SMS has become so popular in Britain that millions of users now suffer injuries to their thumbs and fingers, a survey quoted by a Reuters report said.
The report said that according to the survey for Virgin Mobile, more than 93.5 SMS were sent every day. All this digit action had led to an explosion in people reporting cases of repetitive strain injury.
The survey said more people suffered from sore wrists and thumbs due to SMS sending now as compared with five years ago. Some 3.8 million people now complained of SMS-related injuries each year, the report said.
The report said the survey also found that the SMS phenomenon showed no sign of slowing, with more than 12% of the population sending 20 SMS per day and 10% confessing to sending up to 100 SMS every day.
While psychologists said it was important for people to communicate, the report said there was a danger that using arms-length tools such as SMS and e-mail was making people uncomfortable with more intimate face-to-face conversations.