Cellphones. We can’t live without them. And although they haven’t even been around for half a century, they’ve already changed how we interact and connect in the world. A huge revolutionary benefit to humankind, some would say. But not everything about cellphones is good news. Especially when it comes to your posture.
When you use your cellphone, tablet or other device, you mostly tilt your head forward to view the screen. The average person spends two to four hours a day in this position, which as you can imagine, is not great for your health and posture. That’s because when you’re in this position, you can triple the weight of your head and put an enormous amount of extra strain on your neck.
According to Dr Hansraj, Chief of Spine Surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, good posture means ears being aligned with the shoulders and shoulder blades down and upright. Dr Hansraj also reported and created a model that shows the strain on your neck rises as the forward angle of your head increases. This poor posture stresses your neck, shoulders, upper back and spine, and can lead to early wear, tear or possible surgery.
What can you do about it?
While going completely off the grid and avoiding cellular contact is an option, there are other simpler approaches. Try holding your phone in front of you, parallel to your eyes, or slightly more in front of you, as seen in the image above, instead of bending your head constantly. If you find that this is difficult to remember, use the LUMO Lift, a device that gently alerts you when your posture is poor. It is worn as a small magnetic clip on your upper body and linked to an app on your phone. The LUMO Lift will record and track your healthy posture hours, in addition to alerting you when you're slouching, keeping you standing/sitting tall with confidence.
The StabilityAce is also a great upper posture corrector that gives your back the support it needs to correct. These devices can help with other activities that involve tilting your head, such as reading.
If you suspect your posture isn’t yet harmed by looking down at your phone, consider downloading an app that tracks your phone and social media usage. (There are many to choose from, one we can recommend is Moment for iOS). This way, you can see how many hours you’re spending on your phone a day and gauge whether you're spending too much time with your head down.
Keep your head up, kiddos!