Children are growing old before their time, says Shukan Josei (April 24).
They’re still in elementary school, not even in their teens, and already their bodies are deteriorating. The elderly know the symptoms only too well: stiff shoulders, aching backs, weakening vision, thinning hair. At a certain stage of life you tell yourself it’s inevitable and resign yourself. When it precedes puberty, something seems drastically wrong.
The magazine names two culprits: the randoseru and the smartphone.
Randoseru comes from the Dutch word ransel, meaning backpack. Japan adopted it some 200 years ago, and it’s been the standard school bag among Japanese elementary school kids since elementary education became compulsory in 1885. It’s heavy. As are the text books that fill them – increasingly so as curricula grow more demanding. The books kids today are loaded down with are 34 percent heavier now than they were in 2005.
Then there’s the ubiquitous smartphone. Other influences aside, it tends to cause you stoop as you peer into it while walking. If you’re walking with neck bent forward at an angle of 45 degrees, your head, which weighs 4 to 5 kg, becomes a burden equivalent to 20 kg, says Tokyo orthopedist Masayuki Sasaki. Think, he says, of a bowling ball. That’ll give you an idea.
Walking to and from school with an academic load on your back and a smartphone screen drawing your neck irresistibly forward is not something the human body is evolved to do. Muscle tension, back pain and impaired blood circulation are the common symptoms listed.
Burdens are not only physical. Chiropractor Eiji Yamanaka sees a psychological element too. “It seems to me, judging by my own patients, that people nowadays are more self-assertive than they used to be.” But some are more so than others, and quieter, more studious kids to whom self-assertion doesn’t come naturally are apt to feel their emotional wounds physically.
“Many of the kids who suffer backaches are serious kids,” says Yamanaka. Their nervous systems seem to respond to everything – parents’ expectations, teachers’ expectations, their standing among friends.
The evidence of increased premature balding seems at this stage more anecdotal than scientific, but that for deteriorating vision is more firmly established. “The way children play today is not good for eyes,” says Ophthalmologist Sachi Amaki. “The way children play” is mostly indoors, and mostly online, which means peering at a screen. “In the past,” Amaki says, “kids played catch. When throwing the ball they looked far. When catching it they looked close. That was a good balance.”
Two hours of smartphone use a day, she says, is about all the eyes can take. A government survey Shukan Josei cites records average daily use among children two and a half hours.
© Japan Today
9 Comments
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kohakuebisu
Do elementary kids look at smartphone screens on their way to school? I'm in inaka so I've never seen it.
Its not mentioned, but I would have though sleep depravation of older kids would have been the major problem.
Bintaro
Already a large percentage of the japanese population needed glasses waaaay before the advent of smartphones.
I would put school activities and pressure above all else.
I remember the heavy backpack in middle school and the awful posture I had, and still partially have. And that got better only when I started doing exercise on my own time.
I did hours after hours of video games, and still have 20/20 vision. But the lessons and homework gave me so many headaches and restless nights. And that's before adding the conflicts with my teachers and parents. And, surprise, I started balding in my 20's.
Certainly. Plus bad eating habits, or overeating as well.
talaraedokko
Agree
talaraedokko
I wish my kids ONLY spent 2 ½ hours a day on their smartphones / iPhones / Nintendos / Play Stations. I’d consider myself a luck parent. I dare say in the city kids spend a lot more time with their electronic toys.
Ricky Kaminski
Then they lose all decision making abilities, get glued to a chair listening to monotony and forced to do simple clerical tasks for 12 years . Cram school for the especially lucky ones and we wonder why we have a listless , unambitious and delicate generation on our hands. Good luck parents , cause the state has failed you.
Attilathehungry
According to this article from the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, kids today are rounder, heavier, and weaker than 25 years ago. Boys have less grip strength and can't throw a ball as far. Girls waist size has increased by 6cm by age 12.
Thanks Google/facebook/internet...
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/scanlan-kids-are-now-heavier-rounder-and-weaker-the-fix-ought-to-be-simple
Aly Rustom
That's what I'm guessing.
gokai_wo_maneku
I think otherwise. Since the chemical revolution in the mid 18 hundreds, we have released tens of thousands of chemicals into the envoronment. For 99%, we have no understanding of their possible effects on the body, or mixtures of these on the body. Now we are seeing the effects. The chemical environment is just one more stress to add to the bodies of kids.