Descent of man: how texting stops us walking tall

 

The Telegraph

Texting on a mobile phone forces the body into a hunched position which can lead to poor posture and balance and make walking around dangerous, academics say.

It has taken millions of years of evolution for humans to walk upright but it appears texting could be undoing our natural posture. Hunching over to type or read a text message causes people to hunch, swerve, slow down and lose their balance, a study suggests.

Researchers asked 26 volunteers to walk at a comfortable pace without a phone then monitored them as they read or text or typed a message. A computer which tracked the body’s movements revealed that texting altered the posture and changed the way people walked. Hunched over with the heads down, texters were less able to walk in a straight line and more likely to topple off balance. 

Dr Siobhan Schabrun from the University of Queensland said: "Texting, and to a lesser extent reading, on your mobile phone affects your ability to walk and balance. 

“This may impact the safety of people who text and walk at the same time." 

Most people adopt a forward-and-down head position while they text.
Holding your head in such a posture can add up to 30 pounds of extra weight to the upper vertebrae which can pull the spine out of alignment. Physiotherapists have previously dubbed the pain experienced from hunching over a mobile phone as ‘text neck’ which can put strain on the muscles in the neck and shoulders. 

A previous study by San Francisco State University discovered that 83 percent of subjects reported some hand and neck pain during texting — but also displayed other signs of tension, like holding their breath and increased heart rates. 

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.