People spending prolonged periods of time looking down on their smart devices could risk damaging their necks and shoulders, warned Eruospine, a society focused on research, prevention and treatment of spine diseases in Europe. However, the medical heads-up is falling on deaf ears in China where more than half of the population spends on average a little over a full day per week online. 

The ‘text neck’ syndrome is described as a “neck pain and possible damage sustained from constantly looking down at a mobile phone, tablet, or other wireless devices for an extended period of time,” read an article published on Eurospine’s webpage last month.

Neck muscles have to pull five times as much as the head bends forwards and downwards to look at mobile devices, the article explained.

Chinese media did not pick up the warning until this week, when major news outlets began to post reports in relation to the syndrome on Chinese social networks which, ironically, are accessed by the very same devices that the reports are alerting against.

Despite the alarming tone of the reports, which quoted local specialists warning that the cases of young people suffering from neck pains have been on the rise in recent years, not all the targeted readers on Chinese social network showed concern over the problem.

“I wouldn’t have found about this, had I not been playing with my phone now,” wrote wryly one user on China’s twitter-like Weibo, following a post on the issue by the People’s Daily, China’s leading newspaper.

“I’m so scared by this that I’ve thrown myself on my bed going on reading from my phone,” commented another user, @Yueyueteqincai.

“What difference does it make if I developed the issue for reading from my phone or a paper book?” inquired another user.

Given the huge number of Chinese mobile users and the amount of time consumed online, the issue may translate into a bigger public health concern for the government.

Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a research institute, showed that nearly 695 million people relied on smart phones to access the Internet in 2016.

The number is estimated to reach 760 million by the end of 2017.

On average, Chinese netizens spent a little more than 26 hours a week online in 2016, according to China Statistical Report on Internet Development, issued in January by China Internet Network Information Center.