Image credit – R. Marsh Starks/UNLV Creative Services
There have been some studies in the past that have shown that using your smartphone too much can be bad for your neck. This is because of the stress and pressure you put on your neck while staring down at your phone, which during prolonged usage is actually quite bad for you.
As it turns out smartphones aren’t alone in this. A recently published paper has revealed that iPads are also bad for your neck, according to researchers at the University of Nevada where the affliction has been referred to as “iPad neck”. According to the study, it has been found that this seems to affect those who are younger versus those who are older, and apparently it is more than twice as likely to affect females compared to males.
According to physical therapy professor Szu-Ping Lee and lead author of the paper, “Such high prevalence of neck and shoulder symptoms, especially among the younger populations, presents a substantial burden to society.” The findings aren’t that surprising when you consider that the usage of tablets does differ from phones, where tablets might be more used for watching videos for extended periods of time due to the fact that it has a larger screen, versus phones which are smaller.
As to what can be done about this? We suppose there’s really not much to do except to maybe get yourself some good support, like a good chair or maybe prop up the tablet at a comfortable level. Alternatively you could also try reducing the amount of time you spend on it, something that Apple is trying to do with digital wellness features introduced in iOS 12.