I love my smartphones. I must, since I have three active at the moment. All of them share one major attribute which is why I love them. They each have a nice, big touch-screen that lets me do a bunch of wonderful things with them. I especially like to surf the web, do email and of course, read ebooks.
One thing I’ve noticed that is common to my usage of these phones, no matter which one, is how I hold the device. I invariably hold it in my left hand so that I can interact with the task one-handed. I occasionally will use my right hand to tap on the screen, but usually I hold the phone in my left hand and curl my left thumb over the screen to tap and slide.
This puts my left hand in a bit of an unnatural position, as it is trying to grip the phone to make sure it doesn’t slip to the floor, while thumbing all over the screen. This has led to something I’ve never experienced before: hand cramps. It is getting more common for my fingers to start cramping up while holding the phone this way. The little finger is the one that starts cramping first, followed by two or three others. It takes a while for this to start happening and is probably made worse given my long sessions with the phone, but it’s getting downright unpleasant.
Have any of you experienced this affect from using your touch-screen smartphone? Maybe you hold your phone differently and it doesn’t occur. That would be good for me to know too. I’m beginning to feel this effect almost every day, and it’s getting awfully annoying. It’s not one of those things that is serious enough to visit the doctor about, either. I’d likely just hear the “well, don’t do that” diagnosis.
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