With the increase in desk jobs and hours spent hunched over phones and computer screens, the physical brunt of the modern age is taking its toll. Orthopedic surgeons are seeing a steady rise in patients with neck pain from sitting at a computer eight hours a day, several days a week.
Neck pain resulting from prolonged periods of time hunched over a computer is referred to as “tech neck.” Tech neck can be identified through symptoms such as neck pain at the base of the skull, headaches, achiness and stiffness in the upper shoulders.
“(You are) putting a lot of strain on the musculature and ligamentous complexes in the back of the neck,” says Dr. Ronak Desai, a spine surgery specialist with Orthopedic ONE. “And by doing that constant, additional strain, you’re pretty much setting your spine out for degenerative changes to occur.”

Desai specializes in lower back and neck complications and focuses on motion-preserving surgery. He feels passionate about spine surgery because it allows him to positively impact patients’ daily lives.
According to Orthopedic ONE, five to 15 pounds of pressure is added to the neck with every 15-degree increase of forward head tilt, so hunching over a computer screen for hours in a day can lead to neck pain over time.
Where many of Desai’s patients once performed manual labor, more and more of his patients today work desk jobs. In the past few months, he has seen some 15 to 20 patients with severe neck pain as a result of their jobs in tech.
Beyond the severe pain, the long-term implications are more difficult to identify. The massive increase in tech jobs is, in the grand scheme, fairly recent, limiting opportunities to study impacts on different age groups over time.
“(Say) you’re in your early 40s, and you’ve already got some early degenerative changes that are starting to happen,” Desai says. “With physical therapy, you might make some of the pain better, but you’ve accelerated the degenerative changes enough that maybe, in the next five years, they’ll get even worse.”
The impacts of tech neck can be minimized with proper care. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle through exercise and strengthening the upper body is one of the most effective ways to prevent long-term tech neck strain, Desai says.
He also emphasizes the importance of correcting misconceptions about the condition. One of the leading myths of tech neck, he says, is the notion that it doesn’t exist.
“I think that’s kind of the biggest thing,” says Desai. “A lot of people brush it off as just a normal experience. They don’t think to correlate the two things together.”
While the severity of tech neck is being analyzed, it’s important for people to be aware of their posture and incorporate small changes, such as stretching daily and elevating the computer screen so the neck muscles aren’t straining to look down, into their lifestyle, he says.
“Doing some kind of an exercise program two or three times a week will help to maintain the musculature around the spine and will help minimize the risk of progressive degenerative disease,” says Desai.
Amber Phipps is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at aphipps@cityscenemediagroup.com.