Hunchneck of Notre Phone

Germiness is only one aspect of skin unfriendly phone habits — the next worst thing is   texting. It causes what is known in the biz as “tech-neck” — droopy jowls and prematurely wrinkly necks in 18–39 year olds because of the seemingly perpetual downward gaze not to mention the additional strain it adds to one’s back.

Skin-Friendly Phone Habits

1. Clean Screen Line the phone screen with a glass screen protector  — this is to save it when dropped but really what it lets you do is use some hand sanitizer on the surface of the phone without worrying about compromising the touch screen.
2. Wear Headphones - Phones get hot and dirty and headphones keep this away from the sensitive skin near your temples. 
3. Hold Loose When you use the phone without headphones in a pinch don’t rest it between my head and neck. This is important as the more active discomfort of holding the phone afar or even using the speaker phone motivates  to go search for headphones.
4. Look with your Eyes —  You can square your shoulders and look down with your eyes to mitigate the back issues at the very least.
5. Text Less —  there is so much lost in tone while texting — see Sherry Turkle’s article — 80% of texting is the establishment of context which could be done in seconds on the telephone. Behind these quippy armoured barbs we are losing sight of each other and this is a skill fading into obscurity like penmanship. Phonecalls are not as good as IRL but they are in real time and that has its merits.