A lot of crap gets thrown at millennials by older generations, and we’re sorry to add more fuel to the fire, but apparently we all have really weak hands compared to the previous generation.
Yeah, it’s true. A recent study by occupational therapists measured the hand grip strength of Americans aged 20-34, and found that for men under 30 have significantly weaker hands than their age group did in 1985. And the same is true for women aged 20-24. The test was done by asking 237 volunteers to squeeze a hand dynamometer - basically a joystick with a dial that tells how hard you are squeezing. In 1985, 20-24 men had an average right-handed grip of 121 pounds and left-handed grip of 105 pounds. Today that has dropped to just 101 and 99 pounds respectively. The drop off for women wasn’t as much, but still noticeable.
So why is this happening? It’s all down to your new-fangled technology, apparently. Elizabeth Fain, who led the study at the Winston-Salem State University, said:
Work patterns have changed dramatically since 1985, when the first norms were established. As a society, we're no longer agricultural or manufacturing... What we're doing more now is technology-related, especially for millennials.
So get off your damn phone, and go and plow a field or something, basically.
[via NPR]
