Is Dog Food Better Than an iPhone!?

Here at The Pets Larder we love to keep up to date with all the pet-related news, this comes with its share of highs, lows and the downright bizarre. In January of this year, a story caught our eye that was reported on the BBC News website about the plight of Ian Burton, a gentleman from Salisbury who was mistakenly sent dog food instead of the iPhone he had ordered, by the corporate giants, Amazon.

Now many of you might think this story is a tale of woe but we saw it slightly differently! As, if the amount of money spent wasn't taken into consideration, we think he had a pretty good deal! 

People are increasingly glued to their phones, tablets and other electronic gadgets and the ever-increasing use of social media has led to mental health problems across the board. 

And dogs, well dogs are just the best, right!? Who wouldn't want to feed a lovely, fluffy, friendly dog who would be exceedingly appreciative of the food it was being fed?

So, in today’s post, we will be exploring how much of a good deal Ian really had and how our fabulous four-legged friends are so much better for our well-being than anything Apple might have to offer!

Spending Less Time Online

There has been a veritable plethora of studies that show that spending less time online, especially on social media platforms, is good for our health. Side effects of overuse of mobile phones include; lack of good quality sleep, depression, anxiety, decreased self-worth and lethargy, to name but a few. 

There have also been a few studies that suggest that overuse of mobile phones and the internet can lead to decreased cognitive function and memory problems.

Although we wouldn't say the internet and smartphones are necessarily all bad, we would certainly find it quite hard to give our customers the service we do without them, with the above in mind it would probably benefit most of us to have a little less screen time and little more time with our four-legged friends!

The Dangers of Social Media

As we all have seen in the news over the last decade or so the rise of social media has also brought about a sharp increase in negative behaviour from users. It isn’t uncommon to hear of online trolling, bullying and harassment on the news and cases of racism, sexism and animal cruelty being shared far and wide on these sparingly overseen platforms, in the headlines either. 

This isn't even without mentioning the potentially negative effects of the use of social media platforms on people's self-image, self-worth and the lack of building proper connections with others and our communities.

Although there are plenty of reasons to like social media (cute dog pictures and videos mainly), with reasons like the ones stated above, using it less than we all tend to has got to be a good thing in anyone's book.

How Dogs Help Our Mental Wellbeing

So, what do we do about all this online negativity? Simple, fight it with dogs. But no actual fighting, just loving dogs and walking dogs and feeding dogs and giving them and the outdoors more of your time than a screen might take up!

Dogs have consistently been shown to help people's mental health, from children to seniors and everyone in between.

Pets help to increase our physical activity, provide companionship, give us a sense of purpose, help us connect with the great outdoors, give structure to our days, help us to meet new people and be the provider of unconditional love whenever we need it. 

Dogs can also help people with a wide range of mental health issues, from anxiety to ADHD and many others in between.

In short, having a dog and keeping it healthy, in our opinion, is better than any iPhone could possibly be!

So, although we can sympathise with Ian and the £1200 he spent on some dog food rather than an iPhone, in hindsight it seems like he might have got a pretty good deal! The less time we can spend in front of screens and the more time we can spend outdoors making connections with our animals and other pet owners will end up being better for our mental health and that of our communities at large.