We’ve been using cell phones for decades now without much evidence on the effects they’re having on our bodies.
Apparently, a study of the shape of young adults’ skulls found that many are adapting to extended phone use by growing horn-like bumps on their heads.
via Complex:
The bumps—called “head horns,” “phone bones,” and, more simply, “spikes”—have been found on adults between the ages of 18 and 30 in a study by researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. They say there’s evidence of the skull adapting to a new posture used to look down at phone screens for extended periods, forming a spur on the back of the skull much in the same way that hands and feet form calluses.
“These formations take a long time to develop, so that means that those individuals who suffer from them probably have been stressing that area since early childhood,” the study’s author David Shahar told the Washington Post, explaining why the phenomenon appears in people who have had cellphone technology for most of their lives.
Co-author Mark Sayers told the paper the spurs are a “portent of something nasty going on elsewhere, a sign that the head and neck are not in the proper configuration.”
Sahar thinks that educating young people about the importance of posture can fight the ill effects of “text neck.” Of course, they could also take a swing at living in the moment, not a phone in sight.
That’s wild.
