The Annals of Catastrophic Posture: emoji edition

If you’ve ever felt guilty about slouching, you can stop now. It’s not your fault.

Posture is cultural. Not only do we echo the posture of the people we’re talking to, we also mimic, down to the finest details, the people, and images of people, that surround us.

And what we see is largely catastrophic posture – yes, even in emojis.

And in emojis, the worst offender of all is Apple. You can do a comparison at Emoji Encyclopedia.

When I notice these sad little drawings, I feel like this:

and sometimes like this:

Check it out. Here are Mac’s emoji men slumping as they walk.

By contrast, Google’s walking emoji has a whole different look, upright and energetic.

Mac emoji cyclist rolls his buttocks under and pokes his head forward.

And Mac emoji rower does the same.

Oddly, emoji people doing things that require balance put the weight of their buttocks over their heels, not their toes. Balance on skis or a surfboard requires balance in the body.

I doubt we’ll ever see the Mac back-pain emoji, hunched-over, hand on lower back. After all, emojis don’t feel pain. But we do, and the more we think that Mac’s walking emoji is normal, the more likely we are to feel it.

Would you like an alternative to living as a slumped and rounded emoji imitation?

Then sign up for my online Spinefulness Foundations course, opening January 15, 2021.

In the first hour, you’ll learn to see what healthy posture really looks like. And in the three classes that follow, you’ll learn how to feel the lightness, elegance and grace of healthy posture as you sit, stand, bend and walk. The course includes five short practice videos to help you get the sensations of good alignment set in your body, plus a guide that lets you read your own posture in a photograph.

Learn more by clicking here: https://courses.spinefulness.ca/courses/spinefulness-foundations