Everyone knows the stereotypical things that are bad for you-drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, text messaging …
Wait. Text messaging?
Many assume that as we make more technological breakthroughs, we adapt to whatever new inventions are meant to make life more convenient. If we’re strong enough to invent it, we’re strong enough to handle the use and the repercussions of it, correct?
Not always.
Text-messaging and other modern so-called conveniences have intrigued us because of their speed and ease of operation. If you want to get in touch with someone, but can’t call or don’t feel like calling, simply type out a message on your cell phone and click send. Hey, it’s cheaper and quicker than long distance.
Recent medical studies have shown, though, that, despite making our lives easier, advancements as simple as text messaging may actually be detrimental to our health.
As reported by MSNBC, a recent study has shown that furious text messaging, which so many of us are guilty of, leads to acute tendonitis. A preteen recently received medication for a swollen thumb, was soon prescribed as acute tendonitis and got an order to rest her hands. She was treated for the habit of typing at least 100 text messages a day.
This is an exaggerated example, yes, but it is also a sign of a greater problem. In an Italian study, approximately 37 percent of children were “cell phone addicts” and show excessive irritability and mood swings in direct correlation with cell phone usage.
While it’s not as much of a problem here, we need only to look to Asia for future problems, since text messaging boomed there long before in the United States. What exactly is at risk?
The thumb. It may sound silly, but in Japan, a certain demographic group has been labeled the “thumb generation.” Young Japanese who are so accustomed to typing out messages with their thumbs are now using their thumbs for tasks previously assigned to other fingers, like pointing and ringing doorbells.
This poses a strange problem. The thumb, while being the digit that separates humans’ grasp from animals, wasn’t created for such vigorous use, or even things so simple as pointing and ringing doorbells. Problems so simple as calluses and serious as repetitive strain injuries have been reported.
Professor Alan Hedge of Cornell University said: “The thumb is not a particularly dexterous digit. It’s really designed to use in opposition to the fingers. It is not designed for use in getting information into a system. People who use their thumbs a great deal for these kinds of tasks surely risk developing painful conditions.”
The dubbed “thumb generation” has spread to the United States, with its members ranging from adolescents to congressional aides who find text messaging and handheld e-mail devices much more convenient than laptops or phone calls. According to the Yankee Group, a Boston marketing research organization, 2.9 billion text messages were sent for the third quarter of 2004 in the United States, up from 1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2003.
It may not seem like such a prevalent problem, but I believe the statistics. I recently went to the movies and a female patron in front of me spent the entire two and a half hours sending text messages. Not only is she well on her way to a case of acute tendonitis and a high phone bill, she proved as much a nuisance as someone talking on the phone during a movie. She may not have been speaking, but the lit-up screen and constant “beep-beep-beep” of the text was more than annoying.
New mobile devices such as the BlackBerry are capitalizing on the popularity and convenience of the text messaging pseudo-phenomenon.
This phenomenon isn’t wholly new to doctors. For years, game players have been diagnosed with a type of tendonitis called, believe it or not, “Nintendo thumb.”
Perhaps superhuman achievements (even as small as text messaging) require superhumans to successfully operate them. Humans have limits, though in today’s world we don’t acknowledge them because we feel like we can do anything. And while it is good to test our limits, it’s also good to be mindful of them.
Besides, you don’t want to have admit you’re thumb is bandaged because you got a cortisone shot for too much text messaging.
Erin Clyburn is a sophomore English major. She can be reached at [email protected].