It's become entertaining to watch all the smart phone addicts jump to defend their beloved devices whenever any health impact is reported and documented. Skeletal abnormality? Must be books! Another hulking cell tower suddenly added to the neighborhood skyline? Didn't even notice it! What's that you say about 5G causing tumors in rats? Who cares as long as I can upload to Instagram faster.
The human race is in for a rude awakening.
16
That is a traction osteophyte (bone spur) from the insertions of the posterior occipital and cervical muscles. Yes, it does occur with prolonged flexion (looking down) due to an enthesopathy. This occurs when the muscle that inserts into the bone partially tears away and is similar to "tennis elbow". This is common with computer work and book reading where the head is facing down and the posterior muscles have to "pull" constantly to hold the chin from dropping on the chest. It is common and benign.
18
I believe that experts have also narrowed down the cause of bone spurs on the heel to the difficulty of trying to fit a foot in the limited amount room in one's mouth if it's had a silver spoon in it since birth.
29
If you read the paper, you will see that all the authors can conclude from their data is that these benign little bony growths are (1) more common and (2) slightly bigger in younger individuals. They did not examine patients over time, so they don't know if the bone spurs observed in younger people decrease in size or even disappear over time as those people get older. And, importantly, they did not analyze cell phone use or posture (except what was gleaned from x-rays), so it is quite a stretch to blame this on cell phones.
Please note: the authors "hypothesize" that "sustained aberrant postures" led to those bone spurs, but they did not test this hypothesis in their study, and they identified no cause and effect. This is not good science. That this was picked up by so many news outlets indicates that the journal Scientific Reports is more interested in gaining media exposure than advancing science.
17
@Dee S You are making some good judgements. Scientific Reports is a cabbage journal indeed.
5
My 16 year old son has had a prominent "posterior occiputal protuberance" for several years (yes, he's always on a device), and has been checking other kid's craniums at school to see if they have the same bump...he'd come to the conclusion that he was an alien. He was somewhat crestfallen to find out this week that he was a mere mortal.
11
And here come the comments from people who abhor phones and think they're degrading society.
These articles about 'horns' due to these evil, evil devices that are ruining our children were nothing more than clickbait.
Yawn.
5
Seems like people (women especially) have been bending their necks over delicate tasks for millennia. Sewing, making tools? Hardly seems like this would be a new thing.
19
I have a friend who is a surgeon and he has had to quit practicing due to issues with his neck - from looking down during surgery. Think about these kids who spend 12 - 15 hours a day texting. Huge issues coming for these people. Huge.
14
You are talking about "twitchers' tick," wherein, you are an avid birdwatcher - a 'twitcher' in British parlance - who is gazing up and to the side looking at birds so much, that one develops a bone malfunction in the neck.
This then converts to a tick in the head/neck, where it is slightly bent and the so afflicted slightly trembles when turning to look at someone, or something.
Twitchers's tick, or twitchers' neck. This is similar to the affliction described herein relating to the 18 to 30 age class. This one is seemingly caused by looking down, but it is the same thing, most likely, as twitchers' tick.
I, unfortunately, have some experience with this as a lifelong bird watcher. When I look at my smartphone, the area of my neck that has the permanent tick, or crick, as it were, sends along an unhappy message.
I don't need a study to confirm it.
4
I'm sorry, but you lost me at chiropractor. All sorts of issues with the methodology. One certainly cannot draw conclusions regarding causation.
8
You can always count on some scientist or expert responding to a study or report with a version of "So what?" But anyone who has suffered with real bone spurs knows that they can be painful and sometimes need surgery if pain management techniques don't work.
3
In the 1983 film 'Videodrome', a cautionary tale on the perils of too much television, a character warns: "The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye."
I am convinced that the perils of television viewing pales in comparison with the dangers of immersing ourselves in our electronic devices. Whether you believe that smartphones and iPads lead us to grow 'horns' or not, it is already abundantly clear that humanity is developing entirely new pathologies and syndromes---medically, socially, emotionally, psychologically---as this device-driven immersion deepens.
Just as with the protagonist in Videodrome, the long metaphorical fist of electronica has embedded itself deep within nearly all of us, so much so that we cannot any longer tell where they leave off and we begin.
To paraphrase a line from another cautionary tale, the 1976 movie 'Network': "We are our electronic devices. All of life is reduced to the rubble of banality. We are madness."
To grow horns because of all this would not be in the least surprising to me.
10
Sometimes I find the comment section stubbornness surprising. “My grandmother embroidered and never had neck issues.” “I’ve been typing since my teens without neck problems.” Product design is not static, biomechanics and user experience will influence design changes. Perhaps, after years of real world usage, it’s time for a bit of design revamping. Personally, I’m going to be more conscious of my posture while plugged-in and stop slacking on my abdominal exercises. Otherwise, I find it fascinating that our bodies will grow bone spurs to try and get our heads back in proper alignment. Seriously, how cool is that?
19
What is obvious and very clearly illustrated in the X-ray image is the flattening the the cervical vertebrae— there should be an arc and it’s nowhere to be found.
11
The causal factor is undoubtedly due to increasing number of people hyperflexing their necks to read inane, idiotic, and just-plain-wrong "research" in bogus journals. Really, New York Times, leave this clickbait to CNN.
9
It's ergonomics, or rather "bad ergonomics".
There are countless examples of the body's reaction to physical stressors. One commenter mentioned "birder's neck" and while I haven't heard of that, there are many other physical changes that occur from a vocation or advocation. Depending on the duration and magnitude of the stressor, the body may react faster or slower. Certainly, extended hours of supporting a "bowling ball" sized weight in an awkward position is enough to result in a physical response (discomfort, pain, injury or even disability).
Of course, keyboarding brought carpal tunnel syndrome to the forefront but CTS is a common malady from the first use of tools. Baker's knee occurred in Colonial Williamsburg from too low baker's tables; Monkey's Shoulder is a brand of scotch whisky, named for the pronounced hump on the shoulders of those shoveling malted grain. Mail carriers (with the now retired leather mail pouch) commonly had scoliosis of the spine.
So a physiologic response can be expected from an external stress. We are most familiar with bone spurs occurring after ankle injuries or extended overuse of a poorly positioned foot.
So, good ergonomics is good business. Healthy jobs mean healthy workers.
For a brief period, democrats had passed legislation to protect workers from these hazards, but recklessly, republicans came in and overturned that simple worker protection. But I digress -- perhaps I've seen too many protections overturned lately.
28
There is something called "birder's neck", wear on vertebrae that results from all the hours looking up (at birds). Would "cell phone neck" be a remedy to that?
11
@Stevenz Birding and cellphone use? Lets hope my two favorite activities cancel out growing "horns".
5
What's the difference between staring down at a cell phone and staring down at a book?
41
@Rob D
Are you constantly checking a page in a book over to the side while you're behind the wheel of a car; or while you're walking down the sidewalk, across the crosswalk, in the store aisles; or while you're skateboarding, riding a bike or an e-scooter?
Some of you are sort of bobble-headed realizing that you should look up from your device from time to time because the light may have changed or you sense an impending encounter with a movable or an immovable object or because I've honked at you while I'm trying to make a right turn on red while you're moving at a snail's pace in the crosswalk.
That back and forth movement, rare while reading a book, may be the real reason that you're earning your spurs.
19
@Rob D, you might look at the statistics for the number of people who read even one book a year, much less the approximately 100 books that would be the equivalent hours compared to smartphone use.
13
@Paul Connah, Of course, but I developed bone spurs long before acquiring a cell phone. All your comment tells me is that even more people MAY develop neck problems in the future. Maybe they won't. There are plenty of problems likely to arise from excess cell phone usage. IMO, bone spurs won't be the worst of them.
3
When i was 10 or 11, I asked my pediatrician about the two bumps at the nape of my neck...Dr Vita said, “Don’t worry. Those keep your head on.” This was 1975.
22
“The University of the Sunshine Coast” in partnership with “The School of the Bleedin Obvious”.
1
Probably many cell phone users who would want to decline military service, will now have the 'bone spur in their head' excuse. Why not? Trump used that excuse successfully.
20
The University of the Sunshine Coast? Really?
3
@Leejesh
Leejesh, I see a double opportunity here in the Pacific Northwest region in Oregon and Washington. West of the Cascade Mountains: The University of the Perpetually Overcast Coast and to the east of the Cascades:The University of the Rain Shadow.
And for your country: lookout Oxbridge, here comes The University of the Perpetually Overcast Isles.
2
@Leejesh yep it's real. In Queenslamd Australia where it is nearly always sunny. Don't know how conducive that is to study though.
2
I'm feeling the back of my head, and... feel a bump, basically right where it's illustrated in this story.
Haha oh man, do I have a skull horn?!
Maybe these things are antennas we are growing anticipatorily, just a few years before 5G and Augmented Reality hit the mainstream. I for one have been preparing to get "plugged in" since I was reading Gibson as a teenager in the 90s.
Part of me thinks "Go for it!" and part of me thinks "This is The End!"
The nondualist part of me thinks... #whynotboth?
4
I read an article, maybe 25 years ago, about skeletal archaeological remains of an aboriginal native of a California tribe who had facial protuberances indicating that he smiled all the time... I do not remember the name of the tribe or where in California the remains were discovered and would be interested in revisiting this article....
I am just interested in refreshing my memory and learning more about these Indigenous peoples. Thank you in advance for any help.
Lisa
2
@Lisa
I’m almost certain it was in Encino
2
@Michael c
Gag me with a bone spur, dude!
1
It's called the external occipital protuberance or "inion." It is quite common to see an enlarged inion as a normal anatomic variant, even in young children. This is not news for professionals who look at this medical imaging studies all the time.
7
This is a very good reason that children and young adults should not spend hundreds and hundreds of hours looking down at textbooks in grade school, high school and college.
7
@callen
This is not about text books. It is about cell phones, tablets and any other small hand held devices. Things people cannot seem to leave off after they have long closed their text book. There are plenty of people who hardly pick up a book at all, but would never think of putting away their cell phone.
12
I disagree. The strain on the neck is the same whether from a book or an electronic device. And, like I said before, much strain is experienced by anyone getting an education.
1
Has anyone considered Alexander Technique? As a teacher of this work for over thirty years I can say that it improves posture especially in these days of forward necks and bad chairs that keep us locked in muscle tension shapes. Cellphones are just the tip of the iceberg.
13
More and more people are working jobs that have them sitting for long hours. Humans did not evolve to sit in chairs for 40 + hours per week. Combine this with lack of fitness, addiction to handheld devices and poor nutrition and you have the perfect recipe for future hunchbacks. Could this be noticeable signs of devolution?
2
@Tim Black There is no such thing as "devolution," because evolution itself is not particularly moving to something "better" inherently. It is simply a movement associated with adaptation to the environment, which this if anything, is a signpost of. But really this is not "evolutionary" at all, because there is no evidence it has anything to do with genetics.
It's just, possibly, a muscular-skeletal change caused by mechanical/kinetic forces. Like my cousin who has "anomalies" in his hands that require surgery, because he's been a woodworker and overused his hands.
7
Thank you for this rational article.
3
Interesting that bones spurs are noted to be a “big so what” thing. They got the Great Patriot out of serving in Vietnam. Would love to know the why and ‘so what’ of that.
29
What about when books were a "thing?" What position was your head in?
Maybe some people are more likely to develop bone spurs than others.
11
Seems that most people miss the real story that is staring them in the face, or in this case reflecting their face. OK horns rely, it is not a big deal, a little bone spear. But ask your self how many hours do you need to be looking down at that inanimate object to achieve bone growth? Bigger question what did you absorb into your mind during those endless hours.
You see its not the bone, it is the symbolism of the horns that you have consumed into your thoughts, So that you have no real foundation ,on what to think for yourselves, after consuming all the endless hours of everyone elses opinion on anything. Easy to be lead into most anything after you have no foundation. But just be careful it does not leave a Mark in your head!!!!
1
We are obviously on the horns of a dilemma, and the devil, you say, is in the details.
40
@Steve Griffith HAHAHA!
3
Oy vey. Talk about bad science. Researchers should stop smoking doobies when theorizing about bone spurs, or osteophytes, beneath the nuchal line.
4
Bad posture, bent necks, and head horns... is this the modern day equivalent to the crossed-eyes caused by the Opti-Grab?
3
I have serious doubts about even this speculation of this 'question'.
I grew up with my grandparents the first 4 1/2 years of my life. My Grandma taught me embroidery, hand sewing quilt pieces together, coloring, writing and reading, and knitting. When I moved back with my Mom, she taught me crochet, and gave me a table where I spent nearly every minute I wasn't at school drawing. I kept draw. I liked to write short stories and poetry. I was placed in a school for gifted children because of artistic inclination. I remember spending all my free time drawing. I learned to cross stitch, how to needlepoint so I could give gifts to family. I seldom watched tv and if I wasn't doing something crafty or artistic then I could be found semi-reclined on my bed reading.
At 69 years old nothing has change much except technology has entered the picture. I am still doing the same things with technology to assist me whenever possible. If it is not possible I do it by hand. I don't use my phone for any of that but I have a pad and laptop as well as desk computer. Oh! I also now play games on those. I don't have bone spur on my head but I am beginning to form arthritis in some fingers and those 3 fingers are on my left hand. By the way, I am right handed.
5
I am an osteopathic physician who diagnoses and treats many patients with soft tissue strains. These are especially prominent in ligamentous and articular dysfunction as well as in the dural membranes of the cranium
Several years ago when bluetooth wireless headsets were first introduced many of us began palpating unique cranial strains which seemed linked to various pain and non-painful physiologic conditions.
The industry obviously is not interested in examining these findings and they do not show up on any imaging studies that I am aware of.
Caveat emptor.
19
Seems there were (or in developing countries still are) generations of seamstresses and suchlike factory occupations to backtest this hypothesis.
32
@J111111
But are there generations of x-rays to confirm the existence or absence of spurs?
5
@J111111
I was thinking artists who spend numerous years in this same sort of position while they are in the learning stages. There are countless women who spent 8-12 hours a day typing before the end of the last century.
Somebody found something on 2 people out 7+ billion and because it probably irritates the adults in this contrived study it has suddenly become dangerous and deforming.
11