While we are all aware by now that mobile phones can impact our mental health and wellbeing, one orthopaedic surgery professor warned that the way we hold our phones could be damaging us physically, too.
It makes sense when you consider that people in the UK spend three hours daily on their mobile devices and, given how we use them with typing and scrolling, we really put our hands to work.
However, speaking to The Washington Post, Lauren Shapiro, an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of California at San Francisco, revealed that we are all likely holding our phones incorrectly.
First of all, if you’re prone to flexing your wrist when you’re on your phone, you need to get into the habit of keeping the wrist in a neutral position, which means just having a slight bend or keeping the wrist straight.
Shapiro explained: “Flexing the wrist, extending the wrist, and a tight grip or grasp will put more stress and strain on the body,”
Shapiro also recommended that we take regular breaks to avoid extended periods of using our phones and ensuring that our phones aren’t too big for our hands.
Interestingly, the expert advised that opting for hands-free tools such as voice dictation or phone calls instead of long texting sessions can be beneficial, too.
As a voice note aficionado, I feel vindicated.
Finally, if you are using a mobility attachment on the back of your phone to hold it, Shapiro urges that you don’t put the entire weight of your phone onto one spot, like a single finger.
While she admits that there’s not enough research to make a direct causal link between hand injuries and the increase in phone use, Shapiro urged that holding a smartphone or tablet incorrectly and too often could contribute to issues such as thumb arthritis, carpal tunnel and tendinitis.
Ouch.
