Anjali Shrestha
Feature Editor

The familiar generic ringtone went off and junior Monica Rodriguez reached into her pocket and within 10 seconds answered her recent texts. Rodriguez averages 80 texts a day.

“I text my friends about different things during the day and random occurrences,” said Rodriguez. “Texting is faster and more efficient I do not feel like it runs my life, but my phone definitely keeps me connected and I feel like I am missing something when I don’t have it with me.”

The average teenager sends about 2,272 texts a month according to a report by the Nielsen Company. People do not really think that responding to a conversation has long-term effects.

“Texting can cause muscle repetitive injuries,” said Margaret Stafford, M.D. “It stresses muscles and tendons of the thumbs more then anything else.”
The Blackberry, which is mostly operated by thumbs, can cause arthritisor hurt tendons in the thumb. The thumb is not a very flexible bone structure and increased use can cause damage. “Blackberry thumb” is a new term for stress on a thumb and originates from the boom of Blackberry’s and hand-held keypads.

Another more serious complication that often will not be diagnosed until the patient is older is arthritis.

“Arthritis is basically inflammation or damage to joints,” said Stafford. “The two most common kinds are inflammatory arthritis like rheumatoid arthritis, which is inflation, pain or swelling. The other type is osteo-arthritis and that is more wear and tear arthritis, like after a lot of injuries or using that joint or body for a long time.”

The effects on muscles will be come more apparent as the texting generation ages.

“Any motion that you do repetitively, whether its texting typing, or other activities can cause what is called repetitive strain injuries,” said Stafford. “If they are done a lot and without a lot of attention to what they are doing the body they can become harmful.”

The medical problem with texting is a recent issue but other innovations in technology have caused similar muscle concerns. Carpal tunnel is another syndrome caused by people continually typing in a compromising position.

“It is an entrapment of the nerves called the ulnar nerve that runs through the carpel tunnel, which is a particular section on the top of your wrist,” said Stafford. “This nerve is connected to the fourth and fifth fingers. When people do repetitive things like typing and do not have hands in a very good position it can put strain and so area around ulnar nerve gets inflamed and puts stress on nerve. This causes symptoms like pain, tingling and numbness in fourth and fifth fingers.”

Another condition based from technology is cubitle tunnel syndrome.
“Cubitle tunnel syndrome is when the ulnar nerve passes around the elbow and this is sometimes called cell phone elbow,” said Stafford. “If an arm is bent and holding the phone to the ear this can cause compression of ulnar nerve.”

Many teenagers do not see these repercussions as a good enough reason to stop texting. Many people do not want to turn on their computers and shoot an email, or pick up their phones, when they can spit out a quick text and convey everything in abbreviated language.

Major wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless and Cingular offer an unlimited texting plan ranging from $20 to $34.99. This may encourage people to text more.

“If people think they are texting too much and are worried about long term effects they could mellow down on texting,” said junior Brooke McLennan.
“But personally I would not stop because it is not affecting me now.”