Study: Staring at your phone while texting is like putting a 60-pound weight on your spine

Study: Staring at your phone while texting is like putting a 60-pound weight on your spine
(Image credit: SURGICAL TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL XXV)

Workers have carpal tunnel syndrome, retirees have tennis elbow, and now cellphone addicts have their own painful affliction: "text neck."

But what, exactly, causes the pain and discomfort chronic texters experience? A new study in the journal Surgical Technology International may provide the answer: Staring at one's phone can add up to 60 pounds of weight to the stress felt by the spine. The steeper a texter's head is angled, the greater the weight is placed on the spine:

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Mike Barry

Mike Barry is the senior editor of audience development and outreach at TheWeek.com. He was previously a contributing editor at The Huffington Post. Prior to that, he was best known for interrupting a college chemistry class.