Thumbs down on Texting

A few days ago, I read with utter amazement that the average teenager sends thousands of text messages per months. To me, this is an incomprehensible figure but I am not here to argue whether this is a good way to communicate or not. I do not believe that I am to be the judge of that.

What concerns me, though, is the impact is has on health, particularly repetitive stress injuries to the thumbs. There is already a name for it: “Blackberry Thumb”. And it is easy to see how this can lead to problems up the chain towards the hands, wrists, shoulders, upper back and neck.

I am not kidding myself that my writing this blog will cause any teenager to stop texting. Young people unfortunately consider themselves indestructible and bulletproof. I thought so myself, so who am I to say?

But as I am working primarily with older adults and see the effects that arthritis has on their lives, I am wondering whether there should at least an attempt be made to counteract the looming disaster.

People with arthritic hands are miserable and in constant pain. Not only is it more difficult to exercise; even activities of daily living become a major problem. Even if medicine will make some advances, I am not expecting to see the magic bullet any time soon.

I personally use the MELT Hand Treatment often to keep my hands and fingers in good shape. If course, I only need to balance out an average of 3 text messages per month and not 3,000.