevator or in a waiting room, rather than interacting with other people. It can be uncomfortable, especially with strangers, but even with friends and business colleagues. This article has some useful ideas on how to get comfortable making eye contact. The best way is just to practice it. Don't be afraid to look at someone long enough to recognize the color of his eyes and study his face. When you do look away, glance away slowly to the side so you don't look nervous by dropping your eyes or uncomfortable or shifty by darting your eyes around too much. The biggest thing which is missing in social media and digital screen use is the ability to make eye contact. You can look at pictures of your friends on Facebook, but they can't look back at you. Now with the technology of Zoom and Skype, FaceTime, it seems like it's that dream we always had in old science fiction television shows. You can look at people and be talking in real time. It isn't what it really is cracked up to be though. Several years ago, my beloved singing teacher left the state of California and moved back to his native state of Louisiana, and I started having voice lessons with him on Skype. This was years before it was the thing to do during the pandemic, but I was just desperate to keep studying with him. There he was, I could see him, I could hear his voice, but I'd never used Skype before, and I was greatly disturbed by the fact that I couldn't make eye contact with him. If I were looking right at his eyes, he was just looking at the screen, whereas if he was looking in the camera, I couldn't see him. It's a strange phenomenon, because if you look at each other right in the eyes, you're not really looking at each other, and that's why it felt so fake. It didn't feel real, because it isn't really real. It's like talking on the telephone, you can see that person, but it's not like being in person, it's not like really seeing another human being and forming that deep connection. It's very sad if we don't keep that in our world and realize what some of the most important things in life are. I think that we should take some of the examples and some of the tips from this first article, the tech resistance movement, encouraging parents, for instance, to not let their children see them constantly on some device. Instead, find other ways you can enjoy being together, maybe put limits on certain days you don't use certain technology or certain rooms, especially limiting smartphones and social media. Technology can be a very useful tool, but we have to use it so that it's serving us, and we are not serving it. Thank you for spending this time with me. I encourage you to join the tech resistance movement and find ways that you can turn off technology that's distracting you from the real world, make eye contact with other people, listen with your own ears, and realize that there are ways that you can enjoy the real world instead of living in a virtual reality.