Study says cell phones are causing people to grow 'horns' — but is it true?

A 2018 study that was recently brought to light in articles by the BBC, Washington Post, Fortune and more claims that cell phones are causing young people to grow "horns."

The research, conducted by two chiropractors in Queensland, Australia and published in the journal of Scientific Reports, says that external occipital protuberance (also called enlarged EOP and known as horn-like bone spurs) are growing in humans due to "sustained aberrant postures associated with the emergence and extensive use of hand-held contemporary technologies, such as smartphones and tablets."

To put it simply, the "horns" are said to be growing at the bottom of the skull, where the head bends to look down at a cell phone—human bodies are physically adapting to use modern technology.

But, are the claims linking cell phone use to changes in bone structure really true? If you're currently feeling around the back of your head for horns or examining your teenager, you might not have much cause for concern.

The New York Times spoke to medical experts in physical therapy and neurosurgery and they had some major doubts in regards to the technology correlation.

Dr. David J. Langer, the chairman of neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, said that the most common conditions that arise in people who spend a lot of time looking down are definitely not horns, but disc problems.

“You’re more likely to get degenerative disc disease or misalignment in your neck than a bone spur growing out of your skull,” Dr. Langer said. “I haven’t seen any of these, and I do a lot of X-rays. I hate being a naysayer off the bat, but it seems a little bit far-fetched."

Forbes interviewed bioarchaeologists who study human development, and although they've seen skeletal changes come from repetitive, unnatural movement, they had problems with the study's correlation of bone spurs to specifically cell phone use.

"I've seen plenty of enlarged EOPs in the early Medieval skulls I've studied — male ones, mostly," Nivien Speith of the University of Derby said. "It could be genetic, or even just a simple bony outgrowth that has unknown etiology. Often, they can occur through trauma to the area as well."

The biggest problems with the study many doctors and researchers have is that it lacks a control group and only uses subjects who are having neck trouble, uses X-rays taken in the past, uses subjects who are mostly adults and not adolescents, and that they don't prove the cause and effect.

Bone growth or degeneration can be caused by a number of things, but cell phones? We'll need more research to prove that. But either way, it's best to try to keep your head up.