Texting with an iPhone is dangerous

Rating: high risk of RSI don’t you know

by Tony Dennis

I’ve always maintained that texting with the iPhone is extremely tricky – especially if you have big hands like me. But I’ve never thought it could be dangerous. And that’s now official.
Yes, texting with the iPhone could give you RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury). British Chiropractic Association spokesperson, Tim Hutchful, has declared that, "When you text or use the iPhone you use far smaller muscles in the hand, which can fatigue quicker."

Crickey. Luckily Mr Hutchful has some useful advice. He suggests short texts with warm hands. That’s because the risk of RSI is greater in the cold weather as less blood reaches muscles so they become stiff.
It turns out that Tim Hutchful has made quite a habit of warning about the dangers of high tech gadgets. His previous targets have included the Wii games machine and Apple’s iPod.
But texting appears to one of his favourites. He’s been quoted as saying, "BCA chiropractors recognise that text messaging regularly, over a long period of time, could cause RSI which may cause both short and long term injuries."
So it’s not just the iPhone, then.
User Centric has also discovered that you can text as fast with an iPhone as a regular handset but users made 5.6 mistakes per message compared with 2.1 and 2.4 on full and numeric keypads.
Curiously I made my own important discovery about the iPhone. I was challenged to see if I could beat an iPhone user to find a news item about British racing driver, Lewis Hamilton.
I had a 3G handset from 3 which I use regularly. My opponent found the answer in less than a minute using Google. 12 minutes later I gave up unable to find the news story.
There’s the power of search for you.   

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