Social media has definitely taken over the world, but there is one particular thing that made it even more addicting is that it made people want to take more selfies to share with the world. Selfies are not considered to be a sport and more than just a hobby. Everyone can literally do it, but people started considering it as a sport when it turned out that it could also cause injuries, in fact, a television personality was diagnosed with a certain lifestyle condition that has to do with taking too many selfies, if you want to find out more the continue reading.
An award-winning journalist and the host of the Today’s Show Hoda Kotb was actually diagnosed with a condition known as the selfie elbow. At first, it was compared to what athletes called as tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow, selfie elbow, on the other hand, is something that has to do with getting addicted to taking selfies and it would then cause the snapping elbow some kind of pain. Experts believe that this is actually considered to be an abnormal and repetitive inflammation around the muscles of the elbow. It is known to give a person a repetitive pain and often heals with scarring, which is why doctors said that in order for this to be avoided, people should make sure that taking selfies must be kept at a reasonable level.
According to Dr. Dhananjay Gupta from Fortis Flt Lt. Raman Dhall Hospital, a selfie is just like a sport because it also causes injuries. A person who spends way too much time taking selfies every single day may actually suffer from muscle pain with their upper elbow, limbs and shoulders. Someone who actually suffer from this highly recommended to get a few weeks of rest. Dr. Nischal Chugh also believes that selfies could be a major health hazard if done way too many times
A sports medicine physician, Dr. Jordan Metzl from the New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery even said that there is no harm in taking selfies, the only problem with it is doing it so often that it is no longer normal and can be addicting. It is similar to playing video games, texting, and typing.
Everything has consequences especially if the carpal runner and the tendinitis is involved. He also mentioned how the interface of the human body connects with technology is something to worry about since it causes injuries if a person cannot have self-control. Metzl even said that it basically applies to everything when a person does something so often that it could actually be harmful. Just like when texting was a thing back in the early 2000s and people text so much on their qwerty keypad phones that they started to tendinitis in their thumbs. This generation we have selfies, wherein too much pressure is put on the muscles and it basically irritates the area around the muscle that ends up being inflamed.
In 2013, Oxford dubbed it as the Word of the Year and defined this particular word as a picture that a person takes of his or herself typically with a use of a smartphone, tablet or webcam, and is most commonly shared through social media platforms. A selfie is also defined as a photo taken at a certain arm’s length or through a mirror. This gained popularity around 2011 and in 2012, Time magazine even dubbed selfie as one of the top 10 buzzwords of the year. The year after that was when it really was the most used word or hashtag on social media especially on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, it was mostly used by teenagers and young adults of that time.
The most common people who suffer from tech-related injuries are people from the age of 25 and below. A specialist for musculoskeletal rehab, Dr. Charles Kim even said that the number of kids and young adults having injuries due to overuse of gadgets is definitely increasing every single year that it is actually starting to become a worry. Carpal tunnel issues and tendinitis are the two of the most common conditions that teenagers and kids get compared to people form 15-20 years ago who gets scrapped knees from just trying to learn how to ride a bicycle.
One of the most common ways to take selfies without getting hurt is to use a selfie stick, Dr. Kim even recommended this or better yet ask someone to take a photo just like the old times because taking pictures is something that shouldn’t be dangerous at all.
