The Washington Post reported on Friday that horn-like growths on the skulls of some young people could be caused by poor posture from phone use, based on research from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia.
David Shahar, the first author of the paper, is a chiropractor and the recent recipient of a Ph.D in biomechanics. He told the Post that the growths, which he and the other researchers found on the back of people’s heads, just above the neck, signify a serious problem with posture that can cause chronic headaches, as well as pain in the neck and upper back.
“These formations take a long time to develop, so that means that those individuals who suffer from them probably have been stressing that area since early childhood,” Shahar said.
Although Shahar speculated that this could be caused by people leaning “their head forward, to look at their devices,” some experts aren’t convinced this is the cause.
“Without knowing about the cell phone use of any of the people whose head X-rays were analyzed, it is impossible to draw conclusions about correlation between cell phone use and skull morphology,” said Michael Nitabach, a Yale University professor of physiology, genetics and neuroscience.
Vice and Jezebel both criticized the Post for its reporting, with Vice stating that the story “amounts to little more than a moral panic about our use of new technology,” and Jezebel labeling it a “bizarro story” adding that “the whole ‘phone horn’ thing is merely a theory.”
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