Modern technology is truly a wonder. With just a couple of taps on a hand-held device you can check your email, tell your husband what to pick up at the grocery store on his way home or read the latest novel.

It's nothing short of miraculous when you think of it.But all that convenience comes with a price - text neck.Also known as forward head posture or upper crossed syndrome, text neck is an overuse syndrome, like tennis elbow, but perhaps a lot less subtle in the way it creeps up on you.If you suffer from chronic headaches, neck and shoulder pain, decreased loss of motion or numbness in the upper extremities, carpal tunnel, you may have text neck. Symptoms could also include sinus congestion, dizziness or ringing in the ears."But I never text!" you say. Thing is, you don't have to be a tech wizard to end up with text neck. While it's common with people who use hand-held devices such as cellphones and tablets, spending long hours driving or sitting at a desk in front of a computer, or looking down at a book while reading or studying could also make you a victim of text neck."Text neck is not generational," says Jennifer Sterner of Jim Thorpe, a licensed massage therapist. "This is not just something a kid or young adult gets. It can happen to anybody."In fact, Sterner is seeing more cases of forward head posture affecting much younger children who spend a lot of time playing video games.The reason we develop text neck is because while we're involved in any of these activities, our bodies are not aligned as they should be.Long periods of isometric contractions, or not moving our neck and shoulders, could result in this position becoming a habitual posture. You're at risk of developing hyperlordosis, which is an exaggerated curve of the lumbar spine (lower back), and hyperkyphosis, which is an exaggerated curve of the thoracic spine (upper middle back), giving you a humped appearance.Another symptom, she says, is jaw pain which is sometimes misdiagnosed as temporomandibular joint or TMJ."The muscles in the neck get too tight, pulling the jaw, which pulls the bone out of alignment," says Sterner. "So it might be TMJ. But most of the time it's due to posture."If you don't take care of these symptoms now, it could get worse. You can end up suffering from loss of sleep, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression or worse. So how do we fix text neck?Proper posture is a good start. Sterner says when you're sitting, your ears should be lined up with your shoulders."It's hard to hold that posture, but if you train yourself not to sit longer than an hour at a time and get up and move around and stretch, then go back to what you were doing."She also recommends using a stretch band, such as Thera-Band, which is available on Amazon.com for $15.75. The strap comes with a chart that gives instruction in the proper methods of using it."The best time to stretch is after a shower," says Sterner "It's ideal to do it twice a day. If it's really bad, do it at work as well. Buy an extra band and leave it there."If you need more than just posture modification or stretching, Sterner says you may want to consider a therapeutic massage for a myoskeletal alignment. And depending on the degree of symptoms, you may also want to couple that with a chiropractor.