We finally have some medical evidence to suggest you need to put your damn phone away. Text Neck is becoming a serious problem for you and everyone like you who spends hours a day texting away on their phone. How so you ask, lifting your head ever so slightly to read this? Well, the average noggin weighs in at about a dozen pounds. That?s all fine and dandy, but it?s also dependent on you waling upright like nature intended. When you start bending, the weight on your cervical spine increases. You?re holding 27lbs at a 15 degree angle. At 45 degrees it?s nearly 50lbs. At 60 degrees, the go to angle for smartphone users, it?s 60lbs of pressure you?re putting on your spine. For an average of two to four hours a day. Every day.
The human spine wasn?t really designed for that kind of repetitive strain and we?ve never naturally had a reason to constantly be looking down for four hours a day before now, so this was never an issue. But now that it is an issue, Text Neck can lead to spinal degeneration and surgery. And the younger you are the worse it?s likely to get for you since it?s assumed highschool students are likely spending extra hours texting away like they just discovered the poorly-written word and could rack up maybe an additional 5000 hours a year in this position.
To get an idea for what kind of damage this could be doing, one doctor suggesting bending your finger all the way back, then holding it there for an hour to see how it feels. That?s the kind of strain you?re putting on your neck by sexting all day long. This is going to lead to muscle strain, pinched nerves and, in severe cases, can and will change the arch of the spine making you a permanent head downer.
Just think, right now crops of teens and preteens are just texting away as though they had anything important to say, all the while oblivious to how, by the time they?re 30, they?re going to be unable to actually look up at anything. Skin cancer cases may go down as a result of no one facing the sun, but ball to the head injuries as a result of no one listening when they hear ?head?s up? would go way up.
As far as you?re concerned, it?s not too late. Try just moving your eyes to read your phone instead of your whole head. Keep yourself mostly level and you can avoid being a head downer in the future. Because you know the nonmal people are just going to subjugate them anyway. They?re facing down, they may as well clean the floors and shine our shoes.
