The Text Neck Myth

Text neck… the idea that the ligaments and muscles of the neck cannot tolerate the forces of looking down at the phone. Is the neck really that fragile that it breakdown with simple movement? This post will discuss what text neck is and if it can really cause damage to the spine.

Text Neck Study

The original text neck study assessed the stresses placed on the cervical spine as it flexed forward. The study found that 15º of cervical flexion placed 27 pounds of force (120 N) on the neck gradually increasing to 60 pounds (267 N) at 60º of flexion.As for the study methodology, it is difficult to assess because the “model of the cervical spine was created with realistic values in Cosmosworks” is the only description that was given for how these values were produced. The study concluded that stresses on the cervical spine could lead to wear, tear, degeneration, and surgery.Regardless of the questionable quality of the original study, the fear mongering related to the forces placed on the neck have become rampant in the public. Sensationalized stories about the “damage” caused to the spine because of overload to the muscles and ligaments is common rhetoric. Unfortunately, these reports dramatically underestimate the strength of the ligaments and muscles of the body and neglect the current understanding of pain.

In the following section, newtons will be used to describe the force placed on the cervical spine. For reference, 27 pounds of force in the original text neck study is equivalent to 120 N while 60 pounds of force is 267 N.

While the damage of text neck is poorly defined, it is generally in reference to wear and tear or degeneration in the cervical spine. This makes it appear that the cervical spine is weak and susceptible to injury. However, other research studies have reported that the force needed to injury the cervical spine are much higher than those exposed during text neck.

Strength of the Neck

One research article reported that the forces needed to cause tissue failure in the ligaments of the upper cervical spine were 2400 N and 1800 N for the lower cervical spine. Activation of the muscles in the cervical spine increased the tolerance by a factor of 2.3, making the tolerated load up to 4300 N.With only ligamentous support, it would take 7-10 times the amount of force at 60º of neck flexion to cause ligament failure. And because nobody leaves the house without their neck muscles, the 4300 N provides a large safety margin between the forces during “text neck” positions.This makes it very unlikely that the loads experienced while flexing the neck would be sufficient to cause damage to the ligaments and muscles.There is a difference between the duration spent in cervical flexion during text neck and more sudden forces experienced in the study of cervical muscular and ligament strength. However, the tissue tolerance information presented above demonstrates just how resilient the cervical muscles and ligaments are to damage. Plus the muscles in the neck will increase their endurance to longer loads just as any muscle would adapt to the loads placed on it at the gym.The neck muscles and ligaments are strong and able to tolerate a large amount of loading. The loads placed on the neck while looking down at a phone are not sufficient to cause damage to the cervical spine.