One should use the mobile with needed discipline, advises Dr Karthiyayini Mahadevan.
Technology advancements have not just made life easy, but has made humans lazy.
During the COVID pandemic, technology helped people connect from far and wide. On the other hand, the need to communicate has come down drastically.
Initially phones were used to connect people from far distances, but now it has distanced people staying together.
Is it ok to carry the phone to the toilet?
Carrying the phone all the time has become mandatory and one may feel handicapped if they leave their phone at home.
It is important to know the benefits of carrying the phone while going out, particularly for elders, if they are travelling away from home alone and if they have an app installed to alert their family if they fall.
Why shouldn't one take the phone to the toilet?
- There are possibilities to drop the phone by mistake into water, thereby losing data.
- There is a high risk of transferring the germs to the mobile phone from the toilet and further into the house.
- Toilets shouldn't be treated as a living room. One's nature call should not be disturbed through unnatural things like a virtual connection.
- Bowel evacuation is considered as one of the non-suppressible urges according to the ayurvedic wisdom. If it gets suppressed due to the unnatural environment created by watching media, then this could lead to accumulation of impurities, further leading to vitiation of dosha.
- Sitting on the commode for longer time can shift one's focus away from the action of bowel evacuation which can lead to incomplete evacuation.
- Browsing through sensational messages or content may evoke emotions of fight and flight response. This can disturb the natural process of bowel evacuation and can lead to straining at stool untimely, precipitating piles due to long undue pressure.
- Spending a long time on the toilet seat can lead to urinary tract infection, as many studies show the spread of the microbes around the commode.
- By attending to the phone, one can become mindless and there is a possibility of a fall or an accident.
Do's and Don'ts
- If one is a single resident living in a community set up, wearable devices linked to mobiles would be followed as part of emergency care services. So, if there is a need to keep the phone always near, even in the toilet, then earmark a place with a stand wherein mobile can be kept rested and not carried in hand while being on the commode.
- One must have a waterproof cover for the mobile if one needs to take it inside the toilet; the mobile can be sanitised every time one comes out of the toilet.
- Under no circumstances should the mobile be put on charging inside the toilet. This can cause electrocution or other complications.
- If an important call is expected and the urge to evacuate the bladder/bowel arises, request one of the family members to take the call.
- One should not take the phone as a routine to the toilet. Natural urges should happen naturally and mindfully.
- One must avoid sitting for more than 10 minutes in the toilet to evacuate the bladder/bowel.
It is strongly advised that one must use the phone prudently and not be enslaved by it. The latter will only cause the person to carry the mobile phone 24x7.
One should use the mobile with needed discipline.
There needs to be a way to stay away from the mobile phone during sometime of the day.
This can be achieved with a habit of keeping certain hours of the day other than our rest time as no mobile time and one needs to follow certain days as media fasting days.
This can be practiced as individuals or together as a family.
There should ideally be no mobile usage while eating with family, putting the mobile to flight mode while asleep at night and no mobile to be taken into the toilets.
The harmful effects of the electromagnetic radiation are not only on the individual, but also impacts the other members of the family, particularly children, in their growth process.
Dr Karthiyayini Mahadevan is head, wellness and wellbeing at Columbia Pacific Communities.
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