Study: Texting as painful as typing

Excessive texting on your phone can give you "Blackberry thumb," but it can also be a pain in the neck.

According to LiveScience.com , a study found that repetitive texting on a cell phone can cause the same amount of chronic pain caused by typing.

"The way the body is positioned for texting -- stationary shoulders and back with rapidly moving fingers -- is similar to the position for typing on a computer," Temple University researcher Judith Gold said.

Because the technology is new and it's primarily young adults and professional workers who are texting the most, problems like carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis -- which are problems often seen with typing at a workstation -- could show up later in life.

Gold and her team of researchers sent a questionnaire to college students who were asked to indicate how many text messages they send a day and point out how much discomfort they had on a body map. The study found that there was a connection between how many text messages someone sent per day and how much shoulder pain he/she had.

"What we've seen so far is very similar to what we see with office workers who've spent most of their time at a computer," Gold said. Gold plans to conduct further research into the area since her study did not account for how long people spend typing on computers.

There is increasing worry that texting is taking a psychological and emotional toll on teens . Psychologists have said that texting can lead teens to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.