Every sector, every industry, every aspect of our lives has been changing with technology and progress. Technology has become so embedded in our lives and will continue to do so to such an extent that I find it normal that even diseases evolve with technology. Perhaps it is still a bit far-fetched to talk about a tech virus that would infect our biological bodies because of some kind of tech augmentation that we would have applied to our body of the future, but it is not too far-fetched to talk about a disease that already exists today in my opinion: “Scrollosis”.

Have you ever checked your phone, opened your favorite app(s) with the intention to check it for any important updates and then put away the phone an hour later just because someone interrupted you or you ran out of battery? If yes, then you might be suffering from Scrollosis. Now before I go any further, I have to clarify that I created the term Scrollosis to describe this new tech age disease and I intend to own all the rights for that name. Scrollosis hits you at any age and is a silent disease with the ability to completely transform us into pixels absorbing zombies with very limited functions for a considerable amount of time. It can manifest itself at any point in time but mostly in the evenings. The effects of Scrollosis are devastating to your social life, your eyes, your brain, and your existence as a will powered human being. Scrollosis can be resisted and some people are better immune against it than others. Those with stronger will power tend to be aware of themselves falling under the Scrollosis effect, and are able to pull away from it. However, this does not mean that Scrollosis does not take its toll on your will power.  If you catch yourself thinking that you need to stop scrolling aimlessly down that Instagram/Facebook/LinkedIn/etc. page and go to sleep but can’t gather that will power to do so, and continue to just scroll down without really knowing why, then you are suffering from Scrollosis and should take some serious action: Set triggers to remind you that you wanted to check that app for 5 minutes only. Fight fire with fire. Use technology to help you. Ask Siri to countdown 5 minutes. Use reminders. Ask a friend or spouse to help remind you…

Scrollosis might not be the most serious of new age tech diseases but it is only fair that as our lives are augmented with technology, we need to upgrade and adapt our habits accordingly.

This article was written with the intention to raise awareness and can be considered slightly surreal or comic. However, as someone deeply engaged in Healthcare and Healthcare tech companies and seeing the great benefits that innovative solutions and technology are bringing to the field, I cannot but help think of the dark side and the risks that lie ahead. This made me realize that what we are seeing is the emergence of a new breed of diseases (psychological and physical) and that we might one day need to have a new set of “tech augmented medical” solutions to address them…

Let me know what you think.

Michael