A TikToker left a woman in shock after helping her notice the ‘indent’ in her pinky because of the way she holds her phone.
Smartphones are now a major part of our lives and we probably hold them more than we’d like to admit.
We’re all apparently so attached to our phones, some people think they’ve quite literally left their mark - or rather an indent - in our smallest fingers, according to a popular social media theory appropriately called ‘smartphone pinky’.
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TikTok content creator, Callum Joyce, spoke on his Bedtime Stories podcast with co-presenter Hannah about the pinky theory.
Just imagine how many people are watching while their smartphone rests on their smallest finger.
In an excerpt from the podcast, which they titled ‘Phones are changing the shape of our fingers’, Callum said: “Because we hold our phones so much, your little finger actually has an indent in it.”
He tells Hannah to take out her phone to test the theory. “Callum, you’re gonna blow my mind right now!” she says.
Hannah responds, in shock: “I do! I do! Mine’s really bad!”
Looking at the comments in response to the clip, not everyone’s convinced.
“All fingers have the indent,” one person responded.
“I have it on my both pinky and I only use right hand,” another TikTok commenter claimed.
Although someone replied: “Yh but the pinky that you hold underneath ur phone is deeper than the rest because is the weight.”
One woman replied: “Not me staring at my pinky’s indent in horror.”
“I don’t hold my phone like that,” someone else declared.
Whilst having a little bend in your pinky is unlikely to do you that much damage, some experts believe that it could be damaging to your hand in the long run.
Lloyds Pharmacy pharmacist, Pareena Patel, told The Sun that there is no clinical evidence about what the pinky theory is, or whether it actually exists, but said that it could be caused by the repetitive strain of constantly holding a device.
"Smartphone pinky is a social phenomenon thought to be caused by frequent smartphone use,” Patel said. “This is where users have reported a dent on their pinky finger from holding their smartphone too much.
"While there is no clinical evidence yet to suggest that smartphones can damage our pinkies specifically, nor is this an official medical condition or term, there are reasons to believe excessive phone use can impact our muscular function and may damage our joints particularly in the thumb and wrist area.
"For example, we know that repetitive strain injury (RSI) is a common condition which affects the muscles and nerves if they are overused or subject to frequent repetitive movements."
Our pinkies aren’t what we should be worried about after all, instead it’s the thumb we use to scroll which can be affected by overuse. The pain you may feel in your thumb happens due to repetitive movements which can tire out the tendons, resulting in soreness and inflammation.
Gregory Robinson