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Doctor Warns of the Hidden Danger of Touchscreens
snydeq writes "Dr. Franklin Tessler discusses the hidden stress-related injuries of touchscreen use, and how best to use smartphones, tablets, and touch PCs to avoid them. 'Touchscreen-oriented health hazards are even more insidious because most people aren't even aware that they exist. The potential for injury from using touchscreens will only go up ... as the rise of the touchscreen means both new kinds of health hazards and more usage in risky scenarios,' Tessler writes, providing tips for properly positioning touchscreens and ways to avoid repetitive stress injuries and eyestrain."
Come on.
you could have your eye out
More hype to sell the same tripe.
Seems to be simply latching onto the current fad toy and trying to saddle it with the same things they have been attributing to computers since the 80's.
There is nothing new in the article, simply attributing the same (largely imaginary) "diseases" to a different activity. But by mentioning touch screens they grab the headlines. Nothing about a touch screen forces you into the same position, viewing distance, or hand movements, in fact a tablet is probably the remedy for such complaints more than the cause.
But they trot out the same stuff they were crying about with desktop computers: Repeated motion injuries, Posture, Eyestrain.
I'm surprised they left off testicular heating.
Really? Touch screens?
This looks like building a case for more insurance fraud if you ask me.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Of things to never waste any brainpower worrying about in any way.
pickles, books, refrigerators and just about anything if you use them too often and too violently.
So what?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
This just in...the #1 cause for repetitive stress injuries and eyestrain is...living....
For example, if you talk continuously, you may lose your voice.
If we sounded an alarm for every little thing out there that is bad for us, we would all be wearing noise protection gear to save our poor sensitive little ears from damage. Oh and forbid we strive to adapt to new things. We might evolve! Run for the hills!
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Anyone remember the first touchscreen fad that died out due to "Gorilla Arm"? Same thing, different decade.
Every time I see a vertical touchscreen advertised as a feature, I cringe a little inside as I imagine trying to use one for an extended period.
I'm wearing a wrist brace right now because I held my Nook Color one-handed for too long over the course of a couple of weeks. Obviously I can't say for sure that this was the cause of my pain, but it gets worse when when I hold it in one hand only, and better when I use both hands or support it some other way. I wish I had thought of this before I started using the Nook. Yeah it's not a problem of national concern, and the article uses absurdly alarmist rhetoric, but these are real sources of pain and it's always good to have tips on how to avoid pain.
My eyesight has been dwindling over the past 3 or 4 years since I got my 1st Tablet. Now I have to wear reading glasses on a string around my neck everywhere I go! I'm thinking a class action is in order. How many more vibrant, enthusiastic 42yo's must go blind before this atrocity is righted????
PS: Get off my lawn!
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
"Don't blink," the Doctor said about the latest touchscreen technology, "Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good Luck."
When asked if his opinions were a little bit harsh, he replied that the field of research around touchscreens safety is still "a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff."
Apple: You're touching it wrong.
If my goddamned phone touchscreen doesn't stop getting wonky every time the relative humidity gets above "desert" then there's going to be a hidden danger of me throwing it against the fucking wall.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
wft - seriously? how is this even considered news?
... even when we get to the point that computers can read our minds, and know exactly what we want them to do without interacting with it physically in any way at all, that doctors will still find some way to say how bad they are for us.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
... probably from the same people who told us that cellphones cause cancer, gas station explosions yada yada yada
What are you talking about? Good on you for having great health.
Meanwhile plenty of geeks suffer from computer-related health problems. The most common up to now has been carpal tunnel or repetitive stress syndrome.
The advent of touchscreens means people are bending their necks downward for extended periods. For many/most it may not be a problem.
For others, it can result in cervical spondylosis, a debilitating condition of the neck.
The reason for such articles is to encourage people to take preventive measures. One of the best is Workrave, a break reminder program for Win and Lin. Click to install. (Deb/Ub/Mint)
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
This sounds too much like an opening for tort lawyers to start suing manufacturers and employers.
And all I could see on that page was...
Quack, Quack, Quack.....
Anyone else feel the Quackyness of the "doctors" concerns?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
When I got my first smartphone, I noticed my thumb started clicking and got sore when using my smartphone a lot. I changed the way I held it and no more problems.
"Doctor, it hurts when I do this, ..."
Aww, did ickle diddums not get the iPad he wanted for Christmas?
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
A new disease was discovered with no symptoms.
I think he could tell it better.
2.52!
You wouldn't believe the RSI potentials here. Just chiseling a single line of text gives me blisters.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I for one welcome our new touchscreen health-hazards physician overlords.
So used to defending "new" technology that you can't allow legitimate concerns to be raised?
I get it, I'm surrounded by technologically ignorant people who respond irrationally to the stuff. But it is no reason to become irrationally defensive of the technology-- for those people, it does make sense to not discuss the topic at any depth but one does not have to get down to their level either.
TFA is nothing new and seems so obvious that its hardly worth discussion. As somebody who deals with those "non-issues" and knows older people who suffer daily from them I am glad this was an issue in the 90s because it was when I became motivated enough to take precautions. This stuff can cause seriously miserable conditions later in life (do not get surgery it makes it worse.) Things like this serve a purpose:
A) inform people of the general problem who do not yet know (unless nobody has children there is always a new batch)
B) inform people who know but do not THINK about how touch screens are no different than existing tech (may be worse)
Sure, there is the anti technology types who will twist such information or those who do not properly comprehend it and go around saying "doctors say touch screens are bad for your health." Those people can be so annoying that it provides plenty of motivation for going to an irrational position on the opposite side.
Just because you believe the "disease" is imaginary.... BELIEVE being the key word. Hope you don't have to rediscover the problem with 1st hand proof; although, there would be some justice in having people dismiss your bitching as imaginary.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
damn...
Well, if it wasn't for your stress injuries from tablet use,
yes you might have been frosty piss.
Maybe this is actionable... call an ambulance chaser!
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
if people aren't smart enough to stop positioning their bodies and appendages in a manner that hurts, let the gene pool be rid of them.
Thankfully?? The brighter the backlight, the greater the eyestrain. Eink displays are much more ergonomic than TFTs.
"Your iPhone could KILL YOU! Tune in for our special report, today at 5:30."
Let go of the keg?
No brain, no pain.
I have been typing at a high KPM (sometimes for several hours a day) for 25 years going back to CLI days and using a mouse daily since the spread of the PC GUI. I also have a modest but ongoing interest in playing the piano. I have never had any RSI problems.
Then two years ago I got a touchscreen smartphone and absolutely can trace a very clear rise in vision focal distance issues and recurrent wrist/elbow strain in that time period. Nothing else in my life hobbies, living patterns, or activity levels has changed in the last two years. The vision issues I could perhaps either partially or wholly pass off as the inevitable age-related presbyopia, but the wrist/elbow strain is indepedent of the aging process, entirely unprecedented in my personal medical history, and does in fact decrease markedly if I go for several days not using the phone, even while continuing other potentially implicated activities such as weight training, sports leagues, bike riding, PC keyboarding, driving, and so forth. It was interesting to read a comment above. I have experienced the same thing -- which is that sleeping with whichever hand is most affected inserted between pillow and mattress provides significant relief, kind of like the opposite of gout sufferers' extreme sensitivity to the slight pressure of their own bedsheets.
Hollywood, Television, has become the dream machine. We need to take that back; each of us is a Dream Machine
There is even more to worry about than just RSI.
I've wanted to whack some of those pinheads myself.
Now, I don't want to go off on a rant here but:
Put the damn thing DOWN!
Give it a frickin rest!
No brain, no pain.
But, your use of, commas, has driven me to, bang my head, against my desk . . .
. . .resulting in CST. I got a gel pad though so I'll be fine in a few months.
This Tessler guy is just doing the foundation work for future lawsuits.
Just watch, in several years someone will sue Apple or other tablet makers and Tessler will be in the expert witness seat.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Three days after I got my Kindle Fire I had the worst Tendinitis flare up since I was a teenager.... I had to start holding/using the fire completely differently to prevent more injuries. Biggest downside of the damn thing!
Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, which is why engineers sometimes smell really bad.
[faced with a 20th century computer] Scotty: Computer! Computer? [He's handed a mouse, and he speaks into it] Scotty: Hello, computer. Dr. Nichols: Just use the keyboard. Scotty: Keyboard. How quaint.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
My continual use of keyboards for the past 34 years of my life.
People need to hit a gym once in a while if a tablet is going to take them out.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Watch the way you slide that finger...
Don't pinch and zoom that picture the wrong way...
Don't overwhelm those accelerometers when playing your favorite games
If you flick don't try to read that text until it stops!
It's all part of the "wear a helmet" safety paranoia.
When I was a kid, nobody wore a bike helmet and nobody ever knew anyone who sustained a serious head injury from a bike accident, either.
OK, it does happen -- but we're reached this point where you can't do anything without wearing a helmet. WTF?
I get it when riding a motorcycle and for some kinds of bike riding, but it seems like the risks of everything get so amped up it's like sitting on a pile of sand can't be done without safety equipment.
Sounds like all the "that new stuff is new so it's dangerous" crap we always hear. Since i was a child and started spending time on my brother's amstrad i've heard people explain me how I was damaging my health. I then spent the next 20 years or so not giving a damn and spending my days and nights in front of computers; now my eye sight is still of 10/10 both eyes and i have none of these arithric / back / wrist / fingers issues i keep hearing about. Plus it's what got me a job and pays the bills, so i'll continue spending my life in front of computers and not giving a damn.
My
Reading books can cause: shortsightedness, finger stress injures, dead trees and higher intelligence!
It's only hazardous because of people staring at their screen and not watching where the fuck they're going.
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doctors warn that scratching your ass too much, or doing it the wrong way, may also result in Repetitive Stress Injuries.
This also applies to hammering nails, polishing windows, playing tennis, etc. Too much joint strain causes problems - this is news how?
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
I barely even touch my touch screen while I use it. This is the most laughable and desperate thing I've seen in almost forever.
If some kind of person is cramming their fingers hard against their touch screen, they are fucked up already, and they are the kind of person who hits their head with a hammer or dives into a hydroelectric dam spillway, or forms a hematoma in their chest with the side of their hand through continuous repeated impact.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
doctors warn that scratching your ass too much, or doing it the wrong way, may also result in Repetitive Stress Injuries.
This also applies to hammering nails, polishing windows, playing tennis, etc. Too much joint strain causes problems - this is news how?
If I were susceptible to RSI I'd have got it from wanking by now. How many slashdotters wouldn't have.
This just in: "Doctors announce hidden stress-related injury dangers of pens and pencils. The repeated use of these devices can cause serious injury. Writing-oriented health hazards are insidious because most people aren't even aware that they exist. On the bright side, the potential for injury from using pens and pencils will only decrease as the population forgets how to write and starts using touch-screens instead."
We live in dangerous times my friends.
I saw this in a control room environment where the voice switch was controlled by a touch screen set into a console panel. Using the touch screen with the hand pulled back seemed to cause the problem so we replaced the screen with a custom mechanical keypad set flat on the desk. But I dont see the same problems with portable phones and tablets because the user is free to position the screen where it is comfortable for them to use.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Not worried about injury. Biggest issue are sharing touch screens and unclean hands. Anybody ever let a stranger use their cell phone for a call?
I use the ebook reader a lot, but also the web browser and the video player. It's great for casual use when you're trying to get the kid in your lap into a deep enough sleep that you can move them. Those three things account for 90% of my tablet use. My wife uses the facebook and email apps a lot.
Every one of his objections is something that is actually alleviated by freeing you from the desk-and-keyboard-and-fixed-monitor model of computing.
You can use many positions and orientations when you use mobiles.
And because you're outside and moving around, instead of planted on your pasty, fat, congealing ass all day, you're 27% less likely die of a heart attack.
This is one of those cases where you just want to take someone's diploma away from them.
especially if Microsoft's Windows 8 effort succeeds in popularizing touchscreen PCs and laptops.
Bwuahahahaha...
Someone just wrote "I have no clue WTF I'm talking about" in 48pt bright-red bold letters across his own article.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I don't own or use any touchscreen devices, but I've thought about this to myself while watching people using iPads at cafes. But since most of them are very young, they probably won't notice pain for at least another decade. The main problems I see is people hanging their head over the device as they use it, and typing with index fingers only with all the other fingers curled up with lots of tension.
I can confirm that ever since I switched to checking Twitter and Facebook (via TweetDeck) heavily on my Android phone (Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 then Arc), I have experienced wrist pain and numbness.
And yes, I spend a couple of hours daily, because I was following the news closely in a troubled part of the world.
Once I got those wrist cuffs that prevent the wrist joint from moving, the pain went away.
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Germs!
If I'm lying on my back in bed playing a game on my phone, after about half an hour I get pins and needles in my hands. Certain positions do restrict blood flow, and when you've gotten comfortable with a touchscreen device you're loath to move.
It occurs to me that a lot of their complaints against touch screens would also apply to books
"Unlike laptops, tablets like Apple's iPad and e-readers like Amazon.com's Kindle function vertically, horizontally, and anywhere in between. Horizontal use is typically less stressful, especially when the tablet is in a comfortable position for your arms and hands (similar to how you should use a keyboard on a laptop or desktop PC) -- though the fact the screen is positioned at or near lap level means you're likely to bend your neck, which is problematic for your posture."
"Touchscreens positioned upright are ergonomically inferior.........vertical touchscreens such as in the new breed of Windows 8 PCs expected later this year (and in some current PCs) force you to use the large muscles in your shoulder and arms in ways that promote fatigue............. The more perpendicular the screen, the more you have to bend your wrist to type, a posture that anatomists call "dorsiflexion." That puts more pressure on the median nerve and the other structures in the carpal tunnel in the wrist."
"Vertically oriented touchscreen monitors require you to reach forward and lift your arm against gravity, which tires your muscles rapidly."
(From the second page, truncated for convenience)
Honestly the biggest danger of touch screens isn't the RSI - it's crashing your car.
Don't ask how I know this.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
The author simply means that the human body has certain positions that cause less tension, and hence less injury. Positions with less tension are more "natural" because they fit better with the design of the body.
Honestly, I can't believe how many people on slashdot seem convinced that ergonomics is bullshit. If you ever suffer from RSI, you will adjust your beliefs very quickly. I suffered from a great deal of wrist pain until an ergonomics specialist at work taught me to keep pressure off my wrists. Simply moving from resting on my wrists to resting on my palms relieved a lot of pain. But I never had the intuition to make that change, because there was nothing painful about that posture in the short term; it was only after many hours in that position that there was a problem.
Subtle changes in posture can make the difference between comfort and injury, so I think it's worth thinking things through carefully when we're dealing with new input devices. For example, using a Nook is not the same as reading a book. Try reading a book and turning pages with one hand.
I've seen parents give their little kids iphones to keep them busy/distracted, and they will stare at that the phone for hours watching videos just 5-6 inches from their faces. This has got to be bad for their eyesight especially when they are 3 or 4 years old still developing...
It's about time someone has put forth an effort to develop proper ergonomic practices for touch screens. Following proper ergonomic practices at the desk has relieved a lot of bodily stress for myself and several people I know that work with computers every day.
Sadly I think a lot of it falls on deaf ears. Most people ignore the ergonomic guides that come with desks and various computer components. Can't expect them to all of a sudden pay attention now, at least not until it's too late.