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Posted on: October 20, 2015

While we may assume that technology will solve all our problems, sometimes it actually creates new ones. This is certainly the case with tech neck.

If you’re not familiar with this term, that’s okay. It was only coined last year. Tech neck is a type of repetitive stress injury. This is a kind of injury that slowly develops over time as a person uses the same body part to repeat the same repetitive motion over and over again in a way that the human body wasn’t designed for. The most common example you are probably familiar with is carpal tunnel syndrome.

In the case of tech neck, the injury is caused by people repeatedly lowering their neck downwards to their smart phone, tablet or laptop. This can put a lot of added stress on the muscles and nerves in the neck and spine. It can result in sharp neck pain. If the issue gets worse, that pain could reach all the way down to the patient’s fingers.

One of the only ways to treat this repetitive stress injury is through the use of massage therapy. Massage is known to have the ability to relax muscles and relieve tension. This in turn can help relieve some of the pressure and stress that is caused by lowering the neck downwards for long periods of time. In fact, different types of massage therapy are specifically designed for these kinds of neck problems. Patients can expect to feel some relief from the negative effects of tech neck after just a few massage treatments.

However, treatment will only be permanently successful if the patient ceases the repetitive behavior. Bizarrely, we may see an increase in the use of desktop computers and laptops placed at eye level for this very reason. So much for smart phones representing progress.

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