Texting Affecting Teens

“ My cellphone is my best friend. It’s my lifeline to the outside world” (Underwood). The world of technology has changed dramatically in the last decade. People have taken texting to the extreme. The advances in the cell phones have had a large impact on everyone, but especially today's youth. Teens have taken the use of technology to an unsafe level. These bad habits can affect them for the rest of their lives. Teens are to distracted by their cell phones. Texting is causing teens to be distracted while driving, limiting their social skills and is causing teen texting tendonitis. Traffic crashes are the leading causes of death in the United States (Berry). Many traffic crashes are due to people being distracted by their cell phone while behind the wheel. “Forty-one states have tried to eliminate the number of accidents by banning texting and driving”(Seppa). Although these laws are in place they are not taken serious enough. In a survey forty percent of high school students have admitted to texting while driving
There are many long term effects from texting. One in particular is, Teen Texting Tendonitis. This is an effect from texting for long periods of time . It's caused by the movement in the muscles that are connected to the thumb. When they are used for long periods of time they began to swell (Bare). This can have long term effects such as carpal tunnel. This makes doing anything with your hand very painful and can make it hard to do anything. Symptoms of Teen Tendonitis are swelling and pain in the wrist. Texting Tendonitis is not easily treated, the only way to stop the development of the tendonitis is to stop texting which is easier said than done. The only way to permanently get rid of carpal tunnel is to have surgery and disconnect the two muscles (Tucker). To make sure that teens never get teen texting tendonitis put down the phone and enjoy the world that is around