Smartphone Injuries

I recently watched a network news report on a type of fallout our smartphone obsession has brought into our lives. The report included some video clips of people stumbling, bumping, and tripping as they walked through everyday life tasks with their heads tilted down and their eyes focused on their phones. One person fell down the steps. Another walked into the path of an oncoming car. Still another tripped headfirst into a fountain in a local park. New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has investigated the role smartphones play in head and neck injuries. Researchers found that these injuries have increased steeply over a twenty-year period, with forty percent of the patients requiring treatment being in the thirteen to twenty-nine year old age group. While our smartphones are wonderful devices when used properly, they can not only undermine our relational health, but our physical health as well. Teach your kids to put the phone down and pay attention to their surroundings.