On my way home from work the other day, I was stopped behind a school bus. I watched the 2 girls get off at their stop, both bent over their phones. It occurred to me that it has to be affecting their posture.
A quick google search showed several articles addressing that very thing. There didn’t seem to be a consensus of the long-term effects. What do you think? Will there be a public service announcement blitz to get people to straighten up?? Maybe products to hold the phone in front of the face with some sort of remote to replace thumbs on screen? What does the future hold? Surely Dopers are clever enough to solve this impending catastrophe!!
Physical therapy that I took two years ago made me aware of the problem mentioned in the OP (I’ve had orthopedic issues in my shoulders for years, mostly as a result of rotator cuff problems, and corrective measures involve working the shoulders and spine together). It didn’t start with smart phones - any kind of reading or close-in work looking down can contribute to the spine hunching forward as we age.
I’ve made changes to most of the places at work and home where I read and use a computer or phone. I also (in addition to performing various stretching exercises throughout the day and before and after working out) spend several 5-minute sessions on a ‘foam roller’ - a 3-foot styrofoam cylinder about 6 inches in diameter, on which I lie down face up, with my spine straddling the cylinder, from the base to the skull. The pull of gravity in that position counteracts its effects when upright.
When I started to deal with this problem, I recalled a scene in the movie The Silence of the Lambs in which Hannibal Lecter was seen reading a small paperback book in his cell. He was seated, and held the book at face level. I wondered if the script was subtly demonstrating his physician’s knowledge in counteracting this problem, especially for someone who spent as much time reading as he did. The novel SotL described Lecter as having impeccable posture.
I don’t use a smart phone, but I do crochet a lot. I suppose looking at my work all the time would cause a similar issue, but I crochet in front of the TV, so I’m looking up frequently, and there are some simple patterns that I can make by feel, so I don’t have to look down.
I hadn’t considered reading, but I can see that also causing problems. On the other hand, I’ve never seen someone reading in the mall and walking into a fountain, but that’s another thing.
I wonder about a future generation of deaf people. Younger people always seem to have something stuck in their ears. I work in an elementary school, and the students have ipads for reading and math. Many use headphones, and I can often hear what they are listening to from 3 or 4 feet away. They have the volume turned up way too loud, but can’t be convinced to turn it down. 12 years of this is certain to cause hearing loss.
I think it already has. Students in the cafeteria shout their conversations (if you can call 2nd graders comparing lunches and insulting each other conversing) and indignantly deny that they are shouting when told to hush. I worry about what an hour of this every day is doing to my hearing.
b) If so we better start restoring Notre Dame NOW!!!
c) I doubt it any more than purses caused strange lopsided shoulders on women like all the health/PE teachers predicted when I was in school. We tend to develop beyond our habits and I expect a future generation of “smart-phones” to be almost more a sunglasses thing we wear more than carry.
Sort of maybe. I can say that I still have to be conscious about wearing my backpack on both shoulders despite years of back problems. Laptop is always a problem, but I use a lap desk/riser/recumbent posture when I can. Phone, though? Very difficult to maintain good posture.
I suspect that it will be a more widely acknowledged and research physical therapy and a great number of people will be seeking treatment for the effects of this as they get older.
Definitely going to have shoulder problems from hunching one up to hold the phone when they need to use two hands. It’s not like they could put the phone down or turn it off or anything.
And a very short attention span, and the inability to do noting. The addicted device user has to be engaged by something at all times. They will wander off the cashier line to look at a display of something they have no interest in buying.
