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Health warning for internet users
By Louisa Hearn
March 1, 2006
While many internet users believe that surfing the web has improved their quality of life, a recent study warns it might be taking a heavy toll on posture, sleeping patterns and eyesight.
The survey conducted by Forrester research in North America was conducted on the basis that the average online tenure of households was now nearly six years, giving users enough time to assess its true impact.
"While most acknowledge the Net's positive effects on their intellectual, social, and psychological well-being, many also indicate that they have experienced negative effects on their physical health," the report said.
Although 54 per cent of respondents claimed it had an overall positive effect on their lives, making them more globally aware, better connected socially, happier and better off, they also acknowledged that it left them physically drained with negative effects on their hands and fingers, sleeping habits, eyesight, and back or neck.
Between 17 per cent and 30 per cent of consumers said the internet had caused detriment to their hands, eyesight, or posture and many felt the it put them at risk for carpal tunnel syndrome, functional scoliosis, or poor eyesight.
But not all respondents have warmly embraced it, with 24 per cent assessing it had a neutral impact on their life, while 22 per cent saying it had an overall negative impact. Women participants were more likely than men to acknowledge a negative impact, while younger users tended to perceive more benefits than older respondents - with the over 55s the least optimistic about its impact on their physical health.
Low-income consumers reported more benefits from using the internet, including increased their leisure time, personal happiness and an improved outlook on life. They were also less negative about the impact that it had on their physical well-being.
And while those using broadband networks were more enthusiastic internet users than those on dial-up, they also felt more negative about its effects on their eyesight, and posture.
According to Forrester, the introduction real-time communication tools like instant messaging, dating sites, and social networks might have contributed to much of the positive sentiments about the internet and it said many consumers had also claimed that being online had improved their judgment and mental acuity.
However it warns PC manufacturers, site designers, and media companies to take notice of consumers' online "pains and pleasures".
"As online consumers experience more negative effects on their eyesight, posture, and hands, ergonomic desk chairs and keyboards and easy-on-the-eyes monitors will become more desirable," the researcher said.
The survey was email-based and was distributed to 10,400 households in North America through a network created by market researcher NFO.
Sources: http://smh.com.au/news/breaking/health-warning-for-internet-users/2006/03/01/1141095782980.html
Microsoft Gets Dance Fever
By Alexandra DeFelice
03/01/06
"Many consumers feel that their use of the Net puts them at risk for carpal tunnel syndrome, functional scoliosis or poor eyesight," Chris Charron, vice president and research director at Forrester, points out. "Between 17 and 30 percent of consumers say the Internet has caused detriment to their hands, eyesight or posture."
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a new technology that lets users control their computers with their feet. Step User Interface is one of more than 150 unique concepts featured at the sixth annual Microsoft TechFest, which is open primarily to company employees, in Redmond, Wash.
The Step UI contains a handful of applications that workers can navigate using a dance pad similar to those used in interactive children's video games.
StepMail lets people conduct routine e-mail tasks -- including scrolling, opening, closing, deleting, flagging, and placing messages in folders -- by tapping a set of six large colored buttons and arrows on the floor.
StepPhoto allows users to sort and scroll through digital photos with their feet.
"Many information workers spend a majority of their time trapped at their desk dealing with e-mail. We wanted to provide them with an alternative," said Brian Meyers, Microsoft researcher and a member of the Step User Interface Project Group.
StepMail gives users a break from the keyboard and mouse, reducing the risk of repetitive stress injury to hands and wrists, and engaging more of the body's muscles, Microsoft said.
It also has the potential to help people with limited hand dexterity to work more productively, the company noted.
These theories are confirmed in "Warning: Using the Net Has Harmful Side Effects," a recent report by Forrester Research.
"Many consumers feel that their use of the Net puts them at risk for carpal tunnel syndrome, functional scoliosis or poor eyesight," Chris Charron, vice president and research director at Forrester, points out in the report. "Between 17 and 30 percent of consumers say the Internet Get Linux or Windows Managed Hosting Services with Industry Leading Fanatical Support. has caused detriment to their hands, eyesight or posture."
Ergonomic design of keyboards, desks and chairs will become more important as online consumers experience increased negative health effects, Charron predicts.
"PC manufacturers that have already begun to take note of computing Powerful Yet Simple: HP ProLiant ML110 G3. Just $688 with the Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor. consumers' health woes -- such as IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Latest News about IBM healthy computing site that helps consumers use their PCs Smart Buys from CDW. The Technology You Need When You Need It. more comfortably -- will have an edge on the competition when ailing consumers look to them for physical solutions," he writes.
Making Improvements
One of the physical drawbacks to the dance pad is the potential for a tired foot if a user constantly pushes the same button, as may be the case when deleting endless spam messages, according to A.J. Brush, a Microsoft researcher.
"There's the subtlety in how you map the physical motion to the things that happen in the software, and that's precisely the information we'll use to go on and design other different types of applications," she said. "Now we're looking at [adding] things you could strap onto your feet so you really could be just sitting at your desk and kicking your e-mail away."
Whether dance fever will ever hit the masses has yet to be seen. TechFest is more of an opportunity for Microsoft's researchers to share the results of their work with other employees, get input and feedback, and discuss how to take that research to the next level, according to the company.
Even if it does go to market, this product is not likely to be popular for long, at least in its current form, Michael Gavin, senior analyst at Forrester Research, told TechNewsWorld.
"The dance pad is more of a fad. [People] will use it and 10 years from now say, 'Remember when ...,'" he said. "I don't see this being a potentially big money-maker for Microsoft."
Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/49123.html |