When I’m typing on my laptop, I transform from a human woman into a shrimp. As the day goes on, I curl forward as I clatter away on my keyboard, and I know I’m not the only person who becomes a crustacean under deadline pressure.
The idea of a “desk shrimp” is so familiar that it has become a popular internet meme, but it’s not just a joke. If you keep hunching forward over your phone and computer screens, you could be putting your body and mind at real risk.
“If you hunch forward over something, you’re doing yourself a disservice,” said Alan Hedge, an ergonomics expert and professor emeritus for the human centered design department at Cornell University. “You are creating lot of muscle tension in the back as your body leans forward. You’re actually reducing air capacity to the lungs. You’re restricting blood flow as you lean forward.”
The more we “shrimp” forward while working, the more our bodies pay a price.
“Over time, things will get worse and worse for you, and you will end up with an injury, and it will either be a neck, back, hip injury or a hand, wrist, arm, elbow injury,” Hedge said about the common injuries that “desk shrimping” causes, like carpal tunnel syndrome.
