What is 'phone pinky'? Breaking down the internet myth

Can the way you hold your phone actually change the shape of your pinky finger?

This is the question behind a TikTok trend that is causing many people to take a second look at their hands. But what is "phone pinky"? 

First off, it doesn't exist, experts say, at least not as a medical diagnosis or anything you should be concerned about. 

"It is a social media fad, or internet health myth as we tend to call them," Bernie Garrett, an associate professor with the University of British Columbia's school of nursing, told CBC News in an email. 

What people are talking about when they use the term phone pinky, "smartphone pinky" or "iPhone finger" is the concept that holding your phone in one hand, with your pinky supporting the bottom of the phone as a little shelf, can actually "dent" or even distort the shape of your pinky. 

The idea, which first emerged a couple of years ago on TikTok, has resurfaced on social media in the last few weeks, sparking thousands of videos where users compare their hands and conclude the pinky on their phone hand looks drastically different from their other pinky. 

In one TikTok with more than 350,000 likes, user elvislover1973 showed off an apparent indent in her finger under the text "MY IPHONE PINKY IS REALLY BAD GUYS." 

There's zero chance that propping your phone up with your pinky could change the bones or overall structure of your pinky, experts say. 

"You need to have either a very rapid force over a short period of time or a sustained, prolonged force applied to the digit over a very long time," Sébastien Lalonde, a hand, wrist and microvascular surgeon based in Missouri, told CBC News. 

And no, a phone is not heavy enough to provide that force.

Demystifying 'phone pinky'

There are a couple of explanations for the "dents" people are seeing. 

If a user made a video of their hands after seeing a TikTok about it, they were probably holding their phone just seconds before, which could leave a temporary indentation in the skin. 

For those who are really gripping their phone, repeated friction in an area can sometimes create a small, harmless callus — something seen with the common "writer's bump," where a callus develops on the side of the middle finger from writing very frequently with a pencil or pen. 

"That's certainly plausible. It's like occupational exposure, that you're constantly rubbing a specific surface, the same as wearing shoes that are the wrong size," Lalonde said. "You can have a callus and nothing happens at the bony level. It'll all be soft tissue."

Some people may be observing variances in pinky shape, he said, and that's "the way their pinky looks like, just that they may not have noticed before." A clear bend in the pinky could be clinodactyly, a minor developmental defect that often goes unnoticed.  

'Texter's thumb' and other ways to strain your hand

Alright, so using your pinky as a phone shelf isn't connected to any health issues — but other types of phone use can strain our hands, Lalonde said. 

People with underlying conditions like arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome or trigger finger could see prolonged phone usage exacerbate those conditions. There's also "texter's thumb," or De Quervain's tenosynovitis, an issue with the tendons from the wrist to the thumb. 

"For that repetitive motion using the thumb, you can get tendonitis at the wrist and you can flare that up quite significantly with using your phone a lot," Lalonde said. But your use "has to be pretty excessive" for that to occur. 

Pain in the hand often starts with a problem in the elbow, he added, so people should avoid holding their arm bent at strange angles for prolonged periods. 

Any time you're experiencing numbness, tingling or pain in your fingers, hands or wrist, you should talk to your doctor, Garrett said. But given the ubiquity of smartphones, phone injuries or phone use exacerbating issues is rare.

"We just don't see that very often in practice, and only with extreme repetitive use," Garrett said. "Considering everyone has a smartphone these days, it does not seem a serious problem."

The saga of the "phone pinky" is a reminder that not everything you see on social media is accurate — and that some anxiety might be spared if you remember to read the captions.

One of the most dramatic phone pinky Tiktoks, which featured a severely curved pinky and has racked up 1.6 million views, was posted by user girlboss4lyfe with the tags #broken and #dislocated, a joke many commenters didn't clock.