Gen Zers are pointing the finger at their cellphones as the cause of a gripping new malady victims say contorts their pinkies.
Nicknamed “phone pinky,” the syndrome refers to a bend, bump or dent sufferers say is caused by the weight of a phone when it’s resting on the fifth digit for extended periods of time.
The condition blew up on TikTok in recent weeks when bent-out-of-shape influencers began sharing and comparing their little fingers, sparking the viral trend, with over 163 million posts about it so far, Bustle magazine reported.
“I fear I have the worst iPhone pinky,” TikToker kendall.rene lamented to her followers in July, comparing both hands and showing how her phone perfectly fit in the crook of her deformed finger.
“There is a NOTICABLE difference I’m hyper fixated on,” musician @Galalee captioned a video examining her indent.
“Time to take a brain break,” Florida influencer Morgan Houghton wrote on TikTok after noticing the shocking dent on her right pinky, which inspired her to get off her phone.
“We all got it,” one woman replied with a sobbing emoji to Houghton’s post.
“I think I win this trend,” TikToker girlboss4lyfe posted, showing off her severely curved pinky, which stuck out far from the rest of her appendages. Her video received 1.4 million views.
The confessions have scared some scrollers straight.
“I took my pinky from under my phone off so fast,” one horrified person commented on girlboss4lyfe’s video.
Experts, however, contend that pinky anatomy varies widely — and there is no official diagnosis for the phenomenon.
“It’s also possible that people who think they have smartphone pinky could have an underlying condition,” said Dr. Peter Evans, an orthopedic surgeon at the renowned hospital.
Propping up a phone on the pinky could compress a nerve and cause numbness or tingling, he said, and excessive cellphone use can cause a range of joint problems, including in the elbows and thumbs.
And many of the images being shared don’t necessarily highlight a problem, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
The condition is reminiscent of “Blackberry Thumb,” which sparked complaints of thumb pain and problems with motor function from using the devices that were wildly popular in the early 2000s.
Some social media users used the trend to highlight being double-jointed or having an abnormality following a bone fracture.
Some handy tips to address contortion concerns include reevaluating how you hold your phone, using a phone stand or sticking a PopSocket or similar attachment to the back of the device to make gripping it easier.
How long the condition might take to disappear depends on how long someone has had it, one expert told Bustle. Serious concerns should be taken to a physical therapist who can suggest exercises and stretches.
The obvious solution is limiting screen time. Members of Generation Z spend over six hours on their phone per day, recent studies found, while millennials are plugged in for over four and a half hours.
