Australian Healthy Food Guide – June 2019

Additional text: Brooke Delfi no. Photos: iStock.

Beingonlinenon-stopisbecomingthe

norm,sohowdoyoustriketheright

balance?NikiBezzantinvestigates.

S

ometimesmedicalsciencecanhavetrouble

keepingupwiththeworld.TheiPhone,for

example,wasreleasedjust 11 yearsago,so

it’snotsurprisingwe’reonlynowstartingtosee

researchintohowthisradicalnewtechnologyhas

beenaffectingourhealthandlives.

Thesmartphoneputascreenineveryone’spocket

—whichmeanswenowhaveaccesstotheinternet

whereverweare.Overthepastdecadewe’vecome

torelyonthesescreens.Thirty-fivepercentofusnow

checkourphoneswithinfiveminutesofwakingin

themorning,with 70 percentusingphonesduring

mealtimeswithfamilyandfriends.

They’vebecomeourconstantsourceofinformation

aboutweather,maps,time,directions,advice,music,

camera,mediaandmore—thefriendthatwon’tshut

up!ByJune 2015 therewere 31 millionactivemobile

DIGITAL

DETOX?

Do you need a

phone accounts in Australia —

that’s more phones than people!

There’s no doubt our phones

are incredibly useful and most of

us wouldn’t want to be without

them, or other digital devices,

for any length of time. But there

are downsides to our constant

connectedness.

100

minutes

is our average

daily time on

social media

18 healthyfoodguide.com.au

hfg FEATURES