hafeezanwar
Junior Member
Text messaging harmful for thumb
A new South African study finds that the increase in the trend of writing text messages on cell phones can be disastrous for the thumb.
Conducted by Safura Karim, a Grade 11 schoolgirl from Durban, the study has been published in the latest issue of the South African Medical Journal.
She interviewed 320 teens from two city high schools and out of these 318 reported that they used MXit or similar text message forums on their mobile sets.
The important finding was that out of the total students, 125 kids who text messaged a lot complained of blisters on their finger tips and thumb. Most also suffered repetitive strain injury and pain in their hands and back.
"The thumb is the least dextrous of all our fingers and is not suited to the repetitive movements required to type on a cellular phone keypad," says Safura Karim who also conducted a study on PlayStation use five years ago.
But it can be noted that now with advancement in technology new cellphones are out in the market which have keys like that in a keyboard and that can be operated with a stick. This can bring respite to the fingers.
The study has come out at a good time as most of the teenagers use mobile phones these days and almost everybody uses the ‘sms’ or the short messaging service. And so the finger problem is being faced by maximum.
It can only be advised that one should restrain from putting too much strains on the fingers and instead of text messaging, its better you all start talking.
-Agencies
A new South African study finds that the increase in the trend of writing text messages on cell phones can be disastrous for the thumb.
Conducted by Safura Karim, a Grade 11 schoolgirl from Durban, the study has been published in the latest issue of the South African Medical Journal.
She interviewed 320 teens from two city high schools and out of these 318 reported that they used MXit or similar text message forums on their mobile sets.
The important finding was that out of the total students, 125 kids who text messaged a lot complained of blisters on their finger tips and thumb. Most also suffered repetitive strain injury and pain in their hands and back.
"The thumb is the least dextrous of all our fingers and is not suited to the repetitive movements required to type on a cellular phone keypad," says Safura Karim who also conducted a study on PlayStation use five years ago.
But it can be noted that now with advancement in technology new cellphones are out in the market which have keys like that in a keyboard and that can be operated with a stick. This can bring respite to the fingers.
The study has come out at a good time as most of the teenagers use mobile phones these days and almost everybody uses the ‘sms’ or the short messaging service. And so the finger problem is being faced by maximum.
It can only be advised that one should restrain from putting too much strains on the fingers and instead of text messaging, its better you all start talking.
-Agencies
