Slouching Towards Not Slouching

"A straight back may be said to be an element of beauty," wrote D. F. Lincoln, a physician in Philadelphia, in 1896. "Round shoulders and a twisted spine are an element of the opposite quality, beyond a doubt."

Lincoln was writing to sound the alarm that the posture of America's youth was becoming increasingly "deformed" thanks to a trend that had recently swept the nation: universal public school.

If only he could see us now, literally leaning in within our cubicles by day and slumping over our Netflix-streaming laptops by night. Many of today's workers could use a Knickerbocker shoulder brace more than the Victorian dandies it was designed for.

I myself am the picture of the modern, white-collar slouch. It started in high school and got worse when I became a journalist and had a laptop grafted to my wrists. The many emotional benefits my profession confers come at a physical cost: carpal tunnel, eye strain, and sort of a permanent, dull ache in my