Notice to all our blog readers: It’s possible that you are doing grave danger to your health by reading this post—particularly if you’re currently using some sort of mobile device. Those nifty smartphones that you use to help you get around town and text your BFFs and play Sudoku on can imperil not just your emotional and mental well-being, but your physical constitution as well.
That’s right: You could sprain a thumb or something.
Thankfully, the good folks at O2 have your back. (And your thumbs.)
O2, a British phone carrier (akin to Verizon or AT&T Stateside) is offering its customers specially designed “thumbells” to prime them for new, faster service. Representatives of the carrier insist it’s not a gimmick (though pictures of said thumbell might suggest otherwise). David Johnson of O2 told ABC News:
Our research shows that excessive usage of the phone can leave people with sore thumbs, so we want our customers to make sure their thumbs are well looked after so they can make use of all the great technology that is available at their fingertips. That’s why we’re trialing the thumbell units and have worked with BMI to develop the Fit for 4G fitness routine.
The thumbells weigh 65 grams, and experts working with O2 have even developed a recommended series of exercises designed to “strengthen their intrinsic and extrinsic thumb muscles.”
I know, I know. It’s a little silly. But while O2 may be marketing the thumbells at least partly in jest, thumb injuries have actually been an issue for a while now in our brave new world of digital mobility. The so-called “BlackBerry Thumb” was a growing ailment several years back, and while touchscreen smartphones don’t put thumbs through quite the rigors that the old BlackBerry keyboards did, some hand therapists are still encouraging people to start operating their phones with their index fingers.
For me, it’s a reminder that there are sometimes unintended consequences attached to most everything—even modern society’s most marvelous gadgets. I have a smartphone myself, and every week it seems I find a new, useful app for it. And yet I’m very conscious that if I spend too much time with the thing, it could be problematic in the long run. We’ve all seen people who seem to value what goes on in their phones more than what might be happening right out in front of them. I was at a professional baseball game the other night, and the guy a row ahead of me spent much of the evening more involved with his texts and tweets than with the foul balls that’d occasionally come near.
But that’s the trivial stuff, right? What I really don’t want to deal with is the embarrassment of what might happen if someone challenged me to a thumb war … and my thumbs were too tired to compete! I would bring shame upon my family, and I can’t allow that to happen.
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