9 New Ways We Sit, Thanks to Tech

A large office furniture manufacturer conducted a study of office workers — 2,000 of them, across 11 countries — to see how they relate to the many machines they now use to get their work done. They discovered 9 new ways we sit, thanks to tech.

Those postures are:

1. The Draw

The oft-discussed "lean back" experience of tablet reading, done in a chair. (This posture requires good back support from a chair, especially for the head and neck.)

2. The Multi-Device

You're using your laptop. And your phone. At the same time. (This requires good arm rests, provided by either tabletop or chair.)

3. The Text

You're sitting at your desk, but you're using your handheld device to read, email, or, yes, text.(Arm rests not required, but ideal.)

4. The Cocoon

This is a scrunched-body posture usually reserved for reading (though it can be used for typing, as well). The sitters lean back, pull up their legs, bend their knees, and draw their devices close to their bodies. This is, Steelcase notes, a posture used more often by women than by men.

5. The Swipe

The sitter leans over his or her desk, directly over the screen of a touchscreen device. This posture is pretty much exclusive to tablet/smartphone use.

6. The Smart Lean

A compromise between the lean-back posture of "The Draw" and a more standard sitting style, this posture allows the sitter to check his or her smartphone in a relaxed posture, while also retaining a bit of privacy when it comes to what's being shown on the screen. It's especially popular during meetings.

7. The Trance

You're absorbed in your work, leaning into your table and toward your computer, with arms placed either on a chair's armrests or on your desk. This posture often involves slouching.

8. The "Take-It-In"

This might also be called the "all the way back": It involves a nearly full recline in one's chair — a posture enabled in part by the popularity of large, high-resolution monitors that allow people to read screens from a distance (and also ideal for smartphone-based reading, email-checking, etc.).

9. The Strunch

This is "stretching out" and "hunching" at the same time: When people get tired, they tend to push their computers away from them, compensating for the new screen angle by slouching down toward their desks. They then prop themselves up with their arms on their desk surfaces, sometimes propping their chins up with a free hand.

As seen on Mashable.com