You're a long-toed freak aren't you...?

Without looking into the actual stats, it's so incredibly common it's normal. There are pedantic pros and cons to both; it's trivial. But more people have a second toe shorter than the first.

Pedantic, haha.
- Feet causing you problems?
  Pedantics.
  
  Gotta call a toe truck
  
  Sorry to rain on the parade... but ya'll know that the prefix indicating something pertains to the foot or ankle is pod-, right?
  Podiatry. Podiatrist.
  Ped- refers to children.
  Pediatrician. Pediatrics.
  
  Wait... what is a pedometer counting????
  
  So I looked into this a bit and...
  it appears to be based on whether a word is using Latin or Greek as its etymological basis, for words pertaining to feet.
  In Latin... it is ped-... but in Greek... it is pod-.
  ... And, you are correct, English has a mish mash of both.
  But also, a lot of English words referring to children use the Greek derived ped- or pedo- to refer to... children.
  ....Which is why in British English, the spelling 'paed-' is used, to minimize this confusion.
  But us clever Americans dropped that, rofl.
It just makes a lot of shoes and socks uncomfortable and it’s bad for your back
- From what I’ve been seeing I think a lot of shoes are just uncomfortable as-is. My longer big toe gets pushed around by the side of a slimmer shoe and shoes in generally aren’t quite wide enough around the toes for most people’s feet.
  
  Shoes are fucking horrible. There is no reason we should be shaping our feet to match our shoes. It's like a way less extreme version of Chinese foot binding, but it's so common it's insane. Bunions and foot pain aren't normal, they're normalized. Wide toe boxes! We need wide toe boxes!
  Thank you for attending my Toe Talk
  
  I have duck feet, and always assumed 'wide' shoes were just how a well fitting shoe was supposed to feel.
  Then I bought a cheap pair of barefoot style shoes, which often have ridiculously large toeboxes that some people avoid just due to how they look.
  It was nirvana; finally, a shoe that truly fit! I can never go back now.
  Also @Soup@lemmy.world, you might wanna try some if you haven't!
  
  Link to the shoes?
  
  I started with these. Unfortunately only available on amazon, but they were an affordable way to try them, and they've been surprisingly durable!
  Once I confirmed that I loved the barefoot style, I eventually invested in some vivobarefoot boots as well, and those have been fantastic. (If you go that route someday, look for them on eBay and wait for a deal).
  
  Okay, cool! I thought you meant those toe shoes at first. What makes them "barefoot" shoes? Is it just the wide toe box?
  For me, I actually go up a full shoe size when I stand vs when sitting. I got my feet sized all through childhood and my 20s and always had horrible pain in shoes, and ended up learning this when I went to a podiatrist. My feet squish out like playdoh when I stand up. Lol. I've been treating my podiatrist shoes with kid gloves for years now because I lost the food insurance lol
  
  Toe shoes would qualify as barefoot too, but I they're just a more extreme version I think.
  Barefoot shoes usually have 3 traits:
  Zero Drop - The shoe is the same height from the back to the front, so your heel isn't higher up than your toes
  Flexable, thin soles with no arch support - Allows you to feel the ground and build up strength in your feet and arches
  Wide toe box, to allow for your feet to retain their natural shape for comfort and stability.
  This video does a good job of explaining why those other two traits are desirable.
  
  Ok, this is an exaggerated (and badly drawn) drawing, but do people wear shoes like in option 2? Or do I just have comfortable shoes??
  
  I've seen women's shoes like that. But even picture 1 isn't good for you. Your toes are naturally wider than the rest of your foot (take a look at a toddler walking barefoot sometime to see this). Toes splay to give us balance. Shoes that are like picture 1 or, God forbid, 2, push the toes to be narrower than they should be, causing crowding, overlapping, and bunions, among a host of other issues.
- Wait, it's bad for your back? Why?
  My lower back problems started pretty young. Never would have thought my stupid long long toes would be related.
  
  It effects your posture, gait, and weight distribution which all effect the pressure and strain on your spine