Smartphones spoil our posture, mood and memory

If you are in a public place, tear off from the article and look around. How many people around you curled over smartphones? They do not follow the bearing, and to blame the technology.

Ogust Steve (Steve August), a physiotherapist from New Zealand, calls this iGorb body position (iHunch). Another version of the name - iPoza - offered Amy Cuddy (Amy Cuddy), Harvard Business School professor.

The average human head weighs between 4.5 and 5.5 kilograms. In order to make it easier to look at the phone's screen, we have to tilt your neck 60 degrees. Thus, we have greatly enhanced the weight that holds our neck, - up to 30 kilograms! When about 30 years ago, Steve Ogust started his medical practice, he noticed that the hump is mainly in older people. Now the doctor says bitterly that the same problem more often complain about teenagers.

When we are sad, we slouch. The same posture we adopt when we feel fear or helplessness. Studies have shown that people suffering from clinical depression, take the position that painfully reminds iGorb. A paper published in 2010, described a patient with depression and their posture: an elongated neck forward, drooping shoulders and arms, tightened to the body.

Posture not only reflects our emotional state: it can cause certain mood. In 2015, Dr. Shweta Nair (Shwetha Nair) and her colleagues conducted an experiment. They asked the participants who did not suffer depression, or exactly sit or ssutulenno. Volunteers then answered questions, similar to the ones that you could hear in the interview, that is quite a stressful situation.

The results showed that those subjects who curled in a chair, low assessed their abilities and were negatively disposed as a whole.

The researchers concluded: sit with a straight back - a simple way to improve your ability to handle stress.

Stoop also affects our memory. In 2014, we published the results of a study in which participants were asked to sit down, too, either exactly or bent. All of them were given a list of words to memorize: the half with a positive, half negative value. Those who sat exactly been able to play much more than words, mostly "good". But those who slouched in his chair, remembered mainly those positions that have a negative meaning.

In 2009 scientists proved that Japanese students who were holding back straight during the time of study, were more productive in the classroom.

How else slouching can affect our behavior and mood? Martin boss (Maarten W. Bos) and Amy Cuddy studied this topic in more detail. They asked the participants to experiment, to spend five minutes of your smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC. Then scientists began to observe how quickly the test will ask if they can get away. It was found that the size devaysa crucial. Those who sat with the phone in his hand in a characteristic, gnarled position without insisting to leave, and showed less ability to fend for themselves, even when the five minutes allotted to experiment for a long time We passed.

It seems that there is a direct relationship between the size of the gadget and how much he us affect.

The device is smaller, the more we have to adapt to the body to use it conveniently, and the more we submit its own smartphone.

Ironically, we use smartphones and other small gadgets to improve their own productivity and efficiency. But the interaction with them undermines our self-confidence and good humor. Despite this, we continue to rely on our gadgets, we spend a lot of time behind them, leaning over the screen and do not intend to change anything in the near future.

But to deal with such a stoop as possible.

• When holding the phone, tilt the head back and shoulders, even if you have to lift the screen up to eye level.
• make stretching exercises and massage the muscles between the shoulder blades and sides of the neck: it will restore their elasticity.
• The next time you pull out a your phone, think about this article. Gadgets make you slouch, but it spoils the mood and memory.

Your posture affects the psychological state and can be the key to a good mood and self-confidence.