Safari. iMovie. Solitaire. All perfectly acceptable things you can do behind a Mac. Straining your spine however, not acceptable.
As someone who watches and corrects posture for a living, the first thing I noticed about Apple's new ad campaign was the horrendous posture of every single person "behind the Mac." Their office ergonomics person must be kicking him or herself after he saw Apple run this string of advertisements.
For example, look at the following picture often found on billboards or online:
The girl's neck is cranked to the left, protruding forward, rotated a bit right, and her left shoulder is being worn as an earring. Here are line's representing the axis of her skull, shoulders and spine.
I'm going to take a guess and say her left shoulder and left neck are running a bit tight these days. Maybe she's googling a good chiro.
Next up, Bruce Hall:
His neck has completely disappeared. Now believe me I did a quick Google image search for "Bruce Hall photographer" and I assure you this man typically does own a neck. (Bruce if you have some neck pain, hit me up). Here's a rough sketch of the skeleton behind his Mac.
Head rotated and protruding forward, shoulders misaligned, and back forward rounded.
Next up we have the music girl. She took her mac to the floor and is sitting cross legged.
With a very flexed knee she's tightening her hamstrings right up. Her very rounded spine and protruding head puts a multiplier on the forces her neck has to maintain to support her head. You'll notice her shoulders are basically above her ears. Here's what her skeleton is doing right now:
Her back is not going to be happy if she stays behind the mac like that for long. I'm guessing her music will be about pain.
Last but not least let's check out bed woman:
Now this is probably the least ergonomically offensive of the few, as she is in a prone position with a bit of thoracic spine (mid upper back) extension which most of us could actually use a little more of to combat the posture of the previous three people shown (flexed or forward rounded spine).
Still, I will say most lumbar spines (low backs) do not enjoy laying in a prone position very long, and on top of that her legs are crossed, a bad habit for hip alignment.
Now the point of this article isn't to rag on the Mac, or Apple, or laptops even. It is to raise awareness. Everyone knows Apple and many people have been exposed to these ads. Use them as teaching tools. Pay attention to your posture whatever you're doing, especially using tech, as it consumes a large chunk of most of our day. Posture is habit, and the more you sit up straight, the easier it will eventually become.
In other words, don't catch yourself slumping over behind your Mac, or anywhere else for that matter.