1) Heavy smartphone use has adverse health effects, especially among adolescent girls. This study was done in Norway where patterns of usage might differ from young people in North America. Nevertheless, the report is interesting, with the conclusion:
“My results show that banning smartphones leads to a significant decline at the intensive margin for the number of consultations related to diagnosis and treatment for psychological symptoms and diseases, both for specialist and GP care, by 60% and 29% relative to pretreatment mean, respectively. Thus, banning smartphones leads to a reduction in girls’ need for care related to mental health issues.”
Smartphone Bans, Student Outcomes and Mental Health
“Abstract
How smartphone usage affects well-being and learning among children and adolescents is a concern for schools, parents, and policymakers. Combining detailed administrative data with survey data on middle schools’ smartphone policies, together with an event-study design, I show that banning smartphones significantly decreases the health care take-up for psychological symptoms and diseases among girls. Post-ban bullying among both genders decreases. Additionally, girls’ GPA improves, and their likelihood of attending an academic high school track increases. These effects are larger for girls from low socio-economic backgrounds. Hence, banning smartphones from school could be a low-cost policy tool to improve student outcomes….
… These effects are only significant for girls who are exposed to a smartphone ban for at least 2 years or more in middle school.
I find no effect on the boys’ mental health, GPA, their average grades set by teachers, or on the probability of them attending an academic high school track. The heterogeneity in the patterns between girls and boys could result from the substantially higher phone usage among girls. More than 70% of girls of middle-school age in Norway report that they spend more than 2 hours a day on their phones, whereas only 54% of boys say the same. Additionally, almost 60% of girls report that they spend 2 or more hours on social media,
whereas, by comparison, only 32% of boys do the same.”
https://openaccess.nhh.no/nhh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/3119200/DP%2001.pdf
2) Another reason to be concerned about buying a new car: in addition to technology emitting all sorts of radiation, it captures and shares personal data.
(click on photo to enlarge)
How GM Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me)
“Automakers have been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to the insurance industry. In the case of General Motors, affected drivers weren’t informed, and the tracking led insurance companies to charge some of them more for premiums. I’m the reporter who broke the story. I recently discovered that I’m among the drivers who were spied on.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gm-tricked-millions-drivers-being-175245410.html
Sharon Noble, Director, Citizens for Safer Tech
“If you don’t stick to your values when they’re being tested, they’re not values: they’re hobbies.” Jon Stewart