There are so many reasons why you should put your cellphone down and enjoy the moment like your family dinner, or watching movies etc. but your iPhone takes that very moment away from you and is doing so around the globe. But here is one interesting observation that we might have neglected is the iPhone is ruining your posture. That’s right! If you are in a public space just stand still and look around. You will see many people hunching over their phones. As one psychologist in New Zealand calls it iHunch or people often refer it to as text neck.
According to research, the average head weighs about 10 to 12 pounds. So when we bend our neck while using our phone the overall weight on our neck increases that roughly amounts to 60 pounds.
Similarly, when we are sad we hunch also when we are scared of something. The study has shown that when people go into clinical depression they hunch. Which resembles in today’s iHunch posture. Studies have also shown that a depressed person often stands with his/her neck bent forward, shoulders collapsed and arms drawn in towards the body.
A posture doesn’t necessarily reflect an emotional stage but it can cause them. A recent experiment was performed in a mock-up job interview where nondepressed participants were asked to sit in an upright position. Then they were asked a series of questions and long interviews. Linguistics analysis of the participants showed that those who were sitting in upright positions they were more confident and prone to give more answers than those who were not.
Many of us spend many hours on our phone, tablets or our laptops to increase our productivity despite all of this. We only rely on our mobile devices far too much than necessary and that is not changing anytime soon. So how should we fight this hunching problem?
The easiest way is to keep your head up and shoulders back; even if you have to keep it to eye level. When you are writing a message two of the main muscle groups are involved in hunching posture. That is your shoulder blades and the ones along side your neck. Keeping it at the eye level helps reduce scarring and restores elasticity.
So when next time you text or email someone make sure you don’t hunch and remember it can cause slouching and slouching can cause change in your moods your memory and your behavior. So your physical posture sculpts your psychological posture and that could be key to your successful life.
