This Is What Cellphones Are Doing to the Human Body

There are nearly seven billion people on the planet. Of them, nearly six billion own a cellphone. That’s an incredible number, considering only 4.5 billion have access to a working toilet, shared viral YouTube channel AsapSCIENCE.

With so many people owning a cellphone, health experts have researched the impact the tiny devices have had on humans in recent years and it turns out they are have already drastically changed how humans stand, sleep, and affect other parts of our lives.

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As AsapSCIENCE found, looking down at your cellphone – which people do for an average 4.7 hours per day – can be horrible for your posture, likening it to an 8-year-old child sitting on your neck.

Coupling that time with the amount of time people spend in front of computers, myopia, or nearsightedness, has risen in North America from one-third of people in the 1970s to just about half of the continent’s population. In Asia, AsapSCIENCE says, 80 to 90 percent of the population is now nearsighted.

Along with changing how we see, what we see on the screen is seriously messing with humans’ sleep patterns by disrupting our circadian rhythm, which affects our deep sleep. And if you’re thinking, “Well, it’s just sleep.” Lack of proper sleep is linked to the development of obesity, diabetes, and cancer.

While some physical changes might not be as noticeable, changes in social behavior have long been apparent.

Many jokingly (or not so much) claim that cellphones – and by extension social media – have actually separated people in the real world only to bring them closer together in the digital one. As AsapSCIENCE found, young people especially are more disconnected than ever from the real world.

Because of addictive video games/mobile apps, “93 percent of young people aged 18-29 report using their smartphone as a tool to avoid boredom, as opposed to other activities like reading a book or engaging with people around them.”

The eye-opening video has been viewed almost 700,000 times, which, when you think about it, is the exact opposite of what these guys are going for.