Comment by a1ff00
5 days ago
I’m over 40. Barely. But, over 40 nonetheless.
I grew up in front of a PC as early as 6. I used it for everything. I grew up with it, on the internet as it was blossoming, and escaped through it as a means to escape reality, bullying, abusive household… you name it, from early Heat.net/mplay.net days, early mIRC CS alpha/beta/1.6 days, ICQ, MSN, VBasic coding, learning C/C++, to just about doing everything on a computer. Hell, I'm in the career I'm in because of it.
I escaped and escaped hard. If I couldn’t access it at home, I’d bike to the library and access it, or joined the computer club in HS just so I had another one I could easily hop on. All hours of the day, you name it. I even bumped into some wild early AOL Chat Room days that I'm pretty sure were some kind of a ring, but I digress.
I remember over the years comments like, “you look like you watch too much TV”. I barely watched TV. Or, “why are your shoulders always raised?”. I always said I'm carrying a heavy backpack with all my books. Or, “what’s wrong with your right neck?”, or “why are you corkscrewing to the left”. You name it. I just shrugged it off.
As the years went on, my jaw started to hurt, my right rotator cuff would crack all the time, my right ab snapped, my obliques weakened, my right hips started to fail, I don’t think I have a right scapula at this point, my molars no longer touched, my head jetted forward, my tongue tied, my lower jaw went to the left, my breathing worsened, it became shallow and short, my right-diaphragm hurts to inhale… I always blamed it on poor genetics, or something else, or "some accident I guess I don't remember".
It wasn’t until I hit 39 when it all kind of clicked.
It’s years of using a god damn mouse. Forward, right, back, left, circle motions, rinse and repeat, 12+ hours a day. In fact, even to this day I'm unable to use a mouse for more than 5 hours a day before the flares start. It's a numb pain. A 3/10 discomfort, but it's chronic.
I’m unable to sleep more than 4 hours a day without waking up with excruciating pain down my right shoulder and neck, unable to feel a large part of my right side, and the pain is getting worse by the day.
Ive done PT, chiro, acupuncture, personal trainer, you name it. THOUSANDS of dollars to no avail. In fact, I tried to do the 2000 pushup challenge for February (maybe a Canadian thing?) and I had to stop after 10 days due to INSANE right-shoulder flare-up.
Where’m I going with this?
Log off people. Stretch. Do exercise. Something before it’s too late.
I’m pretty sure we’re going to see more and more of “millennial” style abuse and neglect rear its ugly head.
Some years ago, I also started to have problems due to mouse use.
I experimented with alternative pointing devices. For a few years I have used trackballs. The change from mouse to trackball was good, but that still was not an optimum pointing device.
Eventually I have settled on replacing mice with small graphic tablets (Wacom Intuos S), configured in the "Relative" mode, instead of their default "Absolute" mode. The tablet is not bigger than a traditional mouse pad, so it does not take more space on the desk.
In this mode the tablets behave exactly like mice, but they are much more comfortable and also faster and more accurate. The comfort is due to the fact that you hold the extremely light stylus in a natural hand position and moving it to reach any point on the screen is instantaneous and effortless (even when only the fingers are used, without moving the hand). Moreover, touching the tablet instead of left click is also a more natural motion. The stylus is so light that I can also touch-type while keeping it between fingers, which speeds up the transitions between keyboard and pointing device, in comparison with a mouse that must be grabbed first.
Thus all my hand and arm problems have disappeared, regardless how many hours per day I use the pointing device.
Thank you. I’m going to look into this! Any recommendations?
I’m currently on a split keyboard, and mouseless (mouseless.click) evironment at home. It affords me hours before the pain catches up.
The issue right now is work. 8 hours a day on archaic input devices, but if I can bring in a literal mouse replacement, then I’m in the clear!
Just stating the obvious that there's an entire culture around replacing mice by keyboards, starting with a Vim mode in most apps.
I think there's another dimension to this, which is the toxic home life which led to these behaviors. Good luck unpacking this all and getting healthier.