Our bodies tell us what we need and what we do not. Sometimes the message is not loud enough and other times we simply are not listening. We knowingly do unhealthy things, but we anticipate the negative effects and rationalize the results to concoct our own message. Then there are things, which we had no idea would harm us, but the effects are undeniable. Cell phone use falls into all of the above. It is time we heard the message.
I visit family in New Orleans a couple of times a year. Of the reasons I love visiting, food is a very close second to family. If you have been there, you know that salads don’t make the menu of most restaurants. New Orleanians will not take this as an insult, and I don’t mean it as one.
A few years back, while eating at a very well-known restaurant in the city, my sister, a 30 year vegetarian, encountered a big hunk of bacon halfway through her “vegetable” soup. She called it to the attention of the waiter who replied “It’s just a little bacon, sha.” That exchange nicely encapsulates the city’s food culture.
We just returned from a week in New Orleans. While we were there, we ate Po’ Boys, Etouffee, Red Beans and Rice, Beignets, King cake and Hubig’s pies. I think I once saw a side salad whisk past me on its way to a table of obvious tourists. The week’s dietary effects upon my wife and I were evident, but it took us a little longer to recognize them in our 10 year old son, Beaux.
Near the end of the trip, Beaux seemed…off. He was cranky, easily disappointed and tired. Recognizing the need, my wife and I made a quick trip to a nearby market and bought a bell pepper, bananas and grapes. Beaux made himself a heaping snack plate. He sat next to me devouring his food. While eating, he stopped twice to thank me. “Seriously, dad. Thank you for this food.” Like a miracle drug, his attitude improved immediately and stayed that way for the rest of the vacation.
The only reason we even thought to take that action was because we spent the first four years of Beaux’s life learning how important food is for him. He’s the youngest of four boys, the oldest is 20. Food did not affect any of his brothers the same way and they all have different tastes. With all that parenting experience, it never should have taken us so long to recognize the situation. We just didn’t read the signals correctly.
In the 1700s, scurvy killed hundreds of thousands of sailors. The body’s cartilage and connective tissue essentially sluffs off as men rotted from the inside. The simple cure is vitamin C, a nutrient all but absent on ships at the time. When they figured it out, limes became standard issue in the British Navy. That’s where the term “limeys” originated. Cholera killed (and continues to kill) millions. The cure? Clean water. In Winter, shorter days and colder temperatures force us indoors and depression rates rise. The cure for many is sunlight. Too much sugar rots your teeth. Overeating makes you fat and tired. Cigarettes create difficulty breathing. Alcohol gives you a hangover and kills your liver. The cure? Eat, smoke and drink less. In every case, the body issues obvious distress signals and the cure is simple and obvious in hindsight.
These and most other afflictions and addictions follow one of two pathways:
- Deprive the body of needed, healthy resources
- Introduce unhealthy/harmful elements to the body.
Cell phone addiction follows both pathways by simultaneously introducing unhealthy behavior and preventing healthy behavior.
Whether you call it ignorance, cognitive dissonance or simple misunderstanding, the biggest tragedy of all is that throughout history, we have continually missed the simplest answers. Imagine explaining to the families of those unfortunate dead sailors or cholera victims that an extra lime in the pocket or getting water from a different source could have saved their lives. I cannot help wondering if a similar tragedy awaits us 100 years from now as we look back upon the effects of cell phone use.
Let’s look at things Socratically and start with two basic, immutable facts:
- Cell phone use increases access to unhealthy behaviors
Clearly a child with a cell phone in hand has access to experiences not available without a cell phone. No one would say that 100% of cell phone use is healthy. So we can assume that cell phones increase access to unhealthy behaviors.
- Cell phone use and real-world experience are mutually exclusive
As proud as we may be of our multitasking abilities, we cannot argue that cell phone use deprives us of real world experience. Need further proof? Go try to text and drive. Talk to your friend while scrolling through Instagram and see how that conversation is affected. Using the cell phone blocks out real-world experiences.
What does the distress signal look like? It looks exactly like the CDC’s Annual Youth at Risk Survey:

Cell phones are not the only cause, here but If we agree on the above two points, then the best solution addresses them both. 300 years ago, believing scurvy resulted from a lack of connection with land, some ship’s physicians prescribed burying sailors up to their necks in the sand. Their aim was to replace what was lacking. The solution was preposterous, but the line of thinking was sound.
These conditions set in gradually, but if you carefully observe your child’s evolving relationship with his or her cell phone, the distress signals will reveal themselves. Humans have a biological need to live and breathe in the real world. Could it be that with each swipe of the thumb, we disconnect ourselves from it just a little bit more?
Bucking medical tradition, let’s start with the simplest solution first; do less of the bad and more of the good. If cell phones simultaneously increase unhealthy behaviors and decrease healthy ones, reducing or ending cell phone use should positively affect both sides of the equation in one shot.
If your child is still young, you have an advantage and a disadvantage. First, your solutions can be proactive and focus upon future skills. You also have ample time to practice. You’ll find advice on how to support your child’s growth in other posts on this page. However, in young children, though the signs are visible to the observant parent, there may not be an obvious distress signal yet. We have all been guilty of following the philosophy that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but if this is the future, which awaits your teenage child, no parent should wait to act.
Unfortunately, for many parents, the simplicity of this solution only applies to its logic. In practice, some parents may find reducing or removing cell phone use nearly impossible. If your child has his or her own cell phone and has developed habits, addictive behaviors, or exhibits some of the symptoms above, pulling back is going to be hard, but not impossible. Remember that you are acting upon information (facts) that your child does not have and cannot grasp as completely as you. Steel yourself not by fearing the statistics, but by understanding the choices by which every parent can avoid them.