n. A form of repetitive stress injury caused by excessive use of the thumb to type text messages into a mobile phone.
2002
Last year, Andrew Chadwick, director of the British RSI Association, suggested that children obsessed with text messaging could be at risk from TMI — Text Message Injury — a painful swelling and inflammation of the fingers and thumbs.
2001 (earliest)
The craze for text messaging could create an RSI epidemic, a charity has warned. The rapid movements used to send text from a mobile phone can cause a new form of repetitive strain injury dubbed TMI.
The RSI Association believes Text Message Injury could afflict huge numbers of people as the texting craze grows.
Director Andrew Chadwick said: "We're talking about people making hundreds of tiny repeated movements as they use the keypad.
"That's almost a prefect recipe for causing RSI."
The RSI Association believes Text Message Injury could afflict huge numbers of people as the texting craze grows.
Director Andrew Chadwick said: "We're talking about people making hundreds of tiny repeated movements as they use the keypad.
"That's almost a prefect recipe for causing RSI."
Word Spy subscriber Ravi Subramanian has suggested that another name for this type of medical condition ought to be "repetitive press injury." Thumbs up!