As if you needed yet another reason to disconnect, here it comes: technology is harming your skin. It turns out blue light, electromagnetic fields, and the simple posture and facial movements required during screen time does more than just expose you to radiation but actually starts to etch at your vibrant and beautiful complexion. Here are five ways tech is getting into and under your skin.

1. Tech Neck

Experts have been using the term “tech neck” to refer to the drooping jowls, sagging skin, wrinkles, and a crease above the clavicle bone that result from the act of constantly checking our phones. Every time you look down at your phone, you are essentially doubling down on the effects of gravity on your lower face, throat, and neck. The squinting doesn’t help either, as it can lead to crow’s feet. Dermatologists are witnessing the usually age-related symptoms of “tech neck” in people as young as 18 years old!

Try holding your devices at eye level to avoid tech neck. Meanwhile, enlarge the font on your phone so you don’t have to squint to read.

2. Blue Light

The blue light on your phone and computer can affect your ability to fall asleep, but it is actually doing more than just that! This high-energy visible (HEV) light penetrates your skin deeper than UV rays do and ultimately affects your DNA. This can lead to premature aging. To avoid this, search for a moisturizer that specifically protects against HEV light.

3. Electromagnetic Fields

Your tech devices also emit an electronic magnetic field (EMF) that damage skin cells. The skin absorbs these frequencies and is compromised because of it. The best way to offset this is to regularly detoxify your skin with at-home or spa facials that go deep, accessing the recesses of your skin’s layers that EMF (unfortunately) so effectively does.

4. Allergies

According to one study, nickel and chromium in cell phone casings can cause an allergic skin reaction for some people and some 10% of children. Be sure to purchase a protective plastic cover and use a headset or speakerphone when possible.

5. Acne

Your cell phone contains 10-times more bacteria than a toilet seat. Unfortunately, these bacteria can easily transfer to your face, either when you are holding your cell phone to your face, or from your fingers, which go from swiping and clicking the screen to touching and rubbing your face. To remedy this, disinfect your screen often!

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Is Cell Phone Radiation Causing Breast Cancer?

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For the first time in history, women have eked past men as the most popular hires for tech jobs. Yes–as in IT support, engineers, developers and even more of the positions typically reserved for geeky guys. (I’m sorry, I meant geniuses.)

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, sixty percent of the 39,000 tech job hires between January and September (2013) went to women. “In every other year of the past decade, men claimed a greater share of new tech jobs,” reports Business Insider. Typically as much as seventy to eighty percent of tech jobs go to men in a year. So, what gives? Why the sudden shift?

CNN notes, in a let’s-call-it-a-bit-more-than-slightly-sexist-tone, that where exactly the hires are going is unclear, “It’s possible tech firms could be hiring huge teams of female administrators and still mostly male engineers.” Right, because all that engineering is like, really complicated and stuff! Does anyone have a nail file? I think I just chipped my pinky typing “definition of bullshit” into the Google.

It’s not just the jobs that are going to women, overall these computer-thingies and all kinds of digital content have piqued women’s interest. Last month, the Telegraph reported on a study that found women over age 35 now outnumber men when it comes to playing digital games. “In Turkey, Brazil, Netherlands, US, UK, and France, there are more women over 35 gaming than men, and [the report] states that 73 per cent of Turkish women aged 35-44 play online games.”

Should we even discuss how many women are running the booming online porn industry?

The shift is likely due, in part anyway, to women tech stars like Yahoo CEO and ex-Googler Marissa Mayer and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (and let’s not forget EcoSalon’s Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Laura Klein). Mayer and Sandberg were all over the media this year, making the tech industry look less like the good ol’ boys club and more like a non-gender-specific industry ripe for female influence. Sometimes, it’s even downright sexy.

But, big surprise: women still aren’t earning as much as men, according to Business Insider. “In computer and information systems roles, for example, women working full time make only about 80 cents for every dollar earned by men.”

Regardless of why it’s happening, it’s a pretty big swing in favor of women, who still only make up a little more than thirty percent of tech industry jobs in total. The year’s not yet done, either. Neither are women.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Related on EcoSalon

That Happened: I Was Told There Would Be Beer
That Happened: Marissa Mayer: Put On Your Big Girl Pants and Get to Work
That Happened: Feminism According to Sheryl Sandberg

Image: Mike Licht

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Clutter is a constant threat to sanity and comfort, creeping into our homes, offices, and vehicles with alarming certainty. Apps may not be able to clean the kitchen for you, but the right online assistance can get you back on track to a clutter-free life.

I love my dining room table, but I rarely get to see it. Pick a random day of the week and you’re likely to find it covered in things that definitely belong somewhere else. Unopened mail, phone chargers, books I swear I’m going to read, and my favorite, coats and scarves slung over the chair backs.

Although we most often complain about physical clutter in our homes and vehicles, mental and electronic clutter can be just as frustrating. A million unorganized bookmarks, hundreds of notes to yourself about articles you want to read or errands that need to be run. These are all what a good friend of mine calls “mental parachutes”–digital clutter that’s only slowing you down.

Even though it’s only February, it’s never too soon to think about spring cleaning, and the first step is releasing yourself from the clutter tentacles spread all throughout your life. Here are five tech tools, including mobile apps and online services, that can help you get organized and energized in time for Spring.

Image via yerdle

1. Swap ‘Till You Drop

My partner and I have this rule when we do really serious cleaning: if we haven’t used or appreciated something in the last 12 months, it’s out. The question is, where’s out? Donating is OK but impersonal, and the landfill is just downright wasteful for things that aren’t at the end of their life cycle. Enter the swapping service. Companies like yerdle exist to turn your “trash” into treasure. Their mobile app makes it possible to snap a picture and list items in a matter of seconds. Other local users can then “want” your item and a pickup arranged. Still seem like too much effort? Try Swap.com’s Valet Service. Simply box up all your unwanted goods, and ship them to the company. They’ll take care of photographing, storing, and listing the items on their vast website. You set the price and then decide whether to trade or sell.

Image via iGo

2. Universal Chargers

There is nothing more frustrating than fighting with a tangle of charger wires when trying to stave off a low battery alert. The more gadgets we acquire, the more cords we add to the cluster. iGo’s Everywhere Universal Wall and Auto Charger offers a path out of the madness. This gadget features a five-foot retractable cord and can be fitting with a variety of interchangeable power tips that make it possible to juice up a  laptop, smartphone, and e-reader all from the same charger.

Image via Instapaper

3. Instapaper

I’m a reckless bookmarker. Spending at least six hours a day working on the internet, I come across (or am sent) links to dozens of articles I’d like to read. Or companies I’d like to check out. Or recipes I’d like to make. All of these are dumped unceremoniously in my “other bookmarks” folder, which is now so out of control, I’m afraid to open it. Developed by Marco Arment, who also helped create Tumblr, Instapaper is a clean, simple and straightforward way to save online articles to read later. Simply install the Instapaper app and download (and organize) your unread articles when you have Wi-Fi or 3G coverage, then you can read them anytime: on the train, on the bus, in an airplane, at the bank, or in your favorite chair.

Image via Captio

4. Captio for Business Receipts

If you’re an entrepreneur or freelancer, you know that retaining proof of your business expenses is extremely important, still it can be hard to keep all those nondescript receipts and other bit of paper straight, especially when you’re working on the go. Available for Apple products, Androids and Blackberry, Captio lets you capture an image of your receipts wherever you are, using your smartphone. Pertinent information is then automatically stored for later analysis and can be used to generate expense claims.

Image via Stylebook

5. Control Your Closet

Disorganized closets mean most of us only wear 20 percent of our wardrobe, sometimes re-buying things we already have! The Stylebook iPhone app offers more than 90 features to help you get the most out of your closet. Import images of your actual clothes, create magazine-style outfits, plan what to wear and track your style inspirations with this totally customizable app. Can be of immense help if you’re a fashionista who’s having a hard time deciding what should stay and what should go. If you uncover designer clothes, bags or accessories that haven’t been in the regular rotation for awhile, consider selling them to Rent the Runway, or Bag, Borrow or Steal.

Top Image: smashmedia

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Happy New Year! Welcome back and get ready for a rockin’ 2013! We are thrilled that Organic Authority, LLC (the same company that publishes OrganicAuthority.com) has officially acquired EcoSalon.com.

We are gushing with all of the support and love we’ve received during this transition. We are excited to pick up the ball and continue the EcoSalon conversations and get to know all of You, our beloved community.

Personally, I love change and am so excited to add EcoSalon to the Organic Authority family. As a company, we get to dig deeper into important topics known and loved by you, such as conscious fashion, culture, design, sex, food, and tech, that perhaps we’ve only touched on…until now. And I am really excited to be able to learn from all of you. If you like a piece of content, share it through your networks on Pinterest, Facebook, Google+. Stumble it, Tweet it out, and most importantly share your thoughts with us—please!—I love hearing your ideas and value your feedback.

2013 will be a spectacular year on so many levels! The number 13 is my lucky number (despite what many say about the number 13), and is a lucky number for my family. I was born on February 13th, my mother was born on the November 13^th, and my grandmother, born in 1913, would have been 100 this year. (She was a triplet! Did you know there’s even stronger luck associated with the number 13 when another 3 is involved?) So, this year is personally a very big year for my family and me; it’s one to celebrate, one to embrace—especially for women!

Thirteen is also a very feminine number. It is the lucky number of the Great Goddess, and is revered as the sacred essence of good fortune and good luck. It is the average number of menstrual cycles in a year (I thought it was 12, but what do I know? Science says it’s 13). Italy and China consider the number lucky. When Chinese women offer up their traditional mooncakes, there are always 13 on a plate to represent the 13 months in a full lunar year. In fact, it wasn’t until after the patriarchal revolution that the number 13 (and Friday) was deemed unlucky. And today, sports teams all over have embraced the luck in number 13. Dan Marino, an American football legend wore the number 13. Basketball superstars Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O’Neal also wore the number 13. Yao Ming wore it in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

But who’s to say the number 13 is lucky or unlucky? You do! What you believe is your choice, and is exactly what you’ll receive via your worldviews. So, choose wisely, and make the best of your beliefs.

In 2013, resolve to embrace change. The world in which we live changes rapidly, which is why it’s even more important to: believe in You. Ask for that raise, pitch your idea, launch that business that’s been burning in the back of your mind. Stop procrastinating! There’s a reason why tech companies launch in ‘beta.’  They just do it: they get feedback from their customer, and adjust along the way (if they wait for perfection, they’ll be dead in the water).

Believe in You.

Listen to your intuition, your gut, and go for it. Ignore the nay saying voices (including the one in your head) and choose to listen to the voice that cheers you on and believes in You. In 2013, choose to live your life out loud, embrace change, and watch your life flow with ease.

I look forward to getting to know You in 2013.

Your publisher + editor-in-chief,

Laura Klein

Image: Pink Sherbet Photography

The post Welcome Back! Embrace Change and Believe in You appeared first on EcoSalon.

Apps for adventuring.

Sounds contradictory, but sometimes technology can actually help you get closer to nature. Take, for instance, the following eight iPhone and Android mobile apps, which arm you with ways to find nearby green spaces and the information to identify anything from animal tracks to constellations to rare butterflies. Most of the apps are available offline as well, so you can venture as far off the beaten track as you please.

NatureFind

Discover nearby parks, zoos, botanical gardens, nature centers, wildlife refuges, and more with the location-based NatureFind app. The app also pulls from event listings so you can join organized hikes or participate in educational lectures.

Available for iPhone for free.

SciSpy

With the Science Channel’s SciSpy app, you can capture, tag, and share your wildlife sightings. Once your photo of, say, that funky looking beetle is uploaded, it is date-stamped, geo-mapped, classified, and offered up to a worldwide community to advance scientific research.

Available for iPhone for free.

Audubon Guides

Audubon’s array of more than a dozen Mobile Field Guide apps are a trusted source of information for wildlife enthusiasts. Whether your passion is North American Butterflies or Fishes of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, there’s probably an app for you. Or, splurge on the multi-pack.

Available for iPhone, Android, HP Touchpad, Amazon Apps, and Nook for various prices. Click here for a full list of apps.

MyNature Animal Track Guide

Identify mysterious paw prints with the MyNature Animal Track Guide app, which offers a searchable database with illustrations of both fore and hind feet and complete descriptions of track measurements, gait patterns, and animal life cycles.

Available for iPhone for $6.99 and Android for $4.99.

iBird Backyard Plus

The iBird Backyard Plus app is the ultimate birdwatcher’s tool, with 15 search attributes, 234 backyard bird species profiles, and two hours of audio bird songs and calls from Cornell University.

Available for iPhone for $0.99.

Leafsnap

Researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution joined forces to produce the Leafsnap app, which uses innovative visual recognition software to identify tree species from photos of their leaves. The app is currently limited to trees found in New York City and Washington, D.C., but continental U.S. expansion is in the works.

Available for iPhone for free.

Google Sky Map

Google’s Sky Map app was developed partly to show off the sensors in first-generation Android phones, and partly because the Google developers are admitted astronomy geeks. Now open-sourced, the app provides a “window on the sky” augmented with nifty facts and information.

Available for Android for free.

Trailhead

If trails, hikes, and bike routes are your jam, the Trailhead app from The North Face is a must-download. Not only does it help you locate nearby trails, it can also track your route, distance, speed, and elevation in real-time and let you post the results to your social media channels. What is a challenging outdoor adventure if you can’t tweet about it?

Available for iPhone for free.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

8 Apps to Help You Become a More Conscious Consumer

6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

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Is the greening of Apple skin deep, or does it run to the core? The mobile and computing device juggernaut released its fall 2009 Macbook laptop and iMac desktop computer recently, touting “environmental,” among other desirable features in each.

These include: a polycarbonate case, longer life battery and LED-backlit display in the laptop, and the use of mercury-free glass and other “highly recyclable” materials for the desktop.

The flurry of comments that follow every Apple release and product review, web-wide, included questions about how well the computer juggernaut is doing from an environmental point of view. Especially considering the company just reported that in a single quarter, it had raked in $1.67 billion in profits!

Is Apple taking a green enough approach to be lauded? Or should they be called out for green-washing?

The head of the department of Technology Management at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute, Prof. Bharat Rao, says of course, “Apple has a vested interest in making a connection with their customer and upholding their image as a responsible, friendly brand.”  But, “It is still a great thing that they are now sharing information about their environmental impact, and seem to be conscious of the waste footprint of their products, and energy used through the full lifecycle.”

Rao like others still wishes for more green leadership from Apple. It could use retail stores to accept and recycle computers and displays, for example, not just iPods, he says.

Tune in to other ideas and debates surrounding Apple’s green marketing. And weigh in on the matter here.

Basic reading:

“Dragged kicking and screaming into the [eco] movement, Apple”¦removed the vast majority of toxic chemicals from its desktops”¦While it looks similar to other vendors in terms of content, it doesn’t have much of a disposal program-and since it doesn’t have removable batteries for its laptops anymore, safely disposing of them would be relatively expensive.” – @Macnewsworld.com feature story

“The 13.3-inch display, at 1,280×800, is now LED backlit (making that a standard feature across the entire Apple laptop lineup), which is better for both power consumption and environmental concerns.” – @CNET Macbook Fall 2009 review

“Battery Life and Wi-Fi…On our LAPTOP Battery Test, the MacBook lasted 5 hours and 10 minutes in Snow Leopard. That runtime is nearly two hours short of the Apple’s claim…” – @LAPTOP magazine Macbook Fall 2009 review

“Although it is a monster in size, [the fall 2009 iMac] has improved upon the previous iMac’s already stunning looks.”  – @Computerworld iMac Fall 2009 blog review

“Every new Mac is claimed to meet the strict low-power requirements of the Energy Star specification”¦.[But] how much does “˜green computing’ matter to consumers”¦and [does] corporate marketing of “˜green’ IT devices amount to more image-spinning than substance?” – @TheAppleBlog.com opinion editorial

“[The] Clean Production Action and ChemSec have issued a report that highlights Apple as one of seven companies that lead the pack in terms of eliminating toxic substances from electronic products. The group said: “˜Apple established an innovative program that restricts the use of nearly all bromine and chlorine compounds across all their product lines”¦and offers computers that are free of BFRs and most uses of PVC.'” – @9to5mac feature story

Further resources:
iMac official press release @Apple via PRNewswire
Macbook Fall 2009 specs @Everymac.com, Guide to Greener Electronics’ Apple listings,
Apple First to Eliminate Toxic PVC @Greenpeace blogs

Editor’s note: This is the first installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by new EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

Image: Andrew

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The other day I saw an advertisement for The Digital Recipe Reader. Kinda cool, as it has a 7″ touch screen, holds up to 2,500 recipes and not a single tree was hacked nor CO2 emission spent delivering cookbooks. Sold through Neiman Marcus, the ad said that owners have access to a gaggle of exclusive NM recipes in addition to the few hundred preloaded ones. The Reader also syncs to an online database that can be customized. Pretty nifty – this, too, can be yours for a mere $300. I did a little research to see if anyone had test-driven it and found a wonderfully snarky review on Wired.com. Writer Jose Fermoso had me laughing at the headline, which reads:

Digital Recipe Reader Copies iPhone UI, Scams Grandma

After a few paragraphs he goes on to say: “The problem is that [The Reader] is $100 more than the cheapest iPhone (8GB), which could easily serve as the main kitchen helper and access thousands of recipes online. (Did anyone say Epicurious?) The only apparent difference between the devices is that this one is ‘splash resistant,’ and of course, doesn’t make calls, play movies, or have hundreds of interesting other online applications, like the steak cooking timer.”

But as I gazed at the advertisement and saw the perfectly art-directed image of the reader, one thing became very clear: a simple recipe for spiced red lentil stew was displayed as an example of what a potential owner could expect. It was free. And delicious.

Spiced Red Lentil Stew
1 cup red lentils
1 carrot coarsely chopped
1 onion coarsely chipped
2 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (I used 2 tablespoons)
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chopped parsley or cilantro (I had none)

Cover lentils with water in a bowl and stir. Drain, rinse, rinse and repeat until the water is clear. Place lentils in a pot with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that develops on top (I had none). Reduce the heat and remaining ingredients. Partially cover and cook over low heat until the stew is thick and lentils are soft, 45-60 minutes. Garnish with parsley or cilantro.

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