About 83 percent of American adults own and use cell phones regularly. Three quarters of those adults send and get text messages. Of those users, they send or receive about 41 text messages per day. Even for those people who do not text often, their screen time can still be high. They may still spend many hours every day looking down at their phones.
Doing more tasks on smaller devices can cause us pain or injury. Some of these include writing an email, sending and reading texts, watching videos, reading posts and articles, watching or reading the news, scrolling through social media, or playing games. Whatever you spend time doing on your phone, it causes what is called “text neck”.
Text Neck is caused by people using poor posture and looking down with their neck at their phone or device. Typically, people hunch over, droop their head, and round their shoulders while using their phones.
How to avoid this:
- Bring your phone to a higher level so that you don’t have to look down or hunch over to see it
- Sit up straight, put your shoulders back, and put your chest out more.
- Tuck your chin into your chest rather than dropping your head down and forward.
- If you must text long messages or emails, try using an external keyboard.
- Avoid using your phone in direct sunlight. This strains the eyes and causes bad posture.
- Take frequent breaks from your phone to stretch, exercise, and relax your body.
In addition to this, it is wise to use good posture and make good choices when using a desktop or laptop computer. Imagine looking down at a laptop on your lap for hours, or sitting at a computer desk with poor posture for hours every day. It is wise to use good posture and be aware of it whenever you are able to. Sit in a good and supportive chair. Use a desk and good posture when using a laptop.
Above all else mentioned above it is best to just limit how much you use your phone altogether. If this isn’t possible due to work or other things, use the tips in the above list to reduce the chance of injury and pain.