You’re sitting on the couch, phone in hand, chin tilted toward your chest. You’ve been scrolling for 30 minutes. Most of us spend hours every day in this exact position — and our necks are paying the price.

“Tech neck” is the pain and stiffness that builds up when you tilt your head forward to look at a screen. It’s one of the fastest-growing causes of neck pain today. The good news: you can feel better, and with a few changes, you can stop it from getting worse.

When you tilt your head forward just 60 degrees, your neck bears about 27 kg (60 lbs) of force — roughly the weight of an 8-year-old child hanging from your spine.  (Surgical Technology International, 2014; replicated in multiple subsequent studies)

What Is Tech Neck?

Tech neck means strain and pain caused by looking down at phones, tablets, and computer screens for long stretches. The medical term is “forward head posture.” Your head weighs about 5 kg (11 lbs) when it’s balanced upright. Every inch it drifts forward, the load on your cervical spine grows. A 2024 study found that text neck syndrome was extremely common among medical students, with most reporting neck dysfunction linked directly to their screen time. (Algabbani et al., BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2024)

What Are the Symptoms of Tech Neck?

Tech neck doesn’t feel the same for everyone. Common signs include:

• Neck pain or stiffness, especially at the end of the day
• Tight, sore muscles across the upper shoulders and upper back
• Headaches that start at the base of the skull
• A feeling that your head is “heavy” or hard to hold up
• Tingling or numbness down the arms in more severe cases

Can Tech Neck Cause Headaches?

Yes — and this surprises a lot of people. When neck muscles are overloaded, they pull on the base of the skull, triggering cervicogenic headaches that feel like pressure behind the eyes or across the forehead. A 2025 study found that office workers with cervicogenic headaches consistently showed forward head posture compared to those without. (Kim et al., Frontiers in Pain Research, 2025)

How Do I Know If I Have Tech Neck?

Try this quick test: stand with your back against a wall. Your head should touch the wall easily. If it doesn’t, your head is already shifting forward. A 2023 study of IT professionals found that 84% of men and 93% of women had measurable forward head posture — most of them unaware of it. (Singla et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2023)

How Do You Fix Tech Neck?

Tech neck is largely reversible. A combination of movement, strengthening, and posture correction works best. A 2023 randomized controlled trial found that combining targeted exercises with posture retraining produced the greatest reductions in neck disability. (Kim et al., Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2023)

What tends to help:

• Strengthening deep neck flexors — the small muscles that hold your head upright
• Stretching the upper trapezius and chest muscles, which often get chronically tight
• Manual therapy (chiropractic care, physical therapy, massage) to restore range of motion
• Raising your monitor to eye level and holding your phone higher

Simple Exercises You Can Do Right Now

Chin Tuck:

Pull your chin straight back (like making a “double chin”). Hold 5 seconds, repeat 10 times. This works the deep neck muscles most weakened by tech neck.

Upper Trap Stretch:

Tilt your right ear toward your right shoulder; use your right hand to gently deepen the stretch. Hold 30 seconds each side.

Doorway Chest Opener:

Stand in a doorway, hands on the frame at shoulder height, and step forward until you feel a stretch across your chest. Hold 30 seconds.

How to Prevent Tech Neck Going Forward

• Raise your phone to eye level — don’t drop your chin to meet it
• Position your monitor so the top of the screen sits at or just below eye level
• Take a movement break at least once an hour — stand, stretch, and reset
• Try the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds

The Bottom Line

Tech neck is real and very common. The average American spends 4–5 hours a day on their phone alone — and that’s before adding computer time. All of that forward-tilted posture adds stress to your cervical spine that builds quietly until it hurts.

Daily exercises, small ergonomic changes, and professional care when needed can make a real difference, often in just a few weeks. If your pain is persistent or radiating into your arms, make an appointment with us.  We can evaluate your posture and create a plan.

Sources & Further Reading

• Algabbani, M. et al. “Prevalence of text neck syndrome, its impact on neck dysfunction, and its associated factors among medical students: A cross-sectional study.” BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2024. PMC11613064.
• Kędra, A. et al. “Evaluating Tech Neck: A Pilot Study Using a Self-Developed Questionnaire on Symptoms, Posture, and Preventive Measures.” Children (MDPI), 2025. DOI: 10.3390/children12010102.
• Khajavi, D. et al. “Physiotherapy in Text Neck Syndrome: A Scoping Review of Current Evidence and Future Directions.” Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2025. PMC11856789.
• Kim, S. et al. “A Comparison of Two Forward Head Posture Corrective Approaches in Elderly with Chronic Non-Specific Neck Pain: A Randomized Controlled Study.” Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2023. PMC9861410.
• Singla, D. et al. “Assessment of Forward Head Posture and Ergonomics in Young IT Professionals.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2023. PMC9987472.
• Kim, H. et al. “Classifying office workers with and without cervicogenic headache or neck and shoulder pain using posture-based deep learning models.” Frontiers in Pain Research, 2025. DOI: 10.3389/fpain.2025.1614143.