The longevity has escalated in both developed and developing nations.

According to World
Health Organisation (2018), 125 million of the world’s population are currently aged over 80
years. The movement of modern living has been influenced remarkably in many aspects.
Especially, it has formed in the quality of health. Advocates of modern lifestyle would argue
that there are incremental benefits of modern lifestyle as an important element to physical
and mental health. However, such reasoning seems invalid. After considerable analysing in
the comparison of the effects on health in developed nations and the Third World, it is
obvious that modern lifestyle takes full responsibility for health problems. As can be seen in
the following effects in terms of technological innovation and eating habits.

Electronic device use has been growing as an innovation of high technology in modern life.
However, it can cause a massive negative impact on people’s health. The British spend more
than 24 hours per week on mobile phone (Hymat 2018). The excessive use of mobile phone
affects physical and mental health. It can cause functional cognitive disorders such as
depression, sleep problems. Moreover, the blue light from digital devices, in particular, can
increase the risk of eye vision issues. According to Owen et al. (2012), 2,4% of adult
population in the United Kingdom are related to macular degeneration (AMD). So much so
that it might increase a chance of blindness in the USA (Ratnayake et al. 2018). A further
negative effect on health is mobile devices emit the radio frequency (RF) radiation to usage
that can cause brain cancers. Hardell et al. (2002) claim that mobile phones use could
increase the ratio of cancer risk. They report that the proportion of developing brain cancer
risk for those who had used mobile devices more than 10 years nearly three times the rate on
people who used mobile phones with 77% and 26% respectively.

Notwithstanding, some opponents argue that the benefits of electronic devices far outweigh
the negative health outcomes. It can be seen in the development of medical software
applications (apps) on mobile phone sensor technology that can assist in multi-tasks such as
tracking heartbeat, calories, steps, bed-time management, smoking and stressing control.
Mhealth – a mobile medical application is a multifunctional care tool to help people about
health care and health service majors on people who have low income or no income can also
access to Mhealth in South East Asia (Tatarski, 2018). In addition, there is no evidence that
RF can cause increase this risk of cancer (Sánchez 2006).

1
Whilst this may be true in some developed countries, it is not the case in other low and
middle-income countries. Mobile sensor technology for health is deluxe for those people who
live in developing countries, namely Viet Nam. In their article, Lam et al. (2018) state that,
35 % of the total population does not own a mobile phone. In fact, medical software
applications are designed in programming English that is a challenge for non-English
speaking countries to follow the instructions appropriately. Baig, GholamHosseini and
Connolly (2015) highlight that, there is a barrier between mobile devices and language
settings as well as application environment. They also found that the issue of the mobile
networks with usage is the cost to access into medical applications quite expensive. Another
barrier is regarded with the intellectual property rights that it needs to be purchased monthly
for programmers. Moreover, according to Aiken and Gauntlett (2013) report that merely
16.275 out of 40.000 medical applications in the US Apple iTunes app stores are directly
useful for patients and treatment. Additionally, Leszczynski and Xu (2010) argue that the
evidence in the association between mobile phone radiation and health problems from
previous studies is inaccurate and unclear. Thus, Mhealth is undesirable for usage in
developing countries, and it hardly can deny that the negative impact of technology on health.

Another negative impact of modern living is the dietary habits. There is a controversial about
modern lifestyle is caused more people to be obese by eating fast food and physical
inactivity. Particularly across the industrialized countries, the pressure of modern life has
shaped the way of working and living. Fast food has become more irreplaceable in daily life
for those who have busy schedules at work. However, fast food is one of the principal factors
causing rapid increases the obesity. The number of group aged 18 and over was obese in
Australia, which accounted for 63% in 2014-15 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
2017). Additionally, Fraser, Cade and Edwards (2012) indicate the association between fast
food and obesity in the United Kingdom. They also report that children absorb more calories
in fast food because it is contained high in total calories, cholesterols, salt and fat. Also,
Ashakiran and Deepthi (2012) state that fast food is the main reason to increase people
obesity in both developing and developed countries. Significantly, obesity is associated with
health problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers (World Health
Organization 2013).

Nonetheless, some objectors argue that maintaining healthy diet and exercise regularly are
the most common to the prevention of obesity. As can be seen that the organic fast food is
2
one of the new methods in the healthy food trends in industrialised countries. It has been
expanding across the globe in recent years. It could be an effective solution to tackle potential
obesity risks. Moreover, eating healthful alternatives such as organic vegetables, organic
fruits or whole-grain bread instead of fast food. As well as moderate intensity exercise
activity twice a week that can help to burn fat effectively (Australian Government
Department of Health 2017)

This may be the case, however, it must be admitted that there is no health benefit from
organic food. It could be made up as a marketing scheme to attract consumers. Dangour et al.
(2009), and Smith-Spangler et al. (2012) find that in their research, it was consistently refuted
that there are no differences between nutritional quality and conventional foods. Moreover,
due to the busy schedule at work, family and personal situations and in the combination of
these, people might not have time for exercising. A vast majority of American adults do not
get exercise enough (Jaslow 2013). In comparison with developing regions, organic food is
produced to feed the rich and not the poor. Iqbal (2015) states that the unwillingness of
buyers to concern the price of organic food is quite expensive. Therefore, modern living
causes unhealthy eating behaviours and it leads to obesity and health problems.

In conclusion, it is irrefutable that the hazard of lifestyle patterns far outweighs the merits
effects on people’s health. It is considered in two important aspects. Primarily, the innovation
of technology and electronic devices can be harmful to people’s health. Secondly, the
association between modern life and eating behaviours is also causing more people to be
obese which is related to various diseases such as hypertension, heart problems and cancer
risks. In order to measure the aforementioned issues in developed and developing nations, it
is crucial that people should learn how to use electronic devices correctly and improve health
by eating healthy nourishment to diminish cravings fast food as well as exercise moderately
for a prosperous healthy lifestyle.

3
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