It is two in the morning and you are still texting to your best friend about that test you failed and how much you studied for it. What many do not know is that for every time you lean to see or send a message on your phone, you are putting more weight to your neck which leads to a bad posture.

According to The Washington Post today’s teenagers spend more than seven and a half hours on technology such as texting, googling, listening to music, playing and interacting in social media such as twitter, Instagram and Facebook. That is about 700 to 1400 hours a year on the Internet.

Bad posture is defined as the head in a tilted forward position and the shoulders dropping forward in a rounded position. This can be caused for not sitting or sleeping properly. Also, in some cases bad posture can be caused from a previous accident. However, one of the main causes of bad posture in people today is because of the use of cellphones.

When you see a person texting or reading a text message, their posture is different because they lean forward toward their cellphones, which ends up putting more weight to the neck. Studies from doctors in the UK and U.S. have found that for every time a person bend their head at a 60 degrees angle to see a picture on the phone, the spine and neck is holding 60 pounds worth of pressure.

Bad posture causes the neck muscle to be shortened and tightened and the shoulder are rounded forward. Being born on a digital era, students find themselves hooked on their cellphones and technology 24/7 which they do not see it as a healthy habit.

“I usually text from 3 to 8 o’clock but the texts are short and not followed by one another, I take my time during those hours to respond,” junior Crisley Leon said.

Students did not have the knowledge of what the use of cellphones for a long time could cause health damages. “I heard that the use of cellphones were bad for health but I really had no idea that by bending your neck down when texting is damaging your spine,” sophomore Diamond Harris said.

Having bad posture is not just one of the many problems that cellphones are cause, internally, bad posture damages the spinal nerves by compressing them againts each other which leads to a experience of pain. Besides affecting the posture, doctors have found research that cellphones can affect affect the health in different ways.

Recent research from the Department of Oncology in Sweden have found that the radiation of cell phones can cause brain cancer. Aside from the probability that cell phones can cause cancer, research from the university of Essex, UK have found that the presence of cell phones between two people talking can affect people feelings in a negative way according to the results.

The high frequency of cell phones increases the stress level. For example, the ringing, vibrating alerts and reminders increase stress level according to reports from the UK. Staring at cell phones can cause problems to the eyes.

The reason for that is because the cell phones screens are smaller than the computer screens and when people go to see their cell phones they put the device closer to their eyes. The use of cellphones can damage the immune system.

Cell phones are the devices that are touched the most. All kinds of bacteria and germs are found in cell phones and they can be easily transmitted. According to research from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the germs found of the phones contain more disease prone germs than those who are found in the toilets.

Whenever someone is using their phones, they are using mostly of the time their hands. typing for a really long time can cause pain and inflammation of the joints of the fingers.

According to the European Research Institute for Electronic Components have found that cell phones might lead to heart disease and kidney stones because of the radiation cell phones have. There are diferent ways to prevent all the disease and bad posture that cell phones can cause. Even if you have already a bad posture, it is never too late to try to fix it.

There are plenty types of exercises you could do to fix your spine. Exercises like crunches, side plank, crunches with twist, standing side bends and others. Just because you do not have a bad posture, does not mean that you could not try to prevent it. A way from preventing a poor posture is to stand besides a wall and try to stand straight.

Also every time you go to check your computer, always try to stand straight, do not lean forward because what you are doing is putting more weight to your spine.

Overall, one of the main things that you can do to stay healthy is to try to avoid being on your phone all the time. It is good to use cell phones but on the right time. Spending more than half a day on social media is not good for the health.