At the end of 1980's Henry Jetson wrote for his favorite magazine for computer enthusiasts called Softtalk; Describing himself as a "less-than-expert" computer user, he also appreciated the introductory magazine style and accessible articles, especially for someone like him, who had recently bought a personal computer and was only learning programming, and concluded with a short question, "Note. Is Do you have any treatments for tired eyes?"
The editors of SoftTalk knew exactly what Geston meant, and responded at length to this "problem shared by many computer experts".
What Jetson discovered is the same as what was discovered by the rest of the early personal computer users in the eighties, which is the extent of damage caused by the use of computers, as it was found that screens caused eye fatigue, or more precisely; Living with computers routinely stresses the eyes, as vision problems were the only complaints back then to the interactions between human bodies and technology before war evolved beyond sight into other functions.
The so-called computer revolution brought with it a world of pain for humanity that was not known before, decades before the spread of the so-called "Zoom stress", as we had never seen what the combination of sitting and looking at the computer screen in the human body did in the entire history of media interaction This is in contrast to watching television, which requires a greater distance between the person and the screen, and does not require interaction.
The use of the screen in television requires the viewer to have a short field and frequent eye movements are also few, and it suits a variety of sitting positions, types of seats and distances from the screen watching television, while personal computers require the human body to stay close to it usually less than 2-3 feet, and this with an extension arms to use the keyboard or mouse.
Computer-related pain, of course, was present before the arrival of the first consumer-grade personal computers in the late 1970s. Large-scale computers and small-scale computers with their high power consumption and cooling needs, rotating tape drives, and manual printers are known to strain the audio system. It is largely anecdotal given the relatively small number of people who dealt directly with computing facilities prior to the 1970s.
And health concerns will shift from hearing to sight, once computing systems begin to converge with CRT screens in the 1970s, where the replacement of clear writing on paper with the blurry precision of a glare-prone screen or so-called “tele-tips glass” (teletypes glass), teletype terminals, or dumb terminals (because these screens have little or no processing power of their own).
With the advent of microprocessors, early micro-computing designers began experimenting with new computer designs; Which combined the CPU, screen, and keyboard in one box, and the Apple 1 board, invented by Steve Wozniak in 1976, was one of the first microcomputers manufactured to include a video adapter as part of its design. Processor Technology released the SOL-20 in the same year.
Although the Apple 1 did not come with a display or keyboard as part of the purchase price, the fact that there were such screen-capable peripherals built into the board was a technical innovation compared to earlier computing systems like the Altair 8800.
The keyboard and display were standardized by 1977 as the primary peripherals of the central computing unit, with the simultaneous release of the first batch of already mainstream consumer minicomputers such as Apple's TRS-80 and Commodore PET (Commodore PET).
Since that day, the use of the computer has become limited to “desktop” devices, and the physical positions we do until today are constantly bending the wrist over the keyboard, staring and watching, then pushing the mouse, and with the spread of both desktop computers and networked terminals in offices During the 1980s, chronic pain became the norm, as wrist pain, vision problems and back pain increased dramatically.
To think about the dangers of computers, you should stay away from thinking about technology and think instead about the body. The dangers here are calmer and difficult to follow. It is not possible to trace the history of habit, routine, use and work. This pain in your neck and numbness in your fingers has a history that is more widespread and influential than any modern technology that has appeared. No single tech device changed the world, but the pain of a computer changed us all.
In 1981, Human Factors magazine published an entire issue devoted to the issue of the impact of computers in the workplace, just 16 months before Time magazine announced the 1982 personal computer. Workers using display peripherals are large and rapidly increasing” (the term “video display terminal” or “VDT” has been used as a synonym for what we today call a computer monitor) throughout this study, prior to the 1980s, when computing terminals were not widely available.
The researchers conducted interviews and distributed questionnaires to both "professional" and "clerical" workers in several companies, in order to conduct their analysis, where computer screens were used. The researchers also conducted interviews and distributed the same questionnaire to workers who participated in the same type of work.
When analyzing their data, the researchers found that “writing computer screen users showed significantly higher levels of visual and musculoskeletal health complaints, as well as higher levels of functional stress than controlled subjects and professionals using computer screens,” as the complaints rate was higher among clerical workers stationed at workstations. Computers are in every category of health complaints from fainting to stomach aches and pressure in the neck to hand cramps, often 3 or 4 times the number.
Keeping computing profitable means finding ways to mitigate, negotiate, and address the growing complaints of physical pain from its users; Thus, specialists in the work environment and employees of human resources and physical health - since the mid-1980s - began to turn their attention to the harms of using a desktop computer.
It requires many of the interventions we have been asked to adopt since we take responsibility for our physical well-being, at a time when we must not become a burden on the workplace or reduce our productivity, just as we must exercise in or out of the office.
And the danger of technology to computers did not stop, with the emergence of “text neck” disease as a new common disease in 2015 and described as a global epidemic in more than one site on the Google search engine, and the smartphone is entering an ally of computers in its war against our exhausted bodies.
With the constant increased attention we pay to our smartphones is the latest battle in our long war between our mental and emotional health and technology, the head tilt position is an indication of the multitasking burden our bodies are beginning to suffer.
A term that has now become synonymous with what it means to use a computer to switch between applications and draw attention from one priority to another, the seemingly seamless movement we now engage in between our personal and professional lives through the use of smartphones.
Knowing that the term multitasking was one day (the eighties of the last century) a technical term for personal computers that were supposed to relieve us of the burden of multitasking and make us more comfortable and able to enjoy our health and our life.
So the next time you feel "tired eyes," tingling wrists, or neck spasms; Remember that the function of technology has never been to make our lives easier, but only to complicate it in new ways. Computer-related pain and the incredible efforts humans have made (and still are) to mitigate, manage, and negotiate it must provide us with a better understanding of its negative consequences for our health, our bodies, and our psychological well-being, especially when The emergence of newer and perhaps more dangerous technologies.
