"Our faces are lies and our necks are the truth."

I remember reading those words in Nora Ephron’s hysterical book, I Feel Bad About My Neck. She continued on to say, “You have to cut open a redwood tree to see how old it is, but you wouldn’t have to if it had a neck.” I thought it was funny when I read it, but of course that was well over a decade ago and I was far too young to have to worry about that. Ha! Or so I thought. Little did I know then that Apple had other plans. My iPad and iPhone were there to make sure that despite religiously caring for my neck as I did my face, there would be another fate awaiting me…tech neck.The desire to constantly seem on top of my game has me looking at my phone constantly. If someone emails, I have to email back right away. If I don’t, it’ll seem I’m not a hard worker. This is the story we tell ourselves. Our phones light up, beep, ring, and buzz all day. They are a constant siren calling to us. In our desire to be productive and responsive, we forget that we are continually looking down. We don’t even realize we’re doing it. All this looking down is not only really bad for our shoulders and spines, it’s really bad for our necks, too.We know that good skincare can make a world of difference when it comes to sagging skin. Exfoliating and moisturizing the neck and décolleté with firming creams can keep skin taut. But the continued creasing of the neck by looking down into our devices for an average of two and a half hours a day is creating deep-set lines that are difficult to eliminate.Unlike the forehead, Botox can’t keep you from creasing your neck. The forehead muscle can be paralyzed with Botox, your head can’t…at least not in any way you’d want. I am already noticing deep neck lines on teenage girls that visit the store.  Those lines are only going to get worse.Look in the mirror. Do you see a horizontal line across your neck? It may be faint, but if it’s there it’s likely just the beginning. Do yourself a favor and start treating your neck with a chemical  exfoliator and a firming cream right away. More importantly though, try to be more aware of how much time you spend looking down into your devices. Prop your computer monitor up on a platform of some sort. Hold your phone out in front of you at eye level rather than down near your waist.  These seem like simple things, but reminding yourself daily until it becomes a habit will be challenging.Are the lines already pretty deep? Consider a cosmetic procedure. Having some filler injected into the lines can soften the appearance and give you more immediate results. Proper skincare will insure that you enhance and prolong those results. Like anything else, prevention is easier than correction.