While the productivity advantages are difficult, if not impossible to deny, is that really the whole story? Can we only find the good in that?
Definitely not. Maybe without realizing, we are being harmed by the very measures we have taken to make our lives better. Here are a few of the issues we face in a desk job. Stance What most doctors will tell you is the fact that being crouched on a chair over a desk all day long is one of the most harmful things you can do to your back. Normally, you would have to only keep the seated position for an hour before standing up and taking a few steps in order to let the back straighten and keep the blood flow normal. Computer screen While it is true that today’s computer screens emit close to no harmful radiation, there are other aspects to consider when staring into a display all day long. One of the most important points we tend to forget is the fact that the human eye has muscles. That’s right. There are muscles in and around your eyes. And those muscles need to move, they need to be stretched just like leg and arm muscles so they don’t lose their tone. If you stare at something that’s 15” wide, at a given distance from the eyes, those muscles don’t get too much exercise. And in time, it will harm them. Air conditioning Sure, it’s great to have a system which gives just the right temperature and humidity at the push of a button. And now we have special pollen and dust filters which make for great breathing air. But just like in the case of the eye muscles, our body needs to self regulate its temperature, so it doesn’t go lazy. That might sound funny, but it’s actually quite serious. Our bodies have very complex mechanisms in gear when regulating the internal temperature. If the body doesn’t exercise these mechanisms on a constant basis, then they go numb and might fail completely if we want to reboot them. The ones above are just a few ways in which a desk job affects the human body. There are quite a few others, but these cover the greatest majority of desk workers. Of course this doesn’t mean that your job will end up killing you. But it does mean that, if you’re not careful, it will take a toll on your body and its normal functioning parameters. Your computer may have been designed to work for a straight 8, 10, maybe 12 hours a day. But you were not. Mind your body; you won’t get a new one.
