Tag: Smartphone

5 Reasons To Shut Down Your Smartphone

Two focuses of my blog are Health/Wellness and Technology. Smartphones have changed our lives in positive ways, but have they also changed our lives for worse? Many would argue the former. The following contributed post is entitled, 5 Reasons To Shut Down Your Smartphone.

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Smartphones are a fantastic invention. They enable us to do so much and communicate with so many people. Because they are so useful, though, they can easily become a distraction or even an addiction. There are times when it’s best to turn them off totally and go without them. Here are some of the factors at play as to why you can manage without a smartphone more easily than you thought.

Photo by Lisa Fotios

They Are Bad For Your Eyes

When our eyes are in good functioning order, we often take them for granted. However, excessive smartphone usage may harm them and actually diminish our capacity to focus on distant objects. Because we are so used to gazing at screens up close, our eyes are adjusting. It’s ingenious, but it’s not good for you. It’s not just about the distance either. The HEV light emitted by smartphones may cause retinal tissue damage.

They Are Dirty

Take a look at how we use our cellphones throughout the course of a typical day. Think about how many times we, and others, have touched them. Bacteria will have taken up residence. We then put them near our lips and ears, or we touch them with our fingers that then contact our faces, and so on. Around 13% of cellphones have faecal matter on them, and 16% include E. coli bacteria, according to a study. Every phone becomes dirty, no matter how many times we wash our hands.

They Cause Neck And Back Pain

Smartphones do so much harm to our necks and backs that a new medical word for the pain has been coined: ‘text neck.’ When we walk about with our heads down (to gaze at a phone screen, for example), we exert a lot of strain on our cervical spine. It can weigh up to 60 pounds. If you’re in this sort of discomfort, you should see a chiropractor. However, after your back and neck discomfort has been relieved, decrease the amount of time you spend messaging and surfing on your smartphone, or it will return.

Some ways to do this include deleting some of the apps you use and turning to other forms of communication. For example, you can use international calling cards when you’re away from home, meaning your smartphone can be left somewhere safe.

They Cause Sore Hands

Along with ‘text neck,’ a new phrase has emerged: ‘text claw.’ This term refers to the cramping discomfort caused by holding a smartphone for extended periods of time. The thumb is the most susceptible digit since it is the most often used for texting. Tendon problems and inflammation are possible. One option to avoid this is to use a stylus instead, but the best approach to alleviate the discomfort and cure the damage is to turn off the phone and stop using it for a bit.

They Stop You From Sleeping

The urge to check your phone one final time before going to bed is frequently overwhelming. However, having a device generating blue light near your face might disrupt your circadian rhythm (your normal sleep cycle), resulting in you not getting the right sort or quantity of sleep. Sleep deprivation makes you grumpy and short-tempered, and it’s also terrible for your health; individuals who sleep less are more prone to heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes, among other things.

Using Smartphones To Promote Your Business

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In today’s digital world, smartphones and wireless technology have become valuable tools, especially in the area of promoting your business. The following contributed post is entitled, Using Smartphones To Promote Your Business.

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Smartphones are, well, smart! They have so many different uses that make them highly beneficial in the modern age. Ironically, a lot of people claim smartphones are dangerous as we spend too much time on them, yet this is precisely why they are such a useful tool for businesses.

People use smartphones almost every minute of every day. Therefore, they present some serious advertising possibilities for a savvy business owner. The trick is learning how to use smartphones to promote your business and find lots of new customers. It’s a lot easier than you might expect!

SMS Marketing

Firstly, we can go down one of the more traditional routes. This was one of the first ways in which people used mobile devices for marketing purposes. If you’re wondering, what is SMS marketing, the short explanation is that it uses text messaging to market your business. You gain contact details of leads, then send promotional texts now and then. When done correctly, it can yield a high ROI. The benefit of this is obviously that you can directly get marketing material to your leads. Plus, the fact that you have their contact details means you’re using targeted leads as well. If they gave you this information, they must be interested in what you have to offer, right?

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Mobile Apps

Developing a mobile app is almost seen as a rite of passage for modern businesses. It can be a great way to grow your business and find lots of new customers. There are many ways you can develop a mobile app, and many purposes it might bring. Some companies use apps as an extension of their online store. In effect, consumers download the app and make purchases on it. Others will develop apps that serve as more of a tool for customers. For example, you run a financial services business and create an app that lets people track their expenses. Either way, the benefit of an app is that you are literally in the palm of the hand of your target market. From here, you can use the app to create exclusive promotions. As such, it encourages more people to download the app. Furthermore, using push notifications via the app also allows you to promote new things direct to your audience via their smartphones.

Social Media

That’s right, this counts as using your smartphone to promote your business. Why? Because most social media users are using mobile devices. Plus, you can easily use your phone to compose social media posts on the go. Take pictures or videos using the camera, then upload them to Instagram or Facebook. It’s almost like on-the-go marketing in the sense that you can promote your business wherever you are, whenever you like. Also, encourage your followers to turn notifications on for your posts. As a result, they will always know when you’ve updated your profile, even if they’re not using the social media app at that specific time.

Essentially, you have to appreciate that you’ve got a very powerful device in your hands. All of your customers will use smartphones every single day. It makes sense to take advantage of this by utilizing smartphones as best as you can.