Teenagers spend on average up to six hours a day on their cell phones. There are those who exceed 10 hours of daily use. Living hooked on your smartphone has consequences. While some experts call WhatsAppitis to thumb tendinitis from overuse, others are investigating whether it is changing the way the thumbs and brain interact. But the effects do not end there: spending so many hours in front of the cell phone can also affect the elbows, shoulders, neck and eyes. What is the physical price of living glued to the phone? Could the body evolve if this trend continues?
“The constant use of the mobile phone generates inappropriate postures and a series of repeated movements of our thumbs when we write any message or when we slide through the touch screens,” explains Jonatan Alonso Morte, graduate in Physiotherapy and member of the styles working group. of life and health determinants (eVIDE) of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians.
These movements can create an overload in the tissues of the fingers: “Mainly, they will affect our tendons, muscles, bones, joints and nerves, and can cause different pathologies that cause pain, stiffness or even immobility of our thumbs.” María Martín Jiménez, a primary care physiotherapist in Ávila, has treated several adolescents with problems in the trapeziometacarpal joint – located at the base of the thumb – due to abusing mobile phones and PlayStation.
Constant smartphone use not only affects minors. “Normally, when I touch a person’s muscle that separates their fingers, it is loaded, and that usually comes from being on their cell phone all the time,” says the physiotherapist. Over the centuries the thumb has “worked” most of the time “making tweezers”, according to Roberto Ucero, expert in hand and upper extremity at the Professional College of Physiotherapists of the Community of Madrid (CPFCM). However, when using a smartphone, “the thumb moves freely without holding a clamp for a long time, which gradually changes how it works and can lead to overuse pathologies.”
The most common problems usually affect the area around the big toe. “Above all, generating a type of tendinopathy in the muscles that open the finger and move it away from the center of the hand; but also in the palm area, in the muscles that bring the thumb closer to the center of the hand when we want to type,” says Daniel Paulino Nogueira, physiotherapist and member of the neuromusculoskeletal physiotherapy commission of the College of Physiotherapists of Catalonia. According to the expert, large and heavy cell phones, typing quickly and not taking breaks increase the risk of suffering from these problems.
One of the experts’ recommendations to prevent thumb injuries is precisely to rest from the cell phone. José Luis Morencia, president of the Professional College of Physiotherapists of Castilla y León, suggests “taking breaks every 30 minutes to let your thumbs rest.” He also advises performing exercises to strengthen the muscles of the hand and forearm, avoiding gripping the cell phone too tightly and keeping it at a comfortable height.
David Cecilia López, head of the hand and elbow unit of the Traumatology Service of the 12 de Octubre University Hospital and member of the Spanish Society of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology, advises resting the mobile phone in the palm of the hand and using the index finger or heart of the other hand to type. To write a lot, the experts consulted suggest using the computer, sending audio, using auxiliary tools such as stylus or using voice dictation.
From the wrists to the neck
Excessive cell phone use can also cause pain in the wrists, elbows or shoulders, according to Alonso. It is also “very common for the appearance of contractures and cervical and dorsal pain when keeping the head tilted forward for so long.” Martín is used to treating teenagers with cervical problems: “They end up developing kyphosis, which occurs when the curvature of the cervical spine becomes greater than it should due to the hunched posture they adopt when constantly looking at their cell phone.” This kyphosis “can become structural and then it is very difficult to correct.” “Your body spends thousands of hours curved and in the end you end up with a kind of hump,” he explains.
Morencia advises avoiding slouching when using the cell phone and resting the elbows on a surface to reduce the load on the cervical muscles and shoulders. For Paulino, it’s not so much about the posture itself, but rather the time spent in the same position without moving different parts of the body. “The worst posture is the one we maintain for a long time,” says Ucero, who recommends changing positions every so often, stretching to relax the muscles of the neck and shoulders, and using a stand, lectern, or suction cup for the phone.
Effects on visual health
The eyes can also be affected by prolonged exposure to small screens such as mobile phones. “When we are looking in near vision, the demands for accommodation and convergence increase and overexertion is placed on the ocular muscles, which can cause visual fatigue,” says Ana Belén Cisneros del Río, vice dean of the College of Opticians Optometrists of Castilla y León. . The expert explains that the increase in myopia in children and adolescents is due to both genetic factors and excessive use of close vision.
To minimize the negative effects of mobile phone abuse on the eyes, the expert advises placing the terminal about 40 centimeters away, making sure you have good ambient lighting and taking breaks. In this sense, he suggests following the 20-20-20 rule: “Every 20 minutes, relax your vision by looking at something that is 20 feet or more than 6 meters away—for example, through a window—for 20 seconds.” .
What happens to the brain
Is constant cell phone use changing the way the brain and thumbs interact? Yang Wang, professor in the Division of Imaging Sciences in the Department of Radiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, says that prolonged smartphone use can significantly alter this interaction. Something that, he warns, could lead to problems related to motor control, strength and cognitive abilities.
Douglas A. Parry, assistant professor in the Media Psychology Group at the Department of Communication Science at the Free University of Amsterdam, highlights that these effects are not exclusive to mobile phone use. “Studies suggest that frequent behaviors can cause changes in the somatosensory cortex of the brain,” says the expert, who is the author of several investigations on smartphone use and the brain. According to him, similar effects are seen in people who perform other repetitive fine motor activities, such as playing an instrument. “These findings highlight brain plasticity rather than any influence unique to smartphones,” he says.
Excessive use of cell phones and screens can also have negative effects on cognitive function, learning, memory and mental health, especially in children and adolescents, according to Wang. Although some studies link heavy phone use with a lower ability to attention or increased anxiety, Parry notes that “these findings are typically correlational, not causal.” “Many of these effects are small, context-dependent, and influenced by individual differences, such as personality and prior mental health,” he highlights.
As for whether cell phones are changing cognitive abilities, Parry says these devices can encourage strategies to manage attention and memory, such as outsourcing certain tasks. But he considers that “these changes reflect flexible and context-dependent behaviors, rather than fundamental alterations in cognitive abilities.”
Impact of the mobile phone on human evolution
There is no study that categorically supports that, in terms of evolution, constant cell phone use can change the anatomy of the thumbs, hands or even posture, according to Cecilia. “The idea that cell phones could drive evolutionary changes in the brain is speculative at best,” adds Parry. He ensures that evolution occurs on long time scales—over generations with selection pressures—and considers it unlikely to be significantly influenced by a single technological trend.
José-Miguel Carretero Díaz, professor at the University of Burgos and member of the Human Evolution Laboratory, states that from an evolutionary point of view there will be no changes in the anatomy of the hand due to the use of the mobile phone. The expert highlights that the muscle activity of the thumb is minimal. “We have been manufacturing and handling tools for thousands of years and the morphology of the hand has not changed,” he says. According to him, there is no selection pressure for the thumb to change, especially in such a short time. “What’s more, at the speed that communications technology penetrates society, it is certain that in a short time we will not even use our hands to communicate through mobile devices,” he concludes.
