In a rather unusual dinner mishap, a man sporting a VR headset accidentally smacked his 6-year-old son with a controller, resulting in an eyebrow injury serious enough to require a hospital visit. Meanwhile, a laptop took a nosedive from the overhead compartment on a plane, landing on a 21-year-old’s head. In another bizarre incident, a 39-year-old attempted to dislodge an earbud stuck in his ear using a screwdriver, without success. And let’s not forget the countless individuals who’ve had unfortunate encounters with hoverboards, which often end in falls.
While technology brings us a lot of joy, it’s also responsible for thousands of injuries each year. In a bid to understand the safety risks posed by commonly reviewed devices, Gizmodo dug into data on tech-related injuries that resulted in emergency room visits in 2023. This investigation utilized data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), which monitors ER visits linked to various consumer products across a selection of hospitals.
Our examination zoomed in on ER visits where injuries were attributed to some well-known consumer technologies: cell phones, drones, headsets, headphones, hoverboards, tablets, vibrators, video games, and VR headsets. Although NEISS uses sampled data to project national figures on hospital visits caused by consumer items, our look at specific product categories paints a more personal, albeit anecdotal, picture of the ways in which technology can sometimes betray us.
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When it comes to video games, our somewhat informal analysis at Gizmodo suggests a curious distinction: players of standard video games tend to punch inanimate objects on purpose, whereas VR gamers find themselves accidentally striking people.
The NEISS data uncovers instances of VR gamers unintentionally hitting family members, and in one awkward case, a 12-year-old boy managed to punch himself in the groin. Over 64% of VR-related ER visits stem from these unexpected punches.
On the flip side, about 5% of injuries from non-VR video games were attributed to individuals expressing their frustration through ill-advised punches, often targeting windows, mirrors, and glass tables. Meanwhile, a significant 25% of ER trips linked to non-VR games came from seizures or blackouts, with another 13% involving carpal tunnel, neck pain, and eye strain due to prolonged gaming. Interestingly, these severe conditions didn’t appear in VR-related ER visits, which mostly revolved around physical falls, headset sores, and colliding with objects or people.
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Hoverboards, notorious for their mischief, accounted for more ER visits than any other gadget in the NEISS database. Victims tended to hit every furniture profile imaginable while taking spills primarily onto their wrists and heads (pro tip: helmets are your friend here). On a lighter note, there were no reports of hoverboards bursting into flames in the 2023 data.
Drones, on the contrary, caused the least amount of ER visits, with a surprisingly low count of only 9 incidents recorded.
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For headphone aficionados, here’s a comforting thought: those who prefer over-ear models appear less prone to injury compared to earbud users. Data shows over 70% of ER visits tied to headphones involved plastic or rubber earbud tips getting lodged in ears. It seems it’s best to avoid dozing off with them in or sticking any random tool in your ear to remove them.
While having a cord can sometimes help retrieve stuck earbuds, it also brings risk. One woman, aged 44, ended up scalding her hands when her headphones snagged an object as she carried a pot of boiling water.
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Vibrators, as one might predict, occasionally require medical assistance after getting stuck. However, this is less frequent than earbud tip incidents, according to NEISS.
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As for cell phones, the riskiest behavior seems to be simply dropping them. Over 13% of ER incidents in 2023 stemmed from users dropping their phones onto their own bodies or others they care about. Distracted users also accounted for about 12% of cell phone-related injuries, often due to falls from bikes, stepping into potholes, or in one case, walking straight into a metal plaque while engrossed in their phones. It’s worth noting that looking at your screen when you’re navigating stairs is especially perilous.
Incidents related to swiping across broken screens made up 7% of phone ER visits, with a notable 5% of people falling out of bed or a chair reaching for their phones (a relatable mishap for sure). In some cases, manufacturers were at fault—5% of phone-related ER trips resulted from phones shocking users or catching fire unexpectedly.
There was one exceptional case where a woman, during a thunderstorm, had her phone blasted out of her hand by a lightning strike. She escaped without burns but received quite a shock.
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When it comes to choosing between laptops and tablets, consider this: according to 2023 NEISS data, tablets were involved in 36% fewer ER visits compared to laptops. The bulkiness of laptops seems a likely culprit, with 34% of laptop-related injuries coming from these devices falling on people’s heads or feet, double that of tablets. Their size also poses a hazard during travel, with 5% of incidents resulting from laptops falling out of overhead compartments.
However, lighter devices can be flung more easily. The NEISS data for tablets and phones is filled with tales of siblings “accidentally” throwing them at each other.
