Buzz
Were you among those supposedly impacted by the alarming epidemic, first identified less than ten years ago, where people hunched over their phones? If so, you were said to have 'text neck,' a condition that likely never even existed in the first place.
But it was certainly easy to get riled up about it. Phones! Destroying our well-being! Naturally! Media outlets reported on the supposed condition, citing statistics on smartphone or mobile phone usage, rather than actual cases of text neck. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle emphasized the fact that 8 to 18-year-olds spend an average of seven and a half hours daily on entertainment media. NBC News highlighted that Americans sent a whopping 110 billion text messages in December 2008. The Washington Post noted that text neck posed a risk for 58 percent of American adults... because that's the percentage of people who owned smartphones.
So, where did the term 'text neck' even originate? In 2009, Florida chiropractor Dean Fishman trademarked the phrase and went on to establish a Text Neck Institute dedicated to treating this condition. He made sure to speak extensively with the media about it, which might have also had the unintended consequence of boosting his business.
Fishman shared with CNN that he diagnosed his first case of text neck in a 17-year-old who had neck pain, noticing during the appointment that the teen used a smartphone. Later, he claimed that 90 percent of his patients came to him with complaints of text neck. That may be accurate—it’s logical that the Text Neck Institute would attract people who text and experience neck discomfort—but it hardly proves there was any kind of epidemic.
In 2014, the term gained attention from a study that measured the strain placed on the neck by leaning it forward. When you tilt your ten-pound head downwards at a 60-degree angle, it exerts 60 pounds of force on your neck, which sounds concerning. But at what angle do people typically text? Does it lead to any issues, or does the neck simply get stronger? The study didn’t tackle these questions, as it was a computer simulation of an imagined skeleton. That’s it. (Here is a skeptical take published at the time.)
Nearly ten years into the phenomenon of text neck, we now have findings from a study aimed at determining whether text neck is truly a problem. Brazilian researchers compared the texting posture and neck pain reports of 150 students aged 18 to 21, and found no link between the two. In response, one spine expert stated to the Daily Mail, 'Text neck isn’t an epidemic—it isn’t even a real condition.'
