Beware! You may be clicking your way to 'selfie elbow'

By Pallavi Aman Singh New Delhi, Jul 21 (ANI): We're living in a society of head-down "smombies" - no surprise, then, that conditions like 'Blackberry thumb,' 'text neck,' 'smartphone pinky,' 'iPosture' and 'text claw' are causing us a great deal of pain. Just when you thought smartphones, which make you 'phub' your near and dear ones, couldn't get any more evil, a recent South Korean study suggested that their excessive use was causing kids to go 'cross-eyed.' As if they were not enough; there's a new ailment in town - 'selfie elbow.' What else did you expect? It was recently brought to our attention that selfies may cause skin damage and now, it is being reported that this trend, which takes you towards narcissism, can put your elbow muscles under severe strain. Extending your arm repeatedly to hold your phone out to get that perfect photo makes elbow muscles swell that puts pressure on the bone, which lead to inflammation and excruciating pain. Dr Sanjeev Arya, an orthopedic attached with the Park Group of Hospital, told ANI: "Taking selfie requires one to keep their arm in a particular posture which stresses the elbow and this overtime swells the elbow muscles which can get extremely painful." "Staring down at your phone at all times can give you neck pains and lead to depressive postures. We use our phone for almost all purposes, be it texting, mailing, staying connected with friends, work purpose, etc; this has cut us off from our real social life. This also has shown to be a sign of depression in many people," he added. Don't you think it's time to step away from that smartphone, put down your tablet, shut that laptop and turn off the TV? (ANI)