Most people who surf the net or work with computers probably get minor aches and pains from time to time.
These back, shoulder and neck pains often seem fairly minor, and most of the time get better after a little while. The actual root cause can sometimes come from other areas of life, such as sports injuries, a poor mattress, gardening, just the ageing process. But there seems little doubt that spending long hours hunched over a keyboard is at least a contributory factor to back pain.
Most of us know that back or neck pain can, if ignored, sometimes develop into much more serious issues that can cause a lot of pain and potentially threaten our ability to work. OK, so this isn’t a dramatic, life-threatening risk like working on a fishing boat, down a coal-mine or being in the army. That’s perhaps why a lot of companies don’t seem to care too much – the prevailing view seems to be “if they ain’t bleeding, it’s not a health and safety issue!”
But this is a short-sighted view. We already know that back pain and other computer-related ill-health can seriously affect some peoples’ quality of life and ability to work. What we don’t know, because it’s only been the last 10 years or so that so many of us have been working on PCs during the day and playing on them at night, is just how many people it’s going to affect.
These problems are only likely to get more common. Computer use has grown dramatically over the past decade and continues to grow, both in and out of the workplace. Surprisingly, the BBC reported a few months ago that average computer use in the UK has risen 400% since 2002 – an astounding increase from an already high level.
I like to point out the following - when I was growing up, extensive computer use (including gaming) was only for computer geeks, like myself. But with the advent of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, CompetitiveUrge and Bebo, even cool kids are using computers for very long periods at a time, and from much earlier ages than ever before.
In fact, I visited a number nurseries the other day on a mission to find the most suitable one for my baby son. I was amazed to find the number of computers present, and the age of the children using them. I’m not talking about kids preparing for school life, but boys and girls as young as 3 competently surfing the web (well, CBeebies!)
That kids are growing up so immersed in the opportunities provided by a connected world is great, but it also has worrying implications. Studies of schoolchildren in Scotland and Scandinavian countries in recent years have shown that they’ve started suffering musculoskeletal pain from an early age. The British Chiropractic Association recently found that 32% of 6-7 year olds suffered from back pain. Amongst 11-18 year olds the figure rose from 29% in 2002 to 45% in 2008.
Maybe obesity and lack of exercise, not to mention heavy school bags, have something to do with those figures. But surely at least some of the increase is down to spending hours social networking? Who knows what impact that’s going to have on peoples’ lives long term?
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