“According to ABC News, 16-year-old Annie Levitz from Mundelein, Ill., began to sense a little disharmony in her hands. They would feel tingly, numb, or merely hurt like hell,” Chris Matyszczyk reports for CNET. “Levitz had merely been texting her friends up to 100 times a day.”
“She went to the doctor, who diagnosed her not with text dependency, but with carpal tunnel syndrome,” Matyszczyk reports. “This unfortunate message came with the stipulation that she must wear a brace on each hand and enjoy cortisone injections. She also has to endure surgery. Worse than all of that, of course, is the embarrassment [of wearing the ‘Textaholic’ braces in public].”
Levitz has “cut down from 4,000 texts a month to 2,000,” Matyszczyk reports. “She believes, though, that there might be a cure. Not for the texting, but for the carpal tunnel–an iPhone. ‘I do think that since it’s touch it won’t be as rough on my hands,’ she said.”
Full article, with video, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Plus, with an iPhone,
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Why not just use the phone as a phone.
Here’s a clue call someone sometime.
Agreed Gilby Luddite, agreed.
But… 4,000 texts a month is just the bare minimum needed to keep in touch with everyone, and keep friends informed of all the IMPORTANT details.
An iPhone may help her carpel tunnel but it’s an enabler!!!
I have the same problem due to chronic masturbation…
That’s 130 odd a day! Just speak to them, or go and see them, what can you have to say?
Now she can text all her friends about being in the news, about getting an iPhone, about being in the news and getting an iPhone, about that bitch Jenny who already has an iPhone and laughed at her, about her ex-boyfriend Paul who hooked up w/Jen, about Jen’s sextext to Paul, about Paul’s shortcummings, Jen’s roots, and ow, “I got blistas on my fingas”….
I do whatever I can to not talk on the phone but I only do about 100 texts per month. Facebook, Twitter, and blogging allows me to communicate with many people at once.
4000 a month? THAT is it???? She is not even in the running.
I think we need to figure out the correct use of the term “merely.”
“Merely hurt like hell”? There’s nothing “merely” about that.
@ TowerTone
absolutely brilliant. Have you ever thought of going on the circuit.
pretty sad some parents have partially deranged kids, yet no one seems to notice, or care. 1000 texts a week sounds to me like a young girl with serious emotional instability, and 16 is close enough to 18, when she’ll be an adult, and probably worsen, that her issues have probably been around for a while.
Stupid b-tch! Her parents should send her to work in Africa for a while. At least then, when her back hurts, it would be from working – not wasting. Obama will pay for the treatment of her CTS though.
Brilliant MDN Take! I think. It looks like you were planning to say more after the comma, but then, after preparing to,
@TowerTone:
You’re giving her way too much credit. I’ve seen a couple of studies about so-called “teen texting”, and your examples would be scholarly compared to the average message.
With an iPhone she will see there is more to life than texting. There’s everything in the app store.
Isn’t there a voice to text app coming soon? I mean it’s a bit odd to voice to text, but I guess some people just have to text to communicate.
Yea, that’s something to be proud of.
Can’t wait until these teens get real jobs then have to go hours between texting. I’ll kill them.
I’m wondering, what is the average age of the posters above… I’m almost 50, and everyone else seems at least 70, judging by their disdain for texting as means of communication among teens today.
I have never texted myself, nor do I find it practical, nor efficient, as means of communication. However, it is very clear to me that a large percentage of today’s young generation (most teens, plus majority of young adults) find texting the most critical method for communicating. If one were to articulate their arguments, one could say it gives them efficient means to talk to each other in real time in complete privacy. You can’t pick up a phone and talk to someone when you’re on the bus (well, you can, but you’re exposing EVERYONE on the bus to your private conversation). A single text message takes no longer than 10 seconds to type and send. This means that this girl was spending about 20 minutes per day texting. This is way, way below average for teens her age in the US, and significantly further below teens in the rest of the developed world (keep in mind, US is just beginning to discover what the developed world has known for almost ten years — joys of texting…).
As I said, I have never used SMS to talk to someone in real time, but I can clearly see why teens find it so practical. Apparently, I’m the only one here (so far)…
@Jubei there is a voice to text app. It’s called Dragon Dictation
Take away her phone and be done with it! Unlimited text plans combined with lack of parenting yields stupidity! Maybe our socialist president should tax texting more to pay for people too lazy to text!!!
I doubt the iPhone will help with carpal tunnel. If it provides immediate relief because it uses a different hand & wrist motion, if used to that extent, it has the distinct potential to cause another form of Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI).
Just cut back on the texting, chicky!
My girlfriend’s new Ford reads her text out loud.
She can only reply with a few preselected phrases (that we’ve figured out)
The fun thing is to send her messages that make it sound like the vehicle itself wants to ‘get shaggy’ w/her, especially since it is a female voice….
Predrag-I’m only 47!
I’d pay for a voice-to-text app if the receiver got it read aloud in Snoop Dogg’s voice (like the one GPS system). Fo shizzle.
PS: Shame on you two dingbats for trying to turn this into a political forum. There is absolutely nothing political about this, but you still have to vent your constant rage. Please, get up, go outside, sit in the sun for a while, have a Coke and a smile, feel the grass in your bare feet, and relax. ‘K?
What a retard.
She’s an idiot.
She could’ve gotten CTS from too much posting on MDN; doubt you guys would be so cruel then.
Actually to send that many texts, she’s likely texting during classes, which is a big problem in some schools.
If I were the parents, I’d have her retype her bill – line by line – every month.
Perhaps she’ll sift the meaningless details of her vapid existence through a little bit finer of a filter.
Effing kids.
The iPhone won’t help unless she uses a voice to text app but those aren’t too accurate. However I know a 23+ year old that “averages” 6K per month!! I’m 44 and I’ve never hit over 900 on a really heavy month myself but then I’ve got work and other life activities to attend to. LOL
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It’s repetitive movement that causes CTS, not the force that’s applied to push buttons on a physical keypad.
An iPhone touch keypad isn’t going to help with that.
This girl does not realize she has to stop texting, at least for a while, or else she will not be able to text… or do a lot of other things.
@unclemacosx — I use dragon dictation for most emails and texts on my iPhone longer than about 5 words. It’s actually scary accurate, as long as you speak clearly and are in a quiet spot. why more people don’t use dictation is beyond me.
@fredo
its slow and noisy
The girl needs a boyfriend. I wish I’d be a teen again, she’s cute…
She’s gorgeous.
Hey Annie, if you are listening, don’t do the surgery, very likely you don’t need it. Get a second opinion.
Get the iPhone but stop texting so that you get better sooner.
Good luck Annie and enjoy the several other features of your iPhone 3GS.
I’d text but not with ATnT charging EXTRA for text messages. That’s so STUPID!!!! Stupid ATnT!!!! Or rather, smart because so many people pay the extra on top of the “unlimited data” plan.