Slashdot Mirror
Could Your Blackberry Be Damaging Your Thumbs?
Sammy at Palm Addict writes "According to the BBC, Regular Blackberry use 'could damage thumbs', experts warn. Trendy handheld Blackberry devices could cause damage to users' thumbs, doctors are warning. Sales of the £200 gadget, which can be used to email, page and phone, have boomed in recent years with celebrities such as David Beckham using them. But US and UK doctors said repetitive use could cause arthritis or harm tendons in the thumb. Research in Motion, which manufactures the Blackberry, said it would not comment on the claims."
And years ago I got a GyroMouse which required the right thumb to press mouse buttons and was definitely less strain that the index finger pushing down all the time. Maybe I should be glad I'm back to an old-stlye mouse. Meanwhile, how about millions of people using their thumbs on all those Game Boys and such? Are we headed for an epidemic of arthritic thumbs? It could make tobacco settlements look tame.
celebrities such as David Beckham using them.
He doesn't need his thumbs anyway.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The finding seems to be about the difference between thumbs and fingers, and the fact that thumbs are not designed to be tapping away for prolonged period.
However, why is it targeting Blackberry only? I would imagine this HP4350 and many other devices will give similar problems.
Next time they'll find most Roman emperors died of Occupational Overuse Syndrome because they kept using their thumbs on gladiators or lions.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Next thing they'll be saying is "smoking causes cancer." Give me a break with your "science!"
How is this any different from any other mobile device, remote control, game controller, or similar item which has buttons we press repeatedly?
(First Post?)
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
...andmythumbsarefine.Justlook,Ihavenoproblemswith typing.
Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
People damage thumbs.
Infuriate left and right
Seems they took a lot of time and effort to basically say...
"Using your thumbs a lot might make them sore at some point in time."
Like someone else mentioned, its silly that are focusing on one product that will cause this. Almost makes you wonder who got the idea to do this article.
If you know what I mean.
Seriously, doctors in the UK need to take chill pill. It seems every day some Royal Academy of Whatchamacalit is pontificating on the dangers of everything.
How is a Blackberry any different than your average game controller? I remember the old-school Nintendo nothing (not 64, Super, etc.) had the most painful control pad i've ever used, I'd get "The Claw" from playing it for more than a couple hours.
Seems a bit nuts to go all Doomsday about this when kids use their thumbs 6 hours a day playing console video games... and when their thumbs hurt, they stop. You don't see GenXers walking around with crippled thumbs, do you?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
1) A handful of researchers think that using your Blackberry "repeatedly" might cause thumb damage.
2) There have been no reported cases of said damage yet.
That's pretty much it. A lot of "The Blackberry could..." talk, but little else.
There. That just saved us years of research and tens of millions of dollars. Please remit 10% of that to me for my valuable input.
Doing something over and over again is almost always not good for you.
There are a few exceptions though...
my hand should be totally numb and unfunctioning given the amount of Nintendo I grew up playing. Yawn. Move-on.
And here I just ditched my notebook to avoid possible wrist damage and crotch-burn, now you're telling me I need to dump my PDA too?!
Seriously though, it's an issue of being smart about how you use such things. Give your wrist a rest, let your thumbs hang loose every now and then, and take the notebook off your lap before it gets hot enough to impair your child-producing abilities!
I haven't heard of anyone sueing keyboard manufacturers over RSI recently, so a little "Some experts believe that regular use of this device may cause thumb strain" should likely be sufficient.
Because it only has one big button.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
and the NINTENDO THUMB?
those 8bit nes controllers.. damn. they really suck.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
then i'm sure there would be reports of thumb problems in asia, especially japan, where people compulsively send SMS and emails using their cellphone/joystick. just take a ride in a japanese commuter train - since actually talking on the phone is considered disruptive and a public nuisance, people either text-message or play games on their cellphone.
uhh....yes. Do I get a prize?
Seriously though. I love these "could x be harmful?" articles, the answer is always yes. If you do too much of ANYTHING it will be harmful. With that out of the way maybe we can stop jumping up and down and screaming what about the children every time one of these articles comes out...
It is far more painful (and quickly becomes painful at that) for me to try writing an extended amount of anything these days because I typically type almost everything. It is easier and requires less muscle manipulation to type letters and words and symbols using a keyboard than to hold a pencil or pen and actually form the letters, words, and symbols the "old" way. I would say all this repetitive stress injury syndrome crap is due to our increased workloads in Western civilization, not necessarily the fancy new tech gadgets. In the 1800's, one letter could take a week or more to write, send, and get a response to from loved ones or business colleagues. Today it's constant im's, emails, and blackberry messages going back and forth as fast as you can type. Let's face it, today's communication delays are 100% human and have little to do with the technological limits. It took me several minutes to type this crap out, but it takes 0.43 seconds to post it to slashdot. Chill out on the digital communications and you won't injure yourself. Don't chill out and live with the consequences.
Somebody should tell these people that gratuitously pointing at the obvious can damage the index finger.
Scientists report that riding a steam-train may be detrimental to your health as the unnatural speeds at which it moves might cut off the natural air supply to one's lungs.
No such damage has been reported, but it's too early to tell, so best be careful out there, folks!
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
He's a wildly famous football player in Britain. [soccer, for us Americans] He's also married to some Spice Girl. The paparazzi love him.
My grandmother played her Intellivision so much that she actually had to have thumb surgery. Yes she had an Intellivision when she was 63 - cool grandma, no? She used to play Astrosmash and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, which used the Intellivision's side buttons extensively. (She couldn't remember the name of the D&D game, and always called it 'Gorrilas and Pyramids')
Point is, it's not just the Blackberry. Any repetative thumb action will cause damage.