$200 Procedure Will Cure "Blackberry Neck," But Not Loneliness

All these men are sick, very very sick, via Nelson Wong's Flickr

We've known about the affliction "Blackberry thumb" for a while now, but chances are it hasn't affected anyone who didn't deserve it. But what are you doing to protect your dainty neck as it bobs up and down in between sexts? A Midtown salon is now offering a $200 "Blackberry Facial" for those of us who are subconscious about the state of their nape, and a brave Daily News reporter underwent the treatment to see if it made a difference. Symptoms of "Blackberry neck" are wrinkles, soreness, and the inability to just put the goddamn thing down for three seconds while a cashier rings up your pack of Orbit.

A 45-minute procedure that included "a peel with sapphire stones…a hydrating serum, and then some lymphatic drainage," was capped with "20 minutes of LED light and microcurrents, topped off with an oxygen mask." Isn't pressing shiny lights to your neck kind of similar to cradling a Blackberry to your ear with no hands? And we want to hear more about this gentle-sounding "lymphatic drainage." By the end, the reporter's "one faint line" on her neck seemed "fainter," and her "neck had a texture of a flower petal." Of course, according to the salon, you need four or five treatments to really see the difference. And look, your wallet is smoother and thinner than ever before!

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By Christopher Robbins in News on June 22, 2011 12:26 PM

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Miles Bader

Wait, is it actually the same guy in multiple positions in that picture...?

PicoPhreako69

Medical conditions (real or imagined) aside,....
a couple of weeks back after getting off a bus downtown, I just happened to look around as I walked up the block, and I swear, 100% of the people I saw around me were all looking down at their hands (because they had some sort of PDA or smart-fone or something).

Not only did I feel way older than my years,....
I also felt sad for some almost-indefinable reason. ;_;

Miles Bader

I live near Tokyo, and five years ago, the concept of eye-contact in public seemed completely lost -- pretty much everybody walking down the street, sitting on trains, etc, etc., was staring down at their cellphone. It was pretty depressing.

But what I find somewhat interesting is that in the last few years, things have actually gotten better. I no longer see that many people staring at their phone as they walk, people on trains seem to be reading books more than their phones, etc. Pretty much everybody still has a highly-functional cellphone of course, and people do use them to check stuff, but the sort of almost obsessive behavior one used to see is no longer so evident.

It may be that what seemed a novelty a few years back isn't any longer, now it's just another tool, and people started missing the little pleasures that the cell-phone had displaced.

That sort of thing gives me a tiny bit of hope for humanity... :]