Do we ever ask ourselves how technology is reshaping our bodies, and what can we do about it? I sit for hours on my PC working daily and I feel sometimes the effects of this: To reduce the pain sometimes individuals have to sleep in this baby position.
It is estimated that over 5 billion people own mobile phones and half of the world’s population use these electronic devices; the spotlight has been on what technology can do for us, rather than what it is doing to us. Consequently, there has been less thought on what happens to our bodies while using handheld devices.
It has been scientifically suggested that the current 19-year-olds have the same physicality as 60-year-olds. What has caused all this is the widespread use of mobile phones that has materialized into varying degrees of posture. No wonder many people are affected with text neck.
What follows the text neck is what is called the text claw-a surge of finger and wrist pain that is associated with excessive texting on handheld devices. Then came the all too familiar phenomenon of the C-shaped, hunched over back, hovering over a handheld device — dubbed as ‘iPosture’. It took years before the detriments of iPosture became clear and were taken seriously.
What needs to be done is educate especially young people on;
Body education rather than a health and physical education class, how many have taken anybody education class? I guess none because such a class doesn't exist in our school curriculum.
It is vital to take this lesson to learn how the body works, how to sit, stand, walk, jump, and run. But the question is, how do you carry out each activity? Who actually taught you how to do it?
Learn and form these habits out of necessity and to survive, there is no alternative choice.
Slow down:
It is your device, those are your message, now one is rushing you to reply. You don't have to be glued there for hours. In the 90s there were mobile phones, there were just telephones. Those ancient devices were simply plugged into a phone jack in the wall. You couldn’t move more than a few feet while talking. Even if you spoke for hours on a telephone, you would eventually put it down.
Modern phones operate quite differently. They are designed to keep you on them. There are multiple triggers at play: texting, talking, reading, browsing, listening to music, watching videos, etc. Reacting to just a few of those activities simultaneously could easily put the body in overdrive.
Slow down, take a break:
Move with the body as it was designed. Stop rounding your back toward any device. The body is designed to bed at the joints, move with the joints in the process.
Move with the body as it was designed while at the same time loosening your grip:
To achieve this, you can ask yourself the following questions: How far is your body leaning towards your iPhone? Your laptop? Your iPad? Can you choose not to move towards it? Are you pounding your fingers on the screen or keyboard as you type? Can you soften your touch and grip on the phone?
All in all, we all agree that technology is not the enemy, but it has helped us to connect the world and us with each other in ways that weren't previously possible. That is why there are plenty of reasons to embrace technology but caution.
With that being said, being mindful of how much, how often and to what extent we engage with technology is key to living a balanced lifestyle. Think about body habits as a process. Poor posture doesn’t happen overnight. It is the accumulation of lifelong habits. It cannot be changed by simply ‘sitting up straight’ or ignoring body signals.
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