Meet Smartphone Pinky, The Injury The Whole Internet Thinks It Has

If you’re around social media long enough, you’ve probably met somebody convinced their smartphone is somehow injuring them. Brain cancer, neck injuries, you name it, it must be the fault of your smartphone. And now we’ve got a new one: Smartphone pinky.

https://twitter.com/NeehaCurtis/status/690561802732580864

The idea is that you somehow deform or damage your pinky from holding your smartphone too much. This takes a few forms: The finger could be out of joint, or there could be a dent on your pinky, but it all boils down to the same thing. People are holding their smartphones so often that it’s somehow damaging their fingers.

Popular Science, being journalists, went and asked a few doctors about it and they all unanimously agreed that you don’t have smartphone pinky. In some cases, that dent is the same thing that happens when you wake up with pillow wrinkles on your face; your finger will return to normal fairly quickly. In cases where the pinky is actually distorted, it might be a repetitive strain injury, or a fairly common curvature of the pinky you just never noticed before.

That said, keeping your arm bent all day can cause numbness in your pinky, and if you’re in pain whenever you use your phone, change your positioning and how you type. And if it still hurts, stop getting your medical advice from the Internet and go to a doctor.

(via PopSci)

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