Younger generations are growing horns in the back of their head | Hacker News Reader

Younger generations are growing horns in the back of their head

news.com.au

34 pointslazyeye17 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20173830

Super interesting finding, but horrible clickbait title. 2cm bone growth != a horn.

It is pretty cool how plastic our skeletal systems are. Use it or lose it, but use it in a novel fashion and it will adapt.

Yeah, the title is quite alarmist. But the point is valid: excessive use of a device in a certain posture will cause physical changes that cannot be reversed.

I think this adaptability is a feature, not a bug. I don't see any downside to this adaptation.

It could be interpreted as the bible being literally true and cell phones are the "mark of the beast" turning us all to the devils ways.

There's a wealth of information online where people have come up with biblical interpretations that result in the current state of the world being the predictable situation before it all ends. Of course, given the statistical accuracy of doomsday predictions so far, I wouldn't worry too much. :) That said, maybe they are on to something as far as phones or social media being satanic. shrug

Yeah, bony growth <> horn.

Not saying it is a horn (I acknowledge this in the first sentence), just saying that maybe us adapting to our bad posture is not a good thing.

"Australopithecus scientists are saying young's habit of bipedalism is alarming and could have serious implications"

"Old scientists and/or yellow journalists don't like kids usage of technology, conjures up clickbait, alarmist FUD to judge their lifestyle and/or manifest insecurities."

Wow, I just felt the back of my head and pretty sure I have this. It's a small bump where the skull rounds out and gives way to softer tissue. Not sure why it would be a negative thing though if it's just an adaptation to our posture

At least according to the article, it's something usually seen in older people with "long-term poor posture and significant stress loads"; the intended implication—doubtless at least somewhat alarmist—seems to be that regular smartphone useage does as much damage to young people in a short time as was previously only done in a lifetime.

I don't see how it is "damaging" though. Weird, yes, but it's so small it seems neither unsightly nor likely to cause harm

I don't know anything about the research, and suspect the article is being alarmist, but I'm a little bit confused by our dialogue—first you asked why it was a negative thing, and now you're asking why it is a "damaging" thing, with "damaging" in quotes, even though neither the article nor I uses that word. I don't think that the article means to suggest that the bone growths themselves are causing damage, but rather that they are indicating damage (though, again, I have no expertise to evaluate that claim, and haven't even followed up on any links in the article).

It was a response to your post "seems to be that regular smartphone useage does as much damage to young people in a short time as was previously only done in a lifetime."

Right you are; I didn't read my own post carefully enough. I still think that the intended interpretation is that the growths are indicative of, rather than the cause of, damage.

If you're a normal, genetic male, this is normal. If you're female, then this would not be normal. In fact, a palpable structure at the farthest edge of the outer rearmost point on the skull is a way to tell one's birth gender in most instances: yes = genetic male, no = genetic female. Rarely (if ever) do gender reassignment surgeries eliminate this structure when transitioning from male to female.

Source: physical anatomy and anthropology courses.

EDIT: I suspect this "news" article is completely fraudulent, The Onion-style or an April Fools' joke.

I am a genetic male, thank you for letting me know I was just getting trolled. I mean that sincerely, I don't know much about anatomy, so I wouldn't even know how to search for whether something like this normal

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