More and more people nowadays can’t go without their smartphones, even on holiday. But can this widespread addiction lead to short-term anatomic changes in humans? The answer is a big fat yes, if you believe the study led by the mobile service provider O2 that was carried out on 2,000 volunteers in the United Kingdom.
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According to the report set out by researchers called O2 Mobile Life Report, just short of a decade of usingsmartphones is enough to cause changes to our hands. The first, major consequence is that 5% of the population has one thumb that is bigger than the other because of smartphone use,the thumb you use the most could be becoming up to 15% bigger. This was observed in one in eight people (13%) between 18-34 years old.
Another change noticed is that 8% of those involved in the study have developed indents in their little fingers, due to the way that we hold our phones. Nicola Goldsmith, upper limb services manager and hand therapist explained:
As the research shows, these localised changes – such as enlarged thumbs and little finger indents – are becoming the new normal as younger adults are using the phone for longer periods of time.
But if you don’t want to see your thumbs swell up, you can always fall back on using that old school Nokia or Razr that is no doubt kicking around in the back of your drawer.
Check out the video to see what happens!
