General Disadvantages of Staying Indoors

 1. Dissociation from Nature

When youths spend all their time indoors, they become dissociated from the natural world around them. This affects their knowledge of the world, and how humans interact with it. It may also adversely affect society as a whole, because that generation knows less, and may therefore care less, about the environment and public policy towards it.

2. Getting Under-Foot

Although parents may worry about their young kids or teenagers safety when outdoors, there are disadvantages to having kids indoors all day. Parents might have to spend time interceding in sibling rivalries, which outdoors would have to be sorted out by the kids themselves. Housework is also harder to do with children cluttering up the living room, and they might also look to parents to organise entertainment instead of using their own creativity to think up of games or activities.

3. Anxiety

Cooping inside for great lengths of time can build up anxiety and restlessness. Feeling restless can also make one become more irritable and upset than usual by seemingly minor things. Too much time alone and being too occupied by screen-based activities, make us withdraw from friends and loved ones, which is linked to social anxiety. The isolation imposed by staying at home leaves people feeling that they have no control over the situation. Some also seem to be unable to perform the usual duties.

4. Appetite Changes

Your circadian rhythm can also affect your appetite. As a result of being sedentary, we may feel hungrier than usual or may lose appetite. Some tend to overindulge in junk food, and some skip meals.

5. Mood Swings 

Living a sedentary lifestyle and being less social tend to have negative impacts on our moods. To be able to increase the level of serotonin, or the mood-boosting neurotransmitter, sunlight is needed. Low levels of serotonin are usually linked with mood swings and depression.

Some Topics in more depth:

A. Polluted Indoor Enironment 

People die due to indoor air pollution - According to the latest reports by the World Health Organisation, 4.3 million deaths occur in a year globally from exposure to indoor air pollution only. 12 per cent of those deaths occur due to childhood pneumonia and 34 percent occur due to people who inhale the microscopic dust particles inside the house itself. Living in damp and mouldy homes increases our chance of asthma by 40% and unless we act now we risk endangering our health as a result.

Air-conditioner doesn’t purify but makes the air inside potentially dangerous- While it may be easy to convince yourself that your air conditioner is purifying the air through its filters, the stale air that you cannot smell or see is only an illusion that is created by the chilled air indoors.  Indoor air can be up to five times more polluted than outside but 77% are unaware according to global YouGov surveyv Children’s bedrooms are often among the most polluted rooms in the house. . Your air conditioner can only trap large pollutants, not small micro-organisms, such as dust, moulds, pollen, pet dander that can cause upper respiratory tract infections, such as colds and coughs.

If you’re someone who likes to keep their doors and windows closed at all times to disallow the winter chill or the summer heat from entering, consider the repercussions of doing so.

B. Disadvantages of Online Gaming

Obviously, there are certain disadvantages to playing online. The most significant factor is, unfortunately, health. There are so many obese kids these days, and in the past, it wasn’t a very common situation. It happens because they all are mostly sitting, and lack of physical exercise becomes a severe problem for them. Also, online gamers have more and more problems with their back and eyes. It’s not a secret that the computer is the main culprit of this problem.

On top of that, playing online games may oftentimes result in addiction. In such cases, gamers can’t imagine their life without a particular game. In the most extreme cases, it can lead to serious health problems. Scientists also found that people who spent way too much time online have difficulties when it comes to social interaction, and are more prone to depression and anxiety.

C. Disadvantages of Working from Home

Willpower- Gotta get jamming on this new project, but Netflix says you still have 4 episodes of Tiger King to watch...

Difficulty sticking to a routine- The order you do things at work is almost never the order you do things at home. It can be tough to mirror your schedule and processes once outside the office.

D. Disadvantages of Being Alone

Being Alone Makes Us Vulnerable to Our Inner Critics- Being alone with our thoughts isn’t always a good thing. Isolation can be the perfect breeding ground for negative, self-critical thoughts. We all have an inner critic, a nasty coach that lives inside our heads and seeks any opportunity to criticize us. These “critical inner voices” tend to multiply when we are left alone with our thoughts. The “critical inner voices” tend to be at their worst when we are not only alone, but are also feeling lonely.  At these times, the inner critic tells us that something is wrong with us and we don’t belong around other people. In this sense, we are our own worst enemy.

Being Alone Can Lead to Painful Loneliness-It is important to distinguish between time spent happily alone and time spent feeling lonely. Feeling lonely can trigger feelings of being unloved or unlikeable, which can lead us to turn on ourselves. Feeling lonely is actually painful on a physical level, as well as emotional level

Being Alone/Lonely Can Lead to DepressionTime- spent alone and feeling lonely can lead to depression. In fact, studies now show that a lonely brain is structurally and biochemically different. When someone is lonely, their neural responses to positive images and events get suppressed, so the world is perceived through a negative filter. We are more likely  to believe that things are hopeless when we are lonely. This makes it more difficult to summon up the energy and bravery to find happiness and change.

Being Alone Can Be Bad for Our Health-Too much time alone is bad for our physical health. Studies have found that social isolation and loneliness can increase the likelihood of mortality by up to 30%. Researchers claim, “Being socially connected is not only influential for psychological and emotional well-being but it also has a significant and positive influence on physical well-being and overall longevity.” It is important to maintain strong social connections, even if you prefer to spend a majority of your time alone.

E. Effect on Health

People who are inactive in their childhood tend to have worse health in their adulthood than those who were not. All youths need an hour of moderate or vigorous exercise per day, at the minimum, and staying indoors makes this difficult to achieve. Failure to get this exercise can cause reduced bone strength, reduced cardiovascular health, reduced respiratory health metabolic problems more likely. Staying indoors all day may fuel insomnia. 

“By staying indoors, we tend to spend a lot of time sitting on the couch or bed. A sedentary lifestyle puts a lot of intradiscal pressure on your spine leading to back pain and disc issues. Sitting puts up to 275 kgs of discal pressure on your spine which is 2X more than standing. Studies have shown that sitting 1 hour less a day can reduce upper back and neck pain by up to 54 %” 

Spending too much time indoors can cut off your body’s supply of healthy gut bacteria, which can throw you off in a number of ways. Going outdoors,” Lovebug Probiotics explains, “increases your gut microbiome’s diversity simply by exposing you to a wider variety of good bacteria strains. In turn, a more diverse microbiome tends to be a healthier, more balanced one.” Having good gut health can also help stave off many of the other maladies on this list!

Staying indoors puts a lot of pressure on your spine and may lead to back pain and posture issues. Sitting puts huge stress on your back muscles, neck, and spine; slouching makes it worse.

F. Skills for the Future are Affected

When youth are allowed to create and explore in the world around them -- instead of limiting themselves to indoor activities -- they can develop more competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and the ability to meet future challenges.You’re more likely to smoke and drink, especially if you are a teenager.Teenagers suffer from a higher propensity to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol the more time they spent indoors. The consequence has resulted in an increase in the number of cases of teenagers with lower back pain. A study in the Journal of Public Health indicates that adolescents who experience back pain more frequently are also more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and report problems like anxiety and depression. Adolescent back pain may play a role in characterising poor overall health, and risk of chronic disease throughout life.