Caution! Watch out for the “side effects” of your electronic devices.

Caution! Watch out for the “side effects” of your electronic devices.

Having spent a career in the drug discovery and development business, I was reminded on a daily basis that the innovative products that we were bringing to market to help the ill also had potentially harmful effects that both patient and physician had to be on the lookout for.  Every therapeutic agent used to treat disease also has a profile of “side effects” which in some situations could be dangerous and even life threatening.  Careful dose adjustment was the usual technique for obtaining a therapeutic result without side effects.

It seems that we have something of a similar situation in the case of the electronic gadgets that now play such a large part in our lives.  Excessive use of personal computers, i-Pads, smart phones and the like also have associated “side effects”, some of which can be dangerous and even life-threatening.  Consider the number of traffic accidents and fatalities linked to the driver being distracted while using a phone.  Recent data from the National Safety Council has reported that over 860,000 crashes per year in the U.S. involve drivers using cell phones.  Furthermore, cell phone-related crashes are among the top causes of fatal injury.  This is clearly a serious “side-effect” of the technology that needs to be addressed more seriously.  My solution would be to equip all vehicles with technology that prevents cell phone usage when the motor is running.  Those finding it necessary to use a phone while in a vehicle would need to pull of the road and turn off the ignition.  This simple measure seems like a minor inconvenience to save thousands of lives each year.

Several other less serious but not trivial side effects of technology are pointed out in a short blurb in the 2015 “Old Farmers Almanac”.  The following is excerpted from a section of that issue concerning making the most of your time. 

“ A growing body of research shows that often what looks like “multitasking” is actually “rapid task switching,” especially when technology is involved.

    One study of computer programmers showed that as they attempted to work, they interrupted themselves or were interrupted about every 3 minutes, usually to check email.

Other studies have shown that it is now common for office workers to interrupt what they are doing to check email 30 to 40 times an hour and that the more a worker self-interrupts, the more stress he or she experiences.

Studies of college students show that while trying to study, they lose focus every 3 minutes on average, for example to check Facebook, or text a friend.  The more often they interrupt themselves to “multitask”, the worse they do on tests.”

In addition to these more formal studies and statistics, we’ve all encountered the annoying behavior of those more preoccupied by a gadget than their interactions with other living organisms, boisterous phone conversations in restaurants, a golfer more attentive to his cell phone than either his golf game or his fellow players and the one that takes the cake for me, the fellow jabbering on his cell phone and so far off in “la la land” that he didn’t notice that he sat down and the wrong table and began eating my French fries.  That was nearly as aggravating as some of the times I’ve been behind a driver so far out of it while on his or her phone that they didn’t even realize the traffic light had changed.  I could go on and on but I think the point has been made.  There are clearly adverse effects of technology use which need to be addressed, especially the tragic loss of life arising from cell phone use while driving.

When you reach for your latest piece of technology hardware, consider the possible side effects of its use.  They’re every bit as real as the potential side effects of any medication you may be taking. Maybe what is needed is a bit of the kind of dose adjustment used in medicine, a measured amount of use is o.k. and can be very beneficial but crossing the line into the range of over-dosing can be inappropriate and potentially even dangerous.