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[miketomich]

Everyone:

When a young child uses a computer they develop permanently bent bones and twisted knuckle deformities because the forces created in pushing a computer key or clicking on the mouse exceed the strength of their bone mass. Their soft (un-calcified) bones aren't ready for the computers, like we adults with our hardened (calcified) bones.

Every time a child pushes the key or mouse button, a mini injury occurs to that finger/hand. Each injury adds to the previous injury and results in the formation of the deformities shown on our web site at: www.miketomich.com  Every mini-trauma injury results in physical functional loss. Childhood arthritic, rheumatoid arthritis, back bending fingers, and other skeletal injuries become evident. Our letter to MIT can be found at this link: http://miketomich.com/LetterToMIT.html

OLPC XO the "Green Machine" must be removed from children's use until Senate bill S.948 CAMRA Act, is passed and emergency funding starts the study to determine their age of proper bone hardness (calcification) to withstand the repetitive motion mini-traumas (damaging dynamic forces).

Yours truly… Mike Tomich, A. Sawar MD, K Raval MD, R Tomich PE.

Our main website: www.miketomich.com
NBC TV-25 News coverage of Children with Injured Fingers from Gaming:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/uKLiThENVRU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/uKLiThENVRU</a>
Our letter to MIT "STOP SHIP" of OLPC XO laptop to children: http://miketomich.com/LetterToMIT.html
IDENTIFICATION of some DYNAMIC FORCES:  http://miketomich.com:80/Dynamic-Force-for-Read-me-First.html
Some SOURCES of children's DYNAMIC FORCE:  http://miketomich.com:80/Video-advertising_jpg.html
Picture 10-yr-old child with permanent VIDEO GAMING INJURIES: http://miketomich.com:80/Whitney_marked_gif.html
Picture 4-yr-old child with permanent COMPUTER DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/Alyssa-marked_gif.html
Picture 4-yr-old child with permanent COLORING CRAYON DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/AmishMary4jpg.html
Picture 17-yr-old UNABLE to WORK as an adult from VIDEO GAMING INJURIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/12-7-07-Childrens-Injury-List-Pics.html
ADULT "high effort" STEERING system DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/CripplingDamChevImplaGrandAm.html
Children and adult CASE STUDIES:  http://www.flickr.com:80/photos/9460
Dial 1-800-828-0498 to ask your senator to pass S.948 CAMRA Act

[tdang]

I'm afraid you may be labeled as a kook because the research backing up your claims is still extremely preliminary. I don't dismiss your claims, but I think you need to appreciate that people need to balance pros and cons.

Whether to spend 5hrs/day playing on an Xbox is one question. Whether to have a valuable tool for education which could be part of pulling you, your family, your community, your nation out of poverty is a different question.

It's immediately evident to me in weighing the pros and cons that stopping the program first and waiting for research is the wrong order. If other scientists decide that such research is valuable, then we should do more research. But we certainly shouldn't stop the program until more serious results are in. And I expect that even if your claims prove true to their fullest, many would find the costs worthwhile. (I'm glad nobody stopped me from coloring when I was a kid.)

-Timothy

[KayTi]

Not that anecdotal evidence is all that useful in this sort of situation but...

I don't have deformed knuckles and bent bones and I've been using computers since I was a young child. My sister as well, and she continues to make a very good living with computers and has no arthritis, no bent bones, etc. And our experiences were "back in the old days" on IBM PC-ATs with those really heavy clicky keyboards that required quite a bit of pressure to work.

Then again, we also used (GASP!) typewriters...as did the generation before us...

 

[miketomich]

I learned one thing from my posting...NO MATTER WHAT is posted, someone is always critical of the information, and they do this because of tunnel vision.    Do your friends a favor, even if you don't like this info...send it to your friends so they can read my site and judge for themselves.

Young children with soft un-calcified fingers will develop deformities from computers, coloring, video gaming and heavy toys.............period!  I wish this were a joke.

Check the straightness of a new born. Do not use adults bent and twisted fingers as a bench mark, today's stiff-heavy-high effort steering on vehicles is causing the carpal tunnel, chronic back-neck-shoulder pain and more skeletal and disc damage.

These two links are for computer and coloring damage.

Picture 4-yr-old child with permanent COMPUTER DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/Alyssa-marked_gif.htmlPicture 4-yr-old child with permanent COLORING CRAYON DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/AmishMary4jpg.html

Thanks...Mike Tomich

[Gabey8]

When I was a kid, I used to color, draw, and write, a LOT. I also played a lot of a game that seems to go by multiple names, depending on the region where the person lives, so I'll give it its generic name of 'wall ball'. Imagine playing tennis, with your bare hand, only instead of hitting the ball over a net, you are bouncing it off a wall. And Imean a LOT of this game -- I'm talking "whole afternoons and evenings, multiple days in a row" level of 'a lot". The wear-and-tear on my right hand, from all these things, took place starting in the early 'pre-calcification' years described on that website. As a baby boomer, I can say that this all took place prior to the existence of anything other than a manual typewriter (or at least, long before I had any access to an electric typewriter or computer keyboard).

Given my history of strongly favoring my right hand in the activities described above, one would expect my right hand to look like a disaster area, compared to my left hand. But that is not the case. Both hands are comparable to one another in look and in ability.

I do not doubt for a moment that there are children whose skeletal structure might be in danger of damage due to repetitive stress issues. And I advocate having every such child examined by doctors at once, to pinpoint the cause of their symptoms. I hold forth that if too much computer use or coloring causes  bone deformity in a child, it is a SYMPTOM of an underlying problem, not the problem itself.

I will repeat what I posted in another thread on this topic.When children are very young, their brains are still mapping out which neurons do what. It's not only their skeletons that are developing; their dexterity is developing as well. It is a classic case of "What you don't use, you lose'; if children are forbidden to partake in activities that promote dexterity before the time window closes and their brains are no longer mapping new territory  as readily, then their abilities will never develop to the extent that they might have done.

There needs to be a balance between children performing activiites that promote dexterity and learning (including coloring and using computers for reasonable amounts of time), vs. forbidding those activities outright.

[Irish_Moss]

I learned one thing from my posting...NO MATTER WHAT is posted, someone is always critical of the information, and they do this because of tunnel vision.

No, it's because all your posts are the same.  Those of us who are critical of the topic will continue to be critical when the information posted is the same.

Do your friends a favor, even if you don't like this info...send it to your friends so they can read my site and judge for themselves.

That wouldn't be a favor.  It would be spam.

Young children with soft un-calcified fingers will develop deformities from computers, coloring, video gaming and heavy toys.............period!  I wish this were a joke.

This is why I am critical of your information.  You speak with absolute certainty that this will happen.  Yet I have never seen it happen.  Not once.  2 sons, numerous nieces and nephews.  All playing video games, typing, coloring, writing.  No one has ever developed even the slightest finger or hand deformity.  Not a single one.
I'm not saying that these things cannot cause these issues.  That would be as ridiculous as claiming that they absolutely will.  All I'm saying is that these things alone cannot be the sole cause of the deformities.

[miketomich]

Hey Gabey8 and Irish_Moss:

I've got one for you. Send me a picture of your hands...held in the position(s) shown on my web site. Send your pictures to me at [email protected]. I'll look at them and get back to you privately. Nothing will be publicly posted unless I get your permission. I would like to know the make, model and year of the vehicle you drive and how many miles you drive a year (average).

Here is a funny, but not funny, story. I took a young child to see a hand surgeon in the Detroit area. The child had deformed fingers with physical movement restrictions resulting in hand functional limitations. It was clearly visible to us that the combined use of a computers and video gaming had resulted in the child's permanent injuries. Expecting to hear of corrective actions, the doctor said he didn't see anything wrong with the fingers! As it turned out, the doctor needed a doctor because his fingers were horribly bent and twisted from video gaming which he was still playing. The doctor was shocked when we pointed out his gaming injuries and quite embarrassed that he hadn't recognized his own deformities.

Not noticing his deformities isn't unusual. We never really stop and check our fingers to see if the knuckles are bent or twisted. We take our skeletal system for granted. It's as strong as steel.  We only pay attention to a broken bone. People don't realize it is the small mini-trauma shock loads that result in the arthritis, rheumatism, chronic back-neck-shoulder pains we experience today. 

Twisted knuckles will not appear until you bent your fingers and consciously look at the knuckles. If you do you will see they are off parallel, off angularity, and twisted. Twisted fingers won't appear until the fingers are held extended and looking at them from the top rear view (at the wrist). Not noticing these injuries is quite common, it's called paradigm thinking…tunnel vision. We all have it. It's a part of our way of thinking.  As children we are taught through life to conform and accept. Our schools depend on it. A person must look at things in an inquisitive way, just like our toddler children do, to see differently.

Gentlemen….I assure you…in today's world with stiff steering vehicles, you do have bent and twisted finger deformities, just like our children develop from using computers, video gaming, and coloring as well. We have pushed adult stuff onto our children before they are mentally and physically ready. Their bones are too soft for adult stuff, yet Child Day Care Centers push coloring crayons, computers, video gaming on children to keep them orderly. Their soft (un-calcified) finger bones are not strong enough for the repetitive button pushing forces that are generated by this. Every broken crayon is a message from a child that they are not ready to color.

Your children, nieces, nephews, neighbors children aren't ready for this either. I guarantee you, your fingers are bent and twisted from driving your stiff steering vehicles (you don't recognize it), and you use those same bent and twisted fingers to compare your children's fingers to! Just look! You will see! So send me your pictures with your e-m addresses and I'll reply privately with you. Remember, there is nothing that can be done to correct the harm that has incurred. But, you can prevent further damage to yourself and children. You can prevent damage to children by not allowing children to use the computer, video gaming, and coloring when their bones are too soft for such. Automotive steering injuries…can be corrected and prevented by the manufacturers reducing the steering effort back to what it was in the 60's, 70's and early 80's….ONE FINGER Steering effort.

This link will show you the damage from a 17 year old teenager. Will he be able to support himself with these injuries? This is becoming typical…the norm for today. This is video gaming and computer damage combined. My site shows each type of damage individually - computer, video gaming, and coloring.

Picture 17-yr-old UNABLE to WORK as an adult from VIDEO GAMING INJURIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/12-7-07-Childrens-Injury-List-Pics.html


Our main website: www.miketomich.com
NBC TV-25 News coverage of Children with Injured Fingers from Gaming:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/uKLiThENVRU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/uKLiThENVRU</a>
IDENTIFICATION of some DYNAMIC FORCES:  http://miketomich.com:80/Dynamic-Force-for-Read-me-First.html
Some SOURCES of children's DYNAMIC FORCE:  http://miketomich.com:80/Video-advertising_jpg.html
Picture 10-yr-old child with permanent VIDEO GAMING INJURIES: http://miketomich.com:80/Whitney_marked_gif.html
Picture 4-yr-old child with permanent COMPUTER DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/Alyssa-marked_gif.html
Picture 4-yr-old child with permanent COLORING CRAYON DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/AmishMary4jpg.html
Picture 17-yr-old UNABLE to WORK as an adult from VIDEO GAMING INJURIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/12-7-07-Childrens-Injury-List-Pics.html
ADULT "high effort" STEERING system DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/CripplingDamChevImplaGrandAm.html
Children and adult CASE STUDIES:  http://www.flickr.com:80/photos/9460

[Irish_Moss]

I guarantee you, your fingers are bent and twisted from driving your stiff steering vehicles (you don't recognize it), and you use those same bent and twisted fingers to compare your children's fingers to!

Wow.  I had no idea that I couldn't recognize that my apparently straight, fully functioning fingers are actually a bent twisted mess.
Here's a guarantee for you.  You're wrong.

I'm done wasting my time reading this gibberish.
goodbye.

[xojimox]

I just couldn't resist a topic with a name like "Childrens' Deformed Fingers."

I poked through http://www.miketomich.com and was stunned to find out about the silent epidemic afflicting the nations' youth.

Look at http://miketomich.com/AmishMary4jpg.html <-- this poor child, who can hope for nothing better than an unproductive lifetime of ridicule and shame thanks to the heartless swells at Crayola.

I'm pitching every crayon I have as soon as I get home from work.


 

[Heng]

I can imagine how a video game, that puts a child in a stressful situation, makes it squeeze the controller too hard, leading to damage.

But I can hardly imagine, what you could let a child play, that would put less force on its fingers, than a computer keyboard. I try to imagine kids playing outside far away from any products of civilization. And what I imagine are kids picking up sticks and stones. Grabbing and throwing them. Hammering at trees and rocks. Digging up the ground. Etc...

Maybe that is the natural way how fingers develop?

But then, I grew up in a city and may have wrong ideas about a more natural way of growing up...

[mike]

Everyone:

When a young child uses a computer they develop permanently bent bones and twisted knuckle deformities because the forces created in pushing a computer key or clicking on the mouse exceed the strength of their bone mass. Their soft (un-calcified) bones aren't ready for the computers, like we adults with our hardened (calcified) bones.

Every time a child pushes the key or mouse button, a mini injury occurs to that finger/hand. Each injury adds to the previous injury and results in the formation of the deformities shown on our web site at: www.miketomich.com  Every mini-trauma injury results in physical functional loss. Childhood arthritic, rheumatoid arthritis, back bending fingers, and other skeletal injuries become evident. Our letter to MIT can be found at this link: http://miketomich.com/LetterToMIT.html

OLPC XO the "Green Machine" must be removed from children's use until Senate bill S.948 CAMRA Act, is passed and emergency funding starts the study to determine their age of proper bone hardness (calcification) to withstand the repetitive motion mini-traumas (damaging dynamic forces).

Yours truly… Mike Tomich, A. Sawar MD, K Raval MD, R Tomich PE.

Our main website: www.miketomich.com
NBC TV-25 News coverage of Children with Injured Fingers from Gaming:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/uKLiThENVRU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/uKLiThENVRU</a>
Our letter to MIT "STOP SHIP" of OLPC XO laptop to children: http://miketomich.com/LetterToMIT.html
IDENTIFICATION of some DYNAMIC FORCES:  http://miketomich.com:80/Dynamic-Force-for-Read-me-First.html
Some SOURCES of children's DYNAMIC FORCE:  http://miketomich.com:80/Video-advertising_jpg.html
Picture 10-yr-old child with permanent VIDEO GAMING INJURIES: http://miketomich.com:80/Whitney_marked_gif.html
Picture 4-yr-old child with permanent COMPUTER DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/Alyssa-marked_gif.html
Picture 4-yr-old child with permanent COLORING CRAYON DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/AmishMary4jpg.html
Picture 17-yr-old UNABLE to WORK as an adult from VIDEO GAMING INJURIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/12-7-07-Childrens-Injury-List-Pics.html
ADULT "high effort" STEERING system DEFORMITIES:  http://miketomich.com:80/CripplingDamChevImplaGrandAm.html
Children and adult CASE STUDIES:  http://www.flickr.com:80/photos/9460
Dial 1-800-828-0498 to ask your senator to pass S.948 CAMRA Act

Methinks Kook fits, on your way you whackjob

[mike]

1) You have WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much free time
2) Your'e clearly insane
3) You're bordering on being an unwanted spammer a/or troll
4) why hasnt he been banned yet?

 

[Lershac]

You sir, are a kook.

Parents really should invest in the hyperbaric chambers that hand models use (see Zoolander) to protect their children growing up .

[Gabey8]

Re: the 17-year-old "unable to work as an adult".

Unable to work because of a finger curvature? I'd ask, "Are you serious?" but I can see from that part of the website that you are.

I know people with far more serious physical issues -- rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis (not the same as RA), carpal tunnel syndrome, cerebral palsy, to name a few -- who hold down full-time jobs and are productive members of society. You underestimate people's ability to overcome far larger obstacles than the condition of having fingers that appear curved in a photograph.

BTW, you asked me to send a photo of MY hands. (Without reviewing this thread in its entirety, I can't say if it was in this thread or in the other thread on this topic.) I respectfully decline. I will, however, assure you that I can position my hands so that all my fingers appear straight (or as nearly so as the ordinary, imperfect human body will allow) -- OR, by applying pressure at an oblique angle or slightly bending the joints just-so, I can make them appear to have mild curvature in a photograph.

Regardless of the appearance of my hands, the fact remains that these hands, which have been in use over 40 years, can play violin and guitar, can type 85 words per minute, can make jewelry from seed beads, can draw, sew, knit and crochet, and are used on a regular basis for communication in American Sign Language, as I am a sign language interpreter. Sending a photo of my hands would do nothing to further or contradict the statements on your website. But the fact remains that my hands are capable of performing tasks that require precision and dexterity, after a childhood and adolescence spent using them to draw, color, play ball, and other strenuous things that were done during the young "pre-calcified" stage of development. The fact that those abilities remain intact, despite my having engaged in activities that are advised against on your website throughout my life, suggests that perhaps the website itself is making statements that are too generalized to apply to the average person's experience in real life.

[Pax]

A generation of bubble-boys. How about we stop incinerating plastics before we worry about this?