The Pains of Mobile Communication Technology

Be smart in using your smartphone to prevent injuries that could be extremely painful and debilitating, experts warn.

The use of modern mobile communication gadgets as smartphones and tablets are now starting to hurt more than just their owners' pockets.

Since its rise in popularity around the middle of the first decade of the century, smartphones have been found to be used by their owners for quite a significant number of hours in a day.  More than just making phone calls, these electronic gadgets are now used for a multitude of purposes as gaming, surfing, reading ebooks, and watching movies among others.  Studies show an increase in the number of patients consulting their doctors about complaints of ailments that could be traced to the use of these gadgets.  Two of the most popular ailments reported by tech savvy gadget users are popularly called the text neck and the text thumb injury.  Medical experts see the numbers of people afflicted with these ailments to increase as the popularity of similar gadgets continues to rise.

According to an expert at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, people’s bodies are not designed for the movements and gestures that are necessary to manipulate and use gadgets scaled as small as most modern smartphones and tablets.  “The phones are far too small, with keys that are too small,” explained the expert.  Hand and neck injuries arise as a result of the more than ideal number of hours spent leaning down to peer at the tiny screens to text and read.  Experts further said that the actions leading to these injuries deviate from the ideal posture where the ears, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles are in a vertical alignment to support the head.  Leaning forward to squint at the tiny screens of modern gadgets leads to an unusual posture that puts additional strain across the whole body. 

The result of such strain on the body is what is medically referred to as a repetitive strain injury or RSI.  RSI describes injuries that affect the muscular and nerve structure of the neck and the upper limbs.  Text neck and text thumb are injuries that are classified as RSI.  While RSI is treatable, medical experts warn against shrugging off early warning signs as adverse manifestations can cause impaired body movement.  Experts advise mobile gadget users to keep their use of their gadgets to a minimum, taking regular breaks and opting for alternative modes of use.      

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