RSI Moves To SMS

from the there's-always-a-problem dept

Fri, May 25th 2001 9:21am — Mike Masnick

You just can't get away from some problems. As people (mostly in Europe) use SMS text messaging more and more, they're now discovering a specific form of repetitive strain injuries just for them. They're calling it TMI: Text Message Injury. How long until the ergonomic experts start swarming over our mobile phones and other wirelss devices to give us the mobile version of the split keyboard? Of course, many people don't seem to think that a slightly swollen thumb is that big of a problem.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

2 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Stephen Kellett, 29 May 2001 @ 10:33am

No Subject Given
Swollen thumbs, probably not a big deal, I used to get that playing Myriad on my Vic20. However
I can see people getting tenosynuvitis from this.
Tenosynuvitis is a really nasty type of RSI which you don't want to get. I've had RSI badly and been fortunate enough to find a really good physiotherapist, good care and still have a career afterwards.

I don't think things ike RSI warrant flippant comments.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 29 May 2001 @ 11:12am

Re: No Subject Given
I wasn't making fun of RSI. I was just commenting that I could easily see a fascination with more ergonomically correct handheld devices.

As for saying that many people don't see the big deal about swollen thumbs, that was based on quotes in the article. I wasn't saying that RSI isn't a big deal. I just thought it was amusing that people need to come up with specific names for things like "text messaging injury".
[ link to this | view in thread ]