RSS
Home
'I can't move my thumbs': See how badly texting can hurt teens
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
When doctors start seeing enough patients with the same ailment that they name a disorder, like the newly coined, Texting Teen Tendonitis or TTT, perhaps we should pause and take notice. This condition results from the constant repetitive movement of the thumb while in texting position—you know, that bent posture of the thumb as you hold the phone with the inside of your fingers and use the thumbs to press the buttons? This is an over-use injury that seems to be afflicting mostly teens—go figure! No one’s thumbs are designed to assume this posture for the two hours plus per day that some kids are sending text messages.
And speaking of posture, kids are also suffering back, neck and elbow pain and soreness from assuming poor posture while hunched over their phones. You see kids everywhere-- in cars, at restaurant tables, on the bus stop—phone in front of face, elbows locked, back rounded and head down—thumbs moving a hundred miles per hour! This is evidently not at all good. CNN reports that kids are hurting themselves so much that many are finding themselves at the doctor’s office and in need of a little physical therapy.
When I saw this report last night on CNN, I thought it somewhat amusing until they pointed out that parents have no idea how much their kids are texting. Then a light went on for me. My youngest daughter has been complaining of back pain…and I have become annoyed with the almost constant sounding-off of her phone’s text message notification jingle. I do not think that my kids send 5000 texts per month like the young lady in the video, but I know at least one is certainly working up to it!
This is just another opportunity to teach our teens the virtues of balance and restraint.
I know…I know!!
If your child is complaining of one or (more likely) more of the following symptoms, she or he may need a break from her or his mobile phone and a visit to the orthopaedist:
Thumb pain and numbness
Back and neck pain
Elbow pain
Related Articles:
Comments
