Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 23 to 30.
If you've ever spent hour after hour, day after day staring at your computer or smartphone screen, it is very likely that you have or will suffer from a condition known as "tech neck". This is a term that refers to the pain, stiffness, and even injury that can result from bending your head to look at an electronic device for too long.
When you look straight ahead, the weight of the human head is between 4.5 to 5.5 kilograms. However, even when you only bend your neck forward 15 degrees to look at your phone, the weight that your head puts on your upper body can reach over 12 kilograms. This added weight places even more strain on the neck and shoulders. Now, imagine bending your neck at 45 degrees — that’s almost 50 pounds of weight that your neck muscles, upper back and shoulders have to support for minutes or hours every single day.
Such tension on your spine, neck, and shoulders will eventually cause problems. The most common symptoms of “tech neck” includes feeling a sharp neck pain that can last for days or even weeks. On top of that, your shoulders may also hurt and you could also experience headaches, either from having your head forward over your shoulders too far or from tilting it down too much.
Moreover, there are also chronic issues associated with “text neck”. When your muscles have to tighten in order to hold up your head, the discs in your spine will become weaker over a long period of time, which means they can move out of their position or even break apart, causing extreme pain which may take you months of intense treatment or even surgery to fully recover from.
(Adapted from easytechseniors.com)
