Silver-haired "head-down tribe", new problems faced by the elderly

This is the 4063rd article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

When Grandpa Yang was young, he was always a literary and artistic backbone of the unit. According to his wife, "playing basketball, playing the erhu, playing poker, as long as it is an entertainment project, he can learn it without a teacher." A few years ago, his daughter bought him a smartphone and a tablet computer to facilitate communication and relieve the boredom of the elderly. A few days after getting the equipment, Grandpa Yang fell in love with these gadgets. He held them tightly every day, either playing online Landlord, chatting on WeChat, watching Douyin, or watching TV series. He ate a few mouthfuls of food in a hurry. The original regular walk and fitness after meals became three days of fishing and two days of drying the net. Sometimes he would even secretly get up to play a few games during his nap at noon. He was advised to use less Internet, and said a lot of things, but Grandpa Yang was unmoved, and even felt that his family was deliberately against him. Soon after, he developed persistent soreness, swelling and numbness in his neck, shoulders and back, which was still difficult to relieve after rest and relaxation. What happened?

Real life examples

While some parents are still worried about teenagers addicted to the Internet, the "silver-haired mobile phone addicts" have already arrived unexpectedly, and their number is huge. According to the "2020 Report on Internet Life for the Elderly", the average daily usage time of elderly users over 60 years old is 64.8 minutes, and even 0.19% of the elderly are online for more than 10 hours a day. With the "aging-friendly" transformation of the Internet, more and more elderly people are proficient in using smart devices, which brings convenience while also making some elderly people addicted to them.

It is undeniable that under the social background of small-scale family, alienated family type and dispersed family members, the phenomenon of "silver-haired people" living alone and empty nest is relatively common, and the sense of loneliness and marginalization is increasing day by day. Mobile phones and other electronic devices have built a colorful and virtual living space for the elderly, filling the gaps in their lives and spirits. They watch videos, buy medicine, order takeout, shop online, read novels on their mobile phones, and can also express themselves and express their emotions through the Internet, and even "punch in to make a little money"... Smart phones and virtual networks have enriched the lives of the elderly to a certain extent, becoming an important tool for them to re-socialize, maintain emotions and develop social relationships, and naturally make them enjoy it and indulge in it. However, everything is too much. Over-reliance on self-media and online groups, swiping mobile phones day and night, losing appetite, and sleeping with mobile phones in hand have become the daily life of many elderly people. When "touching the mobile phone first when getting up in the morning" and "feeling anxious if I don't look at the mobile phone for a while", electronic devices occupy most of the elderly's free time, "silver-haired people who look down at their phones" are no different from "teenagers addicted to the Internet".

Saving teenagers who are addicted to the Internet has long been a huge problem in the information society, and the newly emerged "silver-haired people who look down on their phones" have multiple hidden dangers. In comparison, the elderly are weak and their bodies are slowly degenerating. They often stay up late, watch their phones for a long time, waste a lot of time and energy, and have an irregular life, which hurts the cervical spine and eyes. The vertebrae, intervertebral discs, ligaments and muscles will gradually degenerate. Once they are strained, they are more likely to suffer from cervical spondylosis, which makes their already aging bodies even worse.

The main symptoms of the silver-haired head-down tribe are dizziness, soreness and numbness in the neck, shoulders and back, back pain, and widespread tenderness around the neck and shoulder blades. In the past, editors, writers, accountants, typists, painters, medical staff, etc. who have been engaged in long-term head-down work are prone to this disease, but now, the proportion of elderly people in this type of disease is gradually increasing. The typical manifestation is that the protruding bones in the neck feel stiff and sore when the head is lowered, and the pain is unbearable when pressed with hands, but if you raise your head hard or stretch exaggeratedly, you will feel very comfortable; if it continues to develop, numbness, soreness, swelling and pain can gradually radiate from the neck to the shoulders, arms and fingers, and can also radiate to the top of the head, forehead, waist and back and chest, etc., and dizziness, headaches and other symptoms may occur due to lack of sleep, excessive use of eyes, tight neck muscles and lack of exercise; some people are also accompanied by vision loss. In the long run, it will accelerate the aging of the cervical spine, cause organic lesions in the cervical spine, and suffer from cervical spondylosis.

expert

Tips

Regularly doing simple health exercises can prevent the above symptoms of the elderly who look down at their phones, but the most basic way is to control the length of time and posture of using electronic devices. The purpose of doing simple health exercises is to exercise the neck and shoulder muscles, reduce neck and shoulder pain, and delay the aging of the cervical spine.

Author: Wang Zixiang, Lin Hong, Li Juan

Instructor: Dong Jian

Unit: Department of Orthopedics, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University

Institute of Medical Science Popularization, Fudan University

This article was funded by the following project: Shanghai Science and Technology Commission Science Popularization Project

(No.: 20DZ2312000, 21DZ2302900)