Congratulations, you are the newest victim of text neck. Thanks to the incessant gazing at your phone or tablet, many people are falling victim to the increasingly common issue of text neck (read stiff neck). If left untreated, it can lead to many serious ailments, including chronic upper back pain. Surely there are many ways to avoid a text neck, but why not turn to the very thing that gave us the problem? You guessed it right — the smartphone. This isn’t the first time I’ll be writing this, nor the last, but the Play store holds an amazing plethora of apps. Say hello to the Posture – be mindful, which reminds you at regular intervals that you have been staring at your phone for too long. So, let’s quickly jump in and see how this app works.
Posture – be mindful
Posture is a lightweight and easy-to-use app which has only one job to do — prevent you from suffering from a stiff neck or text neck. A human head roughly weighs around 10 to 11 pounds and as you bend forward to read from your cell phone, it increases the pressure on your neck and the weight increases depending on the leaning. As the Washinton Post puts it, “At a 15-degree angle, this weight is about 27 pounds, at 30 degrees it’s 40 pounds, at 45 degrees it’s 49 pounds, and at 60 degrees it’s 60 pounds.”
How does Posture Work?
Posture works in a seemingly easy way. It will remind you either by a notification or vibration that you have been staring at your phone for too long and that it’s about time you brought it to the eye level. It uses the phone’s built-in accelerometer to measure the tilt angle. The notification will come via a screen overlay and is quite subtle. All you need to do is select the position where you would like to see it and that’s it.
Customization
Posture has its own share of customization choices like choosing the color of the overlay or choosing the style of the overlay. Depending on the type of monitoring you’d like, you can set the strictness levels. The strictness level causes the app to monitor your activity much closely. Currently, it has Newbie, Medium, and Ultra. I suggest, go with the Newbie, just to get the hang of it and move up as the habit inculcates.
Reminders
The built-in reminder system is can be adjusted to remind you anytime between 30 seconds (extreme) and 10 minutes. Initially, I gave it a time of one minute and though it did annoy me, eventually I learned to abide by it. Health is wealth, you see. Another good thing is, one can also use this app as a reminder system to get back to work. With all the distractions in social media and chaotic chatter in WhatsApp groups, I would say it’s a win-win situation.
Additional Features
Posture just not reminds you of your bad postures, it also provides neat statistics on your habits. So, if you go on gazing at your screen even after the buzzer goes off, it will reflect on this sheet (much like school’s report cards).
What’s More
Posture – be mindful isn’t alone in the Play Store, there is another one which goes by the name of Posture Reminder with pretty much the same core functionality. Though the app seems simple, but adhering to it isn’t so. You’d want to steal in a couple of minutes even if the buzzer goes off. And while you try it out, do leave us a few health tips, will you? Also Read: Top 7 Simple Health and Fitness Tips For Busy People
