Sometimes, when it feels like I hate all of my clothes and none of my outfits look quite right, I’ll go complain to my mother, and more often than not, she’ll simply say, “Don’t slouch.” Although I may roll my eyes at her, I’ll look back in the mirror and realize she may have a point; sometimes it’s just about how you carry yourself. Posture is, after all, fundamental to our daily lives. It’s in the way we wear a piece of clothing. It’s in the way we enter a room. It’s in the way we pose for photos. It’s in the way we communicate with others. It’s a quiet piece of who we are. But recently, posture has become a main character on social media. From Pilates workout vlogs to perfectly posed ’fit checks, it feels like everyone online is posturemaxxing.

“Posture is part of personal style,” Jorge Dorsinville, a creative movement director who works with athletes, models, and other celebrities, tells Teen Vogue. “It’s not just ‘what I wear,’ it’s ‘how I carry myself in what I wear,’” he adds. “And Gen Z, being so visually aware, is starting to understand that instinctively.”

Like proteinmaxxing, posture correction has become a buzzy new beauty trend for the body. From posture checks on social media to posture-focused workout videos, it’s becoming a hot topic online. But these trends have clued people in to the fact that there’s a market for businesses to cash in on, regardless of the legitimacy of a practice or product. Posturemaxxing also overlaps with diet culture.

Still, posture is essential to our health. It affects the way we breathe, digest, move, and generally function every day. So, it’s understandably becoming a priority for young people who are already experiencing back, neck, and shoulder issues.

The demand for posture remedies

Teens have often been told to stand and sit up straight by elders, but often the reasoning was to show respect, discipline, or good habits. Particularly picturesque posture could also be an indication that you were trained athletically or practiced in activities like ballet or military drills.

Now, the plea for posture has taken on new importance in light of our inclination to bend with our increasingly portable technological advances. The original computer setup, a monitor stationed on a desk, was optimal for posture. “The point of a desktop computer is it’s at the height of your eyes, the distance from your nose is the size of the screen, and that you’re sitting at a desk that [might have] a pullout drawer to put the keyboard and mouse on,” Sarah Cash Crawford, a doctor of physical therapy, tells Teen Vogue.

As we started to take our devices with us on the go, we found ourselves in less ideal positions. “Historically, everything we do to function in life is in front of us…. As digital media continues to increase, more and more people are falling forward,” Dr. Crawford says, pointing to remote technology, like cell phones, tablets, and laptops that are traditionally placed or held lower than eye level, often bringing the body down with it. “A lot of people, especially young people, are working from laptops as permanent work solutions, and they are not meant to be full-time, everyday, primary devices that they work from,” Dr. Crawford adds. “If you think about posture when you’re working on your laptop, we typically have our elbows out wide on top of the desk or the surface that we’re working from. We are not sitting back in our chair, if you’re sitting on a hard chair at a table. I see lots of people sitting in comfy chairs with their legs crossed and their laptop on their lap.”