"Text Neck"- Is It A Thing?

"Text Neck" is a new diagnosis that has come about as smartphone and tablet usage has increased. Some medical people will attribute looking down at the device as a cause of neck pain and promote limiting use or holding the device straight in front of you to keep from bending your neck. Does looking down at your device cause neck pain and is this advice needed?.......

A new study just came out in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies which looked to see if there was a correlation to the amount of time spent on a smart phone and neck pain. After studying 238 volunteers, the study found that "posture and time spent using a smart phone are NOT correlated with neck pain and disability in young adults." The authors went on to further state that "there is no reason to recommend a change in smart phone used habits among young adults."

This study supports the conclusion from another study published in 2018 in the European Spine Journal which also did NOT show a correlation between "text neck" and pain in 18-21 year olds. 

So, like a lot of other "diagnosis," text neck and how we look at our phones or tablets, should not be something we should be worrying about. As the picture to the left shows, we have been looking down to obtain information for many years. Sometimes health care practitioners do more harm than good by placing a diagnosis/label on something that is a completely normal motion or position for our neck to be in. 

Now, I do know that neck pain is common ( I treat a lot of people with neck pain), and when your neck hurts, looking down, or staying in any one posture too long can increase your neck pain. However, this does not mean that this posture or position was the cause of your neck pain. Posture get blamed for a lot of painful conditions when it really shouldn't be and I wrote about this previously here:
www.promotiongb.com/blog/back-pain-and-posture
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There may be other reasons to limit your time on your phone or tablet ( it replaces physical activity, may keep us from spending quality time with friends and family, or it may stress us out!), but you do not have to limit your time for fear that it will cause neck pain. 

If you are struggling with neck pain and been told it is because you are looking down at your device, reach out to me-there are probably other factors that are more likely to be contributing to your neck pain that need to be addressed.

Thanks for reading,
​Bob