From smartphone pinky to text neck, no one is immune to these types of injuries that are linked to phones.
“It doesn’t take too long for your muscles, joints and ligaments to get stretched and put in a position where they get strained,” explained Dominic King, DO, sports medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic. “Even just mild use of your smartphone every single day can open up patients to some of these symptoms.”
Dr. King said people can develop smartphone pinky by constantly using it to steady their phone.
The weight of the device on your pinky can compress a nerve – causing numbness and tingling – or it can even leave a small indentation in the finger.
You can also experience something dubbed as text neck if you scroll for too long.
That’s when looking down at your phone begins to strain your neck, potentially leading to muscle pain and spasms.
Dr. King said there are an array of additional injuries that can be linked to using smartphones and other technology as well.
The key to avoiding them is remembering to take a break.
“Every 20 minutes, you should take 20 seconds to look at something that is 20 feet away,” Dr. King said. “What that does is it brings your eyes up to the horizon, it brings your neck back, it brings your shoulders back and it gives you a little bit of a break from your technology.”
Dr. King also recommended using two hands to hold your phone and suggested looking into a grip that you can attach to the back of your device to help steady it in your hands.