Bollocks or brutal truth: Do smart-mobes make us grow skull horns? We take a closer look at boffins' startling claims

Young people are developing "horn-like" bone spurs, it's claimed, and smartphone-induced posture problems are apparently to blame. In a February 2018 paper published in Nature Scientific Reports that's only now receiving widespread media attention, David Shahar and Mark G. L. Sayers, researchers at the University of the …

[Blockchain commentard]

Well, I keep my phone in my front pocket. And yes......

[Michael Hoffmann]

Sheesh, mate, for the price of those smartphones you could have bought a PILE of blue pills!

[Jedit]

"Well, I keep my phone in my front pocket. And yes......"

I hear Donald Trump keeps his phone in his shoe.

[Woza]

Re: "Well, I keep my phone in my front pocket. And yes......"

So Trump is actually Maxwell Smart?

[BebopWeBop]

Re: "Well, I keep my phone in my front pocket. And yes......"

Well Maxwell maybe

[Aussie Doc]

Re: "Well, I keep my phone in my front pocket. And yes......"

The 'Smart' is silent.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: "Well, I keep my phone in my front pocket. And yes......"

"I hear Donald Trump keeps his phone in his shoe."

Well, clearly he doesn't hold in his hands for very long.

[sbt]

Bollocks.

The study authors themselves concede "we have no direct evidence".

[Halfmad]

Re: Bollocks.

Yet it's been published anyway.

[sbt]

Re: Bollocks.

Well, publishing standards seem to be at an all time low. The journal "Science" won't even accept for review a replication study that failed to reproduce one of their most widely referenced articles on political orientation and fear response.

See: https://slate.com/technology/2019/06/science-replication-conservatives-liberals-reacting-to-threats.html

And I haven't even mentioned Elsevier. Whoops, too late.

[tfewster]

Re: Bollocks.

They have no evidence of mobile phones cause, but it's a reasonable hypothesis. And that's all they say it is.

Though there is evidence of these bone spurs being linked to bad posture.

[sbt]

Re: Bollocks.

What's that old saw about correlation and causation?

Probably impossible to prove in the long term; Too many smartphoners will die in accidents due to inattention (drivers and pedestrians) before scientists can collect long term data on the spurs, skewing the results.

[FozzyBear]

Re: Bollocks.

Which means the media will have headlines similar to

"Scientists claim smart phones and ipads causing major deformities to children's skulls"

Don't let the truth get in the way of a sensationalised headline or clickbait story

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bollocks.

University of the Sunshine Coast is akin to the University of Buttfuck Idaho.

A Polytechnic in University clothing if ever I saw one.

[Pascal Monett]

"she hasn't seen phone-induced bone spurs in her practice"

Does that mean that she has seen bone spurs ?

[Alister]

Re: "she hasn't seen phone-induced bone spurs in her practice"

Does that mean that she has seen bone spurs

Probably, they are quite a common thing.

[AndrueC]

Re: "she hasn't seen phone-induced bone spurs in her practice"

They are very common in front of the heel bone at the point where the Plantar Fascia attaches. At one time they were thought to be the cause of Plantar Fasciitis (the mere mention of which sends shudders through those of us who've experienced it). However more recent research suggests they are far more common than cases of PF so not likely to be the cause.

[JLV]

Re: "she hasn't seen phone-induced bone spurs in her practice"

Speaking of Trump...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/12/27/trump-vietnam-war-bone-spur-diagnosis/2420475002/

[Korev]

Re: "she hasn't seen phone-induced bone spurs in her practice"

Said the actress to the bishop

[Steve Button]

How many checking?

Are you checking the back of your head right now, whilst reading the article? I know I did.

[Tigra 07]

Re: How many checking?

Yes, but do you have the bone spur in question? I do. I need a cuppa now...

[NetBlackOps]

Re: How many checking?

No. All mine are in my spinal cord.

[Ugotta B. Kiddingme]

Re: How many checking?

I've had that particular type of bone spur on my occipital bone since long before cell phones were a thing. My older brother used to tell me that's where they cut off my tail when I was a pup.

[Chris G]

Nothing is clear

Which posture leads to these spurs?

Presumably not holding a phone to one or the other ear, but hunching forward to text or read.

If that is the case then every generation of school children and the majority of office workers will exhibit the same spurs.

Personally I think it has more to do with the rise of horny mutants.

[MiguelC]

Re: Nothing is clear

And what about reading books? I mean the old way, with real, physical books, don't you also hunch forward to read them? Is the difference that more people now read texts on their smartphones than they ever read books? Bit sad to think that's the reason...

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Nothing is clear

"Presumably not holding a phone to one or the other ear, but hunching forward to text or read."

And the report says more males than females, so I call BS. My own anecdotal evidence is that young women spend far more time hunched over their phones than young men :-)

[EmilPer.]

the Neanderthals had them too

... must have become extinct because of all that texting

[bpfh]

Re: the Neanderthals had them too

If they are going extinct, then they are not horny enough

[Aladdin Sane]

So, mobile phones are the devil? Or do they turn you into the devil?

[Michael Hoffmann]

Good Omens!

I was wondering if those spurs were coming out at the TOP of the head and whether someone named Crowley/Crawley was ever an executive at various mobile makers.

[Kubla Cant]

Re: Good Omens!

I believe if you have horns on top of your head you're supposed to ask your wife if she knows anything about it.

[JimC]

Got them on my shin bone

Just below my knees. Think its because I had the habit of kneeling down besides folks desks whilst doing end user support.

[Ken Moorhouse]

Re: I had the habit of kneeling down besides folks desks whilst doing end user support.

Atheists use Google instead.

[graeme leggett]

Deciphering

Much medical research is reported by muppets who pick an exciting headline unsubstantiated by a scrutiny of the underlying paper.

The authors seem to be more modest in the text and I was wondering the merits of the dataset. The authors indentify that the X-rays came from people who were being X-rayed for a medical problem, so there you have the immiedate issue that the population sample is representative of the whole, as it comes from an unhealthly set

And then I read "All radiographs were obtained by a trained radiographer, at a single chiropractic clinic.." so perhaps these are a healthy population. albeit gullible to the promise of the chiroquacktors.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Deciphering

...and that last bit of information strongly points at a possible localised cause too, so not only a self selected sample of people with medical problems, but even more narrowed down to a specific area or region.

[BGatez]

widespread

I have been troubled by phone zombie bone heads of all ages.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pointy finger

I grew a bone spur on the end of my middle finger. It was very useful for accurate use of touch screens, but then it got too big and started to break though the skin. Quite painful so I was grateful for the surgery to remove it.

I have no idea what caused it to grow ….. especially as it was on my left hand.

[Sanguma]

Re: Pointy finger - we know what you did last summer!!!

can't get away from it now!